《A Budding Scientist in a Fantasy World》


 Chapter 1

    chapter 1


    the night was dark and quiet, with few souls passing through the dark and desolate forest. for most forests, even at night, the area would be teeming with life as animals hunted each other, foraged, and did their best to survive to the next day. however, most of the wildlife that had lived inside of these once-green fields had died or deserted this area.


    one of the magically gifted would have noticed something wrong about the mana of the region, the way it rippled and distorted as if it was a healer¡¯s patient struggling in its death throes. but even the non-gifted would be able to see the brown and decaying trees and dead wildlife, hear the eerie silence, and sense the empty feeling of an entire region laying on its deathbed.


    and deep within this deserted hellscape wandered a lone girl with brown hair and green eyes, dressed in bright pink and white pajamas decorated with cartoon rabbits and swearing as she tripped over tree roots. her name was alice verianna. she was from earth, and she had absolutely no idea how she had gotten here.


    the last thing she remembered was finishing her homework, eating dinner, chatting with her friends for a while on discord, and then going to bed. when she woke up, instead of being inside her bedroom walls in the suburbs of denver, she was in the middle of some godforsaken patch of wilderness. she had been wandering around this area for almost an hour now, and she had yet to see anything besides dead trees.


    alice stumbled over a tree root for the umpteenth time and swore. ¡°where the heck am i? what happened?¡± she asked nobody in particular, trying to distract herself from her aching shins and mounting exhaustion. alice had never been much for the outdoors - she much preferred a jungle of concrete to an actual jungle.


    ¡°am i dreaming?¡± she wondered, not for the first time in the last hour.


    she pinched herself, hoping that perhaps this time she could wake up. of course, deep down, she had already figured out this was mostly wishful thinking. human logic tended to be turned off whenever one was asleep, which was why in a dream you could be dancing underwater while riding a unicorn and not find it the slightest bit odd. however, she was fully aware that her circumstances made no sense to her.


    logically, she had gone to sleep in her bed. in no way should the result of the action ¡®going to sleep in bed¡¯ result in ¡®waking up in the middle of the forest.¡¯ she definitely couldn¡¯t have sleepwalked here: first of all, because she didn¡¯t sleepwalk; and second of all because even if she somehow started sleepwalking last night there would be no way she would make it so far away from her house that she couldn¡¯t find any trace of human civilization at all; and finally, the idea that she had somehow got out of bed, opened the door to her room and walked out, strolled out of the front door of her house, and then merrily wandered out of the city without anyone noticing and stopping her, or hitting her with a car while she walked through the streets asleep was simply absurd.


    pinching herself did nothing except hurt, and so alice was currently pursuing the art of questioning reality and her life decisions. truly a mystical art, it allowed her to realize that, indeed, she was still very confused, and no, she wasn¡¯t currently ready to accept the conclusion that she had completely lost her mind. without such high-level techniques, she likely would have gone insane somewhere around half an hour ago.


    sighing, alice sat down on a particularly gnarled and thick tree root to catch her breath. wandering aimlessly didn¡¯t seem to be accomplishing much, so instead of continuing to do so, she needed to take a breath and figure out what was going on.


    ¡°all right, fact one. i went to sleep in my bed and woke up in the middle of nowhere. it¡¯s obvious that this couldn¡¯t have occurred naturally, or at least i can¡¯t think of any reasonable way for it to have occurred naturally. therefore, someone must have moved me here. that person doesn¡¯t appear to be in the vicinity currently, but they must have either been an intruder or my parents.


    "i can¡¯t think of any possible reason for my parents to drop me off in the middle of the wilderness at all, especially on a school night, so...¡± alice suddenly felt a chill surge through her body. had she been kidnapped? she occasionally heard news about people being kidnapped from their beds and murdered by serial killers or other loons, but she had always figured the odds of that happening were about on par with winning the lottery - statistically unlikely, and not worth seriously planning around.


    alice looked around much more cautiously than before, fear making her take note of every shadow. was there a serial killer in the darkness under the tree branch, coming towards her this very second? a moment later, she forced herself to calm her breathing, and began thinking more carefully.


    then, alice realized that a serial killer kidnapping her didn¡¯t make sense either. if a serial killer had abducted her, where were they? if she was about to be murdered, she figured that the person who abducted her would have at least bothered to make an appearance sometime in the last hour while she had been wandering around. didn¡¯t serial killers usually tie their victims up in sheds or something before killing them? letting them wander around around aimlessly was just begging to be caught by the police. her serial killer theory might be possible if the serial killer had very specific preferences for letting the victim flee before being killed, but it certainly wasn¡¯t plausible.


    maybe one of her classmates was taking a prank way too far? but she couldn¡¯t think of any of her classmates who would take a practical joke anywhere near this far - this was borderline kidnapping, after all. and how would they have gotten into her house in the first place? her parents wouldn¡¯t have let in one of her classmates in the middle of the night, or let an acquaintance drag her out of the house while she was still asleep.


    alice noticed that her thinking had run into a wall. no matter how she considered the situation, she couldn¡¯t think of any logical explanation for her current situation. there was no single theory that connected all of the dots in a way that conformed to her understanding of reality. no one she knew had any motive to move her to a random patch of wilderness in the middle of nowhere, and she had no idea how someone could have accomplished the feat. she was relatively certain she wasn¡¯t dreaming either, so she... had no idea.


    i notice that i am confused. this means something i believe to be true is not actually true. she began running back through her thoughts and ideas, but she couldn¡¯t think of any way that the current events were plausible. as of right now, she was just very confused and very lost.


    alice frowned, and then stood up and began walking again. since she had no idea where she was, maybe if she kept walking she would bump into someone else who could help her figure out what was going on. or at least she might reach the edge of the woods, which would help her figure out where she was. this time, she resolved to go in a straight line while looking for something to navigate towards, and kept walking. and walking. and walking.


    finally, after what felt like hours of walking and finding nothing new, alice ran out of energy and sat down on the dirt again, dead tired, with her feet scratched up from walking around with no shoes, and still just as lost as before. and saw something completely absurd spring up in glowing letters in front of her eyes.


    through training, you have increased an attribute!


    endurance: 46 -> 47


    ¡°what the fuuuuuuuuuccckkk.¡±


    alice felt a moment of total bewilderment, and then began giggling hysterically. oh, it all made sense now! she was actually insane! first she believed that she had been dropped in the middle of a creepy, silent wilderness when that was obviously ridiculous, and now she was hearing voices in her head telling her that she was in an rpg! or maybe she had been in a mental hospital for years, or maybe she was in a horrible car crash and she was now in a coma! the nice doctors, seeing that she had turned into a gibbering mess, had then hooked her brain into a virtual reality device from the future! obviously!


    a few minutes later, sanity finally reasserted itself and alice managed to stop hysterically laughing. she began to reassess her actions and her situation. even if she was in a coma, or insane, the world around her probably wouldn¡¯t be this... stable, would it? she wasn¡¯t familiar with any studies of coma patients, but this was... probably... not the result of her being in a coma? she also really didn¡¯t want to believe that she was currently dying in a hospital bed.


    @*#$(%& language proficiency: #$*/1&


    achievements


    @#($*^&% #%* $*%$(# @(*%&!)&!#$


    there were glowing blue boxes with little numbers hovering in front of her. there were glowing blue boxes with little numbers hovering in front of her. not only was the world apparently intent on informing her that ¡°endurance had increased by 1,¡± but now she had also turned into an rpg character! she really hoped there was no demon king or similarly contrived final boss in this world, or some sort of prophecy. if she was supposed to be the ¡®chosen one¡¯ who was more at home in her school¡¯s science club than doing any form of physical exercise, she was going to bang her head against a tree until she suffered sufficient brain damage to lapse into a coma, thus hopefully escaping to a dream-world where at least something would make sense to her.


    with a thought, her status screen closed.


    alice closed her eyes and focused on taking deep breaths. in, out. in, out. in... gradually, she calmed down and relaxed. there was no way that was real, right? she was just imagining things. there was no way some sort of bizarre rpg system would just... create glowing, physics-defying letters that appeared in front of her. right? that would violate so many laws of physics and reality as a whole that it was impossible.


    that¡¯s right, she just needed to try again, to prove that nothing would happen if she said the words of madness again, and then she could go back to questioning all of the other highly improbable but still technically possible events that had happened recently.


    alice tried to summon the status screen by thinking ¡®status screen¡¯ without saying a word out loud. lo and behold, magically glowing letters and numbers reappeared. her brain hurt. the words of madness were official. they had power that could shake reality and, more importantly, her sanity.


    ¡°that¡¯s... that¡¯s impossible! that doesn¡¯t even make sense! rpg stat screens are built to make very simplified models of reality for the sake of entertainment in a video game, not to overshadow reality in its ability to simulate cause and effect! that doesn¡¯t... that doesn¡¯t even... rrrrggghhhhh.¡± alice slammed her head into one of the dead trees nearby, trying to bash some common sense back into her brain. sadly, it failed.


    after all of the panicking, screaming, running around in circles, and tripping and falling on her face and cursing her low athletic abilities had ceased, alice accepted that there was, in fact, some sort of rpg-game-like mechanic that governed this world. or she had already gone bonkers and was only now realizing it. come to think of it, it was impossible for just ¡®another planet in the milky way¡¯ to have this sort of totally different set of natural laws of reality. unless it was just somehow nonfunctional on earth, but for now she was going to assume she was somewhere the rules seemed to behave entirely differently.


    therefore, at the very least she was probably in a different dimension right now. thus far, the laws of physics seemed to be mostly the same - gravity still seemed to be doing pretty much the same thing, and from what she could see of the sky it seemed kinda similar, although she couldn¡¯t see it very well through the dead canopy so that could just be her misconception. the moon and stars looked... kind of similar to the night sky she was used to seeing as well.


    she wished she had a piece of paper to start writing all of this down, but in lieu of that she began making mental notes.


    things i know


    i appear to be in a dimension different from ¡®home.¡¯ this dimension, or at least this planet within this dimension, appears to operate off of an ¡®rpg¡¯ like systemthe laws of physics appear to be mostly unchanged, at least the ones i can immediately observe (gravity).i can breathe, indicating oxygen exists and is readily available within the atmosphere.i am standing in what appears to be a very earth-like forest. this indicates that, in addition to atmosphere, most other conditions should be fairly similar to earth - even in another universe, unless something is very different, the laws of natural selection should still be at work, so the fact that trees independently evolved here means the environment is similar.my status screen indicates there is something called ¡®magic¡¯ in this world. more investigation needed. in fact, scratch that-more investigation needed into the entire rpg-like system in general, including presence or lack thereof of magic.


    alice nodded as she thought over her checklist. it wasn¡¯t anything concrete, but she at least had a starting point to work with now. if she just kept double-checking reality, she might even keep her sanity in the near future! maybe. probably not. to be fair, she might have already lost her sanity. after all, if someone said something and reality said something else, reality was correct and you were not, and she definitely felt like reality was wrong right now. however, reality also usually didn''t teleport people into other dimensions with totally different laws in the middle of the night.


    she took another deep breath, trying to calm down. she still didn¡¯t have 100% definitive proof, but she was still pretty sure she was in another dimension entirely. a different world with an entirely different history of evolution, totally different species (although the trees nearby looked an awful lot like dead trees on earth, so perhaps she was wrong), and an rpg system possibly governing everything in the world.


    immediately following this thought, she realized something horrifying. when the europeans landed in the new world, the new world had suffered from a myriad of diseases as a result of two different continents suddenly meeting. she couldn¡¯t even begin to imagine how different an entirely different world¡¯s diseases were - or how poorly prepared her immune system was to deal with them.


    she was probably going to contract this planet¡¯s version of the black death and die within a few days or a few weeks. she had some hope that maybe, maybe the rpg system would protect her, or help her in some way? probably not, though-when she looked more closely at her status screen, her only skill was a giant glitch sign with the words ¡®language proficiency¡¯ embedded somewhere in the words, and the rpg system seemed to have no knowledge whatsoever of any of her other characteristics. for example, she had spent almost a year working in the computer lab after school learning how to build robots using arduino, and was relatively proficient in most of the subjects taught by the public school system. however, none of those skills were listed in her status screen.


    that indicated...what, that the system had no idea what to make of her? that ¡®robotics¡¯ or ¡®computer programming¡¯ or whatever didn¡¯t exist here? the glitched language proficiency sign was probably english, so it recognized her ability to speak english, but not do basic math? alice didn¡¯t really know what to make of everything she was seeing right now, honestly. and if the system had no clue what to make of her, the odds of it knowing what to do in order to prepare her immune system for whatever variant of magical smallpox existed here were probably something like a billion to one. and that was an optimistic number.


    she was so screwed.


    on the bright side, there appeared to be something called perks and achievements in her status screen as well. maybe there was a solution somewhere in the system, if she could find it in time? maybe there was a perk that would let her access magic, and then she would somehow manage to use spells to claw her way out of the plague?


    she finally got up, twitching with nerves after processing the basics of her situation. right. so i just need to find a way to deal with whatever this world¡¯s version of the black death is before i die from contracting it, figure out whether the flora/fauna of this planet is hostile/poisonous/terrifying, figure out what the heck is up with this weird ¡®rpg system,¡¯ figure out what¡¯s up with magic, and figure out how the hell i ended up on another planet/dimension. simple goals.


    alice looked at her to-do list and felt the urge to throw something. was this to do list even achievable? she had been here for less than two hours! two hours! her worldview had been shattered, half of the laws of reality had taken a vacation and then decided halfway through that vacation that they were never returning, and she had no idea if eating would be lethal! for all she knew, the air might be poisonous to her or something, and she was already on the way to her grave this very second.


    but, a seed of determination sprouted in her heart in the midst of outrage and fear. if she failed to survive here, no one would be coming to save her. if any of her guesses about the nature of her new destination were true, her parents and friends from the world she was from probably had no way to contact her, or even figure out where she was.


    even if they searched every single constituent atom of the earth, they wouldn¡¯t find a single trace of her. heck, maybe her home dimension ran at a different time ratio than this one - she had heard stories from irish mythology of people who wandered into faerie circles for a few days and came back decades older, or returning years later and claiming only a few days had passed. since there was obviously something supernatural going on here, maybe the old stories had some truth to them. she had no way at all of knowing right now.


    either way, counting on someone else to help her was probably pointless. and alice wouldn¡¯t accept dying in the middle of the wilderness with no clue why or how she had gotten there in the first place. she wanted to know, and if she managed to survive this, she could probably learn more about the nature of reality and the universe(s) than any other living person, ever. it was a thought that was tantalizing enough to tempt even the least curious human being ever - and alice was so curious it often got her in trouble. she just needed to avoid dying first.

 Chapter 2

    chapter 2


    for every albert einstein or stephen hawking in the world, there were probably hundreds of people who could have achieved similar heights of knowledge if they had the right questions and resources. albert einstein had spent many of his early years struggling to even get by before he had finally had the time and insight to begin making scientific discoveries, catapulting his position from a dropout struggling to get by in life to a world-renowned physicist that practically discovered half of the foundation of modern physics.


    this was because he found the thing every researcher and scientist desperately needed in order to truly make discoveries: he had found a question. alice, upon seeing a magical floating box filled with numbers quantifying her existence, had her own question. what the heck is this thing, and how does it work?


    alice, who had finally found a question...


    was lost in the woods, hungry, and a bit dehydrated. her unimpressive athletic abilities were coming back to haunt her with a vengeance.


    while she would have loved to explore whatever the system was and what was going on, what she needed now were more basic things - food, water, and a set of instructions to the nearest town would be far more welcome than the secrets of the universe.


    as she moved, she paid careful attention to her surroundings, looking for a single trace of anything useful. all of these trees meant that there had to be some form of water here, or at least there had been in the recent past, right? even if all the trees were creepy and dead, if they had been dead for too long, surely they would have withered away, right? alice had little knowledge of the life cycle of trees, but she was desperately holding on to the hope that she could find water soon.


    but there was no food or water here that she could find. in the three hours she had been walking, she hadn¡¯t seen a single living thing besides herself, nor any hints of one. the forest was completely, eerily, unnervingly dead and silent. this made alice more and more nervous as she walked - now that she was paying close attention to where she was going and her surroundings, every snap when she crushed a branch, every squeal of surprise when she misjudged where something was in the dim moonlight and walked into it, and every clumsy step she took seemed louder.


    the only thing she had knew for sure right now was that there were an awful lot of dead trees in the area, and finding routes over/around fallen trees was a huge pain in the butt. finally, alice realized that she was probably an idiot for trying to find her way around this creepy forest in the middle of the night, and began trying to look for a place to sleep for a while. she would have more luck moving in the morning, when she had more light to see by and when her feet hurt less.


    unfortunately, even after she started looking for a place to sleep, she couldn¡¯t find much, and she was getting cold. just as she was starting to give up and wondering if she would die here, she finally found something that looked promising - a huge tree trunk had fallen, and for whatever reason, seemed partially hollow inside. the remaining space in the tree could probably fit ten of her inside pretty easily, and the shelter looked like it would probably do an okay job of keeping the wind away and keeping heat in. almost gasping with relief at the thought of laying down, alice stumbled towards the hollow tree trunk - and nearly died for her carelessness.


    an animal that looked like a raccoon leapt out at her. its body was covered in horrific, bleeding pustules, and one of its legs had fallen off. fresh blood was slowly dripping from its wounds, and it was hard to tell what color its fur had originally been. however, alice was certain that whatever was wrong with this thing, she wanted nothing to do with it.


    alice was now wide-awake, and immediately began sprinting away at full speed, ignoring the pain in her feet as she desperately tried to outrun whatever she had stumbled across. its claws still looked sharp, and alice was pretty sure this thing had some sort of disease. who knew whether it was contagious?


    after sprinting for a few minutes, alice realized the animal had stopped chasing her, and fell to the ground, gasping and panting for breath. she tried her best to remain alert, looking around for any other animals, but the unnerving silence of the dead forest had returned: nothing around her moved or made a single sound, not even the rustling of leaves. there was nothing to differentiate one direction from another and no way to see save for the moonlight.


    her head started pounding, and alice started to quickly realize something - despite the fact that her sweat hadn¡¯t cooled down yet, she was starting to feel freezing cold. she frowned, and her vision started to blur as waves of blackness started eating away at the edge of her sight. she touched her forehead with a growing sense of fear and suspicion, and confirmed that it was blazing hot.


    oh crap. she had hypothesized earlier that another planet would have totally different diseases that her immune system had absolutely no defenses against, and hoped that the rpg system might somehow protect her from that, because she had no way of taking precautions against diseases right now. but less than a few hours after she got to this world, she already had a fever. this speed exceeded the incubation speed of most diseases on earth by an absurd amount, and alice started panicking as she realized she was already sick. was she really going to die like this? without figuring out anything at all about how she had gotten to this world or what the system was, or even seeing magic after her status screen claimed it existed?


    but her eyes felt so heavy, and she was desperately trying to stay awake so that she could at least drag herself somewhere where she might have a lower chance of getting eaten while she was unconscious, but she just couldn¡¯t stay awake. faintly, as she felt dizzier and sleepier, she faintly saw the words


    through training, you have increased an attribute!


    willpower 118 -> 119, endurance 47 -> 48


    then everything went black.


    * * *


    when alice woke up, her world was like fire. burning waves of heat crashed through her body, and she felt like she was being dunked in a vat of acid. alice desperately scrabbled around blindly, looking for water to cool herself off, but passed out before she could crawl very far. she woke up again a few minutes later, only to pass out again as pain overwhelmed her. the reality of being awake and being asleep began to blur together as she kept crawling around, aimlessly searching for something she couldn¡¯t quite remember.


    an eternity of crawling around later,, the forest gradually transitioned from gnarled, dead trees to living ones, and suddenly there were the words from the rpg system again, telling her about something, but alice no longer had the mental leeway to process the glowing words appearing in front of her.


    finally, her arms collapsed, and she stopped crawling - her body didn¡¯t have the strength to move anymore, and whatever illness she had contracted seemed to be drying up her body at an unnatural rate. every time she tried to move it felt like she was crawling through molasses, her body slow and unresponsive. she just couldn¡¯t summon the willpower to move another inch. slowly, like a kite without wind, her body sagged into the dirt. her vision was swimming in and out of clarity, and the heat in her body was growing worse and worse. for a second, she swore that she saw a rabbit hop up to her limp body, before sniffing at the area around her neck and then hopping off, completely uninterested in her.


    i¡¯m so close to dead that wild animals aren¡¯t even afraid of me anymore, thought alice, fighting the urge to close her eyes and give up completely.


    however, as her thoughts grew fuzzier, she swore that, for just a moment, she saw a trickle of liquid out of the corner of her warped vision.


    alice¡¯s thoughts cleared for just a moment, and with the last gasp of strength, she desperately crawled forward. if she could cool down the heat from her illness she might be able to survive! a few minutes later, inch by horrible inch, she crawled farther, until she flopped into a small stream. even stream might have been the wrong word - if she had been standing up, the water wouldn¡¯t have even come up to her knees, and it wasn¡¯t even wide enough for her to fully lay down in.


    however, right now this tiny little trickle of water represented her last hope to live. she had nothing to hold water in and no way to start a fire, so she had neither the tools nor strength to boil the water. she had to hope that there was nothing wrong with this water - if there was, she was dead. but right now, this was her one and only hope to live. with her body partially in the water, she managed to lower her face into the water and began to drink.


    a few minutes later, the heat and pain from her illness came again, and the horrifying feeling of her bones and muscles being set on fire followed on its heels - she had the strength to scream now, but she managed to hold the need to scream inside of her throat; if she attracted a different animal and it attacked her in this state, she would die.


    time passed like glass falling through honey. alice occasionally flopped around in the stream, sometimes managing to sit upright and other times collapsing back into the water. eventually, by pure accident, a few terrifying moments passed as she landed face-down in the stream. the coolness from the water didn¡¯t help the pain. moving more by instinct than logic at this point, her body spasmed as she sucked in half a breath of water, before her body shuddered and she began coughing out the water in her lungs. with her last shred of willpower, she managed to drag her head back out of the water and roll over, then spat out the liquid in her lungs and sucked in another breath of air.


    eventually, alice began to realize that she could feel her brain changing, and that she felt the weight of something slowly coming into existence inside of her ribcage, behind her heart. slowly, the horrifying heat and feeling of acid tearing away at her being started to fade away, and a feeling of comforting warmth began to build up inside of her body instead.


    her limbs, by this point, had stopped flailing about, and were reduced to simply twitching in response to the pain. the fire that had consumed her body began to roll towards her heart and brain, and the pain everywhere began to fade. after a few hours the pain faded completely, leaving behind a flickering ember of warmth pulsing behind her heart, and the heat disappeared completely from her head. after a moment, she started to lose awareness of it as it faded away from her awareness. alice opened her eyes, trying to remember when they had closed.


    when she opened her eyes, a long list of notifications from the system rang out, starting with the one she had gotten sometime yesterday while her initial fever had been kicking in and destroying her ability to process the world around her.


    outworlder (rarity: 10)


    you have come from another world, far from home and lost beyond the cracks of another dimension.


    +30% faster attribute growth for all stats below 120, +50% class experience for all main classes below level 50, +15% class experience for all secondary classes below level 10, strengthened immune system, strengthened mana adaption and resistance, increased support from the system.


    baptized by broken mana (rarity: 6)


    you are one of the four percent of survivors among the ungifted who have managed to survive mana poisoning. furthermore, you even baptized yourself using broken mana instead of regular mana. you must really love taking risks!


    +50% faster growth to the ¡®magic¡¯ attribute, +25% growth to the ¡®willpower¡¯ attribute, +30% experience gain for all mage and magic-related classes, +15% mana recovery, immunity to mana poisoning from broken mana


    you have unlocked the class [survivor] as a result of surviving alone in the wilderness for multiple days and surviving a near - death experience. would you like to make this class a primary class?


    yes / no


    you have unlocked the class [explorer of magic] as a result of surviving the effects of mana poisoning and having the {outworlder} achievement. would you like to make this class a primary class?


    yes / no


    alice spasmed, trying to process what was going on. she was alive? she was alive!


    what the heck had just happened? she was reasonably sure that no more than a day or two had passed ¨C while she was incredibly hungry now, it didn¡¯t seem like her body was suffering from the effects of malnutrition yet, just on the edge. in that case... had she just fought off a disease from this planet in just a day or two? maybe this was the effect of her ¡®strengthened immune system¡¯ from the {outworlder} perk? what the heck did ¡®increased support from the system¡¯ mean? what was mana poisoning?


    finally, she scanned through her achievements and system notifications in more detail, before she realized that the {baptized by broken mana} achievement told a very different story from her initial assumptions. the achievement indicated that what she had just fought off wasn¡¯t actually a disease ¨C it seemed to be something called ¡®broken mana poisoning.¡¯


    also, she had apparently unlocked two classes. bewildered, she pulled up her status screen, and saw that several things were quite different from before.


    alice finally turned to the river itself and noticed something that filled her with hope: even though the water was somewhat shallow, lazily swimming towards the center of the creek was a fish about twice the size of her hand. while it wasn¡¯t large, where there was one fish there would probably be more. alice quickly grabbed a fallen tree branch and began tearing off the extraneous bits, and after perhaps five minutes she had in her hands the beginning of mankind¡¯s most primitive hunting tool: a spear. frowning, she poked the other end of the spear and confirmed that it was nowhere near sharp enough to be used for anything stabbing-related.


    perhaps instead of calling it a ¡®spear¡¯ she should have just called it a stick.


    alice began checking some of the pebbles in the area, and eventually managed to find a somewhat sharp edge on a stone that had broken in half. turning back to her makeshift spear, she took the stone and began hitting the edge of the branch, trying to sharpen the edge of the stick into something that resembled a spear.


    five minutes passed this way, with a girl mercilessly beating a stick with a rock.


    ten minutes...


    fifteen...


    finally, after thirty minutes, alice had a... spear. yes, a very powerful and mighty... extremely sharp... somewhat sharper than average... pointy stick. alice held it up and inspected it, and was pleasantly surprised to hear the system give her two notifications.


    through training, you have increased a skill!


    woodworking: 0 -> 1


    you have leveled up!


    survivor: 1 -> 2


    ¡°so you can recognize woodworking and survivor levels, but you can¡¯t recognize {pathfinding} or {trying to find civilization} or {lost in the woods and dying, please send help}? who makes the rules for skills? i mean, the last two would be pretty ridiculous, but i could definitely see a skill like {pathfinding} or {wilderness navigation} or something along those lines existing. aren''t i supposed to have increased assistance from the system? i need assistance now. please?¡±


    nothing happened. alice sighed and turned back to the river. for now, she was unlikely to find any answers. soon, she located another fish, and began phase two of operation ¡®don¡¯t starve to death.¡¯


    she stopped moving as much as possible, holding her pointy stick over the shallow stream and preparing to stab downwards. soon, the fish began swimming closer to the side of the stream she was positioned on, lazily drifting down with the current. closer.... closer...


    stab! alice stabbed the river, perfectly missing the fish. frightened, the fish darted away, disappearing in a flash of scales and light as it zoomed into the distance. ¡°fuck,¡± alice muttered, watching dinner escape. how had she missed? the fish had been right below her pointy stick...


    belatedly, alice realized the problem. the surface of the water caused light to refract slightly, meaning that anything she was looking at in the water was slightly lower than what her eyes would tell her. since she had mistaken this, given the fact that her pointy stick wasn¡¯t entirely straight she had just barely missed the fish, instead of spearing it down the middle as she had meant to.


    part of this could also be attributed to her rather low accuracy and her lacking physical strength, which had certainly exacerbated the problem, but she chose to blame it entirely on the light. if i was able to think of light refraction problems afterwards, i should have been able to remember it before. who knows when another fish will come, thought alice. if she had been a little less careless, she could have been cooking the fish for lunch instead of quietly cursing by the creek¡¯s side. she sighed, sitting by the creek¡¯s edge and dangling her bare feet into the water. she was so hungry...


    come to think of it, even if she caught a fish, how would she start a fire? rubbing two sticks together? that was supposed to work, right? it was worth a shot.


    she began daydreaming of convenience stores. in america, it was incredibly easy to find food as long as one had a little bit of money. if she could just step into a convenience store or a restaurant and buy some waffles. blueberry waffles with syrup sounded delicious right now... she felt a pang of homesickness.


    finally, after a few minutes of indulging in a pointless fantasy, alice realized she was wasting time and stood up, trying to focus again. perhaps i can hunt and follow the river at the same time. i can periodically check the water to see if i can find any fish to eat, and i might also run into other small animals of prey that i have some chance of successfully hunting and killing.


    she began following the little stream downriver, which soon joined a few other streams and started to become a properly large river. as she walked, she noticed there were plenty of other lifeforms that were bizarrely similar to earth¡¯s flora and fauna here. something to investigate later. for now, she had survival to focus on. she directed herself back towards the important tasks at hand.


    through training, you have increased an attribute!


    willpower 119 -> 120


    alice snorted, not wanting to deal with the system right now. however, she felt as if her will had been fortified compared to a second ago - the change was slight, and alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure that it wasn¡¯t just her imagination, but she felt as if it was easier to understand her beliefs and easier to focus compared to a few moments ago.


    she absently wondered if one single point in willpower actually made this large of a difference ¨C maybe this was actually just the placebo effect?


    finally, alice found more fish in the river. problematically, they also swam much farther beneath the water¡¯s surface-alice could barely even see the deepest fish in the water, now that the water had grown much deeper. if she fell into the river at this point, she could easily be carried off by the current and drown, meaning that hunting the deeper fish was a risky endeavor.


    alice found a more shallow part of the river, where her pointy stick could reach the bottom. then, she gathered several sticks that could be used as kindling and a few thicker sticks that could be used to sustain a fire for a longer period of time. then, she patiently lowered the ¡®spear¡¯ into the water, making sure that light refraction would no longer be a problem. afterwards, she waited patiently, ignoring the rumbling of her stomach.


    finally, a fish wandered underneath the pointy stick. stab!


    you have leveled up!


    survivor: 2 -> 4


    with a single stab, alice gained two levels and a weakly struggling fish. she lifted the stick out of the water, careful not to let the thrashing fish slide off the stick in the process, and then quickly strode back over to the pile of sticks. then, she grabbed a stick and began rubbing it against another stick, hoping to cause enough friction to start a fire.


    after only a moment, though, she suddenly felt as if her preparations were somehow... insufficient. she frowned, trying to figure out where this idea was coming from, before finding a stick that had a hole in it and another stick that was around the same size as the hole. she placed one of the sticks into the other and began spinning the stick, trying to make the force of friction start the fire. bizarrely enough, she felt that her first idea of just rubbing two sticks together would be harder than this method.


    five minutes later, her arms felt like they were going to fall off. aside from that, no real progress had been made. alice was starting to worry that she wouldn¡¯t be able to get anywhere with this, either because she was doing it wrong or because her arms simply couldn¡¯t provide sufficient force to the sticks to actually cause a fire.


    she finally set down the sticks and flopped onto the dirt for a while, panting. she didn¡¯t have any way to gut or descale the fish, she couldn¡¯t start a fire... even though she had caught the fish, she didn¡¯t have the ability to process it!


    finally, alice remembered something critical - theoretically, she had magic. extremely questionable magic that she had no idea how to use, but maybe she could start a fire with magic somehow? she closed her eyes, trying to figure out how to use magic. in most novels, magic had a lot to do with imagination, so she tried imagining flames as much as she could, imagining the stick catching fire...


    after ten minutes of concentrating, she felt incredibly stupid, and exactly zero progress towards starting a fire had been made. apart from that, she still felt tired, hungry, and frustrated. she tried meditating for a bit in order to get a skill, since plenty of stories linked meditation and ''natural energies'' - maybe it would help with magic?


    ten more minutes of wasting her time later, alice decided this probably wasn''t the right way to go about solving her problems.


    at least the fish had stopped flopping around. alice stuck her face into the river and took a long drink of water - even though she should purify it somehow, perhaps by boiling it, she had no water container and no clue how to make one. and even if she did have a water container, she had no fire. if she got a disease from the water and died, it would be pretty typical of her luck thus far, but the day or two she had spent here wasn¡¯t enough to pick up all of the survival skills she desperately needed right now.


    she eyed the dead fish. was she desperate enough to just bite into it and hope for the best? not quite. at least, not yet. she had eaten fish before, and even eaten sushi. however, while it was a common misconception that raw fish was safely edible, sushi was usually, at the very least, frozen first to help kill off any parasites. it was chilly right now, but she seriously doubted it was cold enough to kill off parasites at the current temperature.


    finally, she thought back to earlier, when she had been trying to start a fire. she had initially been planning on rubbing two sticks together and hoping for the best, but right before she started she had suddenly had the hazy idea of trying to spin a stick inside of another stick in order to start a fire instead. in the end, she failed, but she had no clue how to start a fire in the woods besides a vague idea on how it might be done. however, while the concept of spinning a stick inside of another stick had been hazy, it wasn¡¯t something alice would have thought of before today. was this the effect of a new environment and desperation kicking in, or was it the effect of levels?


    alice opened her status screen again, trying to look at it and see if it would provide any clues.


    [survivor] was at level 4 - hadn¡¯t the message telling her that she had unlocked the [survivor] class said it had to do with surviving near-death experiences? and it certainly felt like she was more proficient at dealing with the outdoors than she had been yesterday... was her ¡®survivor¡¯ class just... directly inserting information into her brain?


    as far as she could tell, levels and stats didn¡¯t seem to affect each other at all. stats were raised by doing things related to the stat. assuming levels actually ¡®did¡¯ something, inserting knowledge into her brain was a reasonable guess. however, this brought up different problems. if the system was directly inserting information into her brain, how the heck was the system doing it? brains were incredibly complex webs of electricity and neurons, packed together into a continuously evolving network of complex biological structures. scientists had been studying human brains for years, and it was still pretty difficult to figure out exactly what was going on inside of the human brain. the process of a human having a single thought required incredibly precise electrical signals. the system inserting vague ideas into her brain in a way that she barely even noticed, without harming any of her ability to see or understand the world around her or turning her into a coma patient was incredible.


    and absolutely ridiculous. she would have been more willing to believe that the world¡¯s best heart surgeon liked using sand and their toenails to perform heart surgery as their tools of choice. however, reality clearly disagreed with her. she took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. if reality disagrees with you, reality is correct, if reality disagrees with you, reality is correct... she managed to stop thinking about the topic for a while, and began trying to think through the implications of her newest discovery. if the system was able to do help her vaguely grasp at information she didn¡¯t have, did it indicate that the system was complex enough to interact with her brain without hurting her? what if it fucked up and fried her brain or something? alice was suddenly very nervous.


    still, after several minutes of trying to figure out what the heck this actually meant, alice finally refocused on the issue of food. she needed a fire, and it wasn¡¯t going to make itself. and that was how she spent the next few hours trying and failing to start fire, continuously failing, and eventually falling asleep with hunger gnawing at her belly.

 Chapter 3

    chapter 3


    the morning was cold and miserable, and alice realized how little warmth the open ground of the forest floor provided. she looked at the remains of her attempts at lighting a fire, as well as the fish that had now been laying in the dirt for several hours, and sighed. the core of heat inside of her chest left over from her mana baptism thrummed with heat, warming up her chilled limbs, but it wasn''t enough to completely drive away the cold. she shivered, before resolving to do better today. the hunger from not eating for a few days, as well as the fact that she still couldn¡¯t even boil water yet, made her very aware of how close she was to a disaster that could appear at any moment. if she got sick or injured right now, she doubted she would be able to survive the aftermath.


    and if she didn¡¯t find something to eat today, she would start becoming thinner and weaker. she didn¡¯t know how malnutrition interacted with her status screen, but she wasn¡¯t willing to bet her life on the hope that she could keep working at full strength with no calories.


    after thinking for a moment, alice decided to try eating random plants instead of hoping to successfully make a fire this time. she wasn¡¯t sure how to make a fire yet, and she didn¡¯t have time for trial and error until she had a little more strength.


    she began travelling down the river again, continuing her search for civilization while keeping an eye on her surroundings for anything to eat or any useful objects.


    a few hours into her journey, she finally found something that might serve as food. a few berry bushes were growing close to the river, with blue-green berries about half the diameter of her pinky finger growing flowers on the branches.


    since she didn¡¯t recognize the berries at all, she looked closely at and around the bush, trying to spot anything that might indicate whether or not the berries were edible. after a few minutes, she realized that the branches around her ankles were curiously devoid of berries, even though the flowers each berry grew from were present. maybe small animals had been eating from this bush and had stripped the lower branches bare, but couldn¡¯t reach the higher branches?


    alice had no idea if her guess was correct, but if she didn¡¯t take a risk here she would need to hope to find a different source of food in the wilderness despite being totally unfamiliar with outdoor survival. she felt that she had to take a risk somewhere, and right now she had at least some evidence that these berries might be safe. gritting her teeth, she grabbed one of the berries and then bit into it.


    the flavor was somewhat odd. it tasted like a mixture of an apple and a blueberry, but it was much more tart than either fruit. she wondered if they weren¡¯t ripe. regardless, she had eaten one now. if this is poison, hopefully it¡¯s a survivable amount, she thought, trying to clamp down the hunger pangs in her stomach as she sat down and waited. if some time passed and she didn¡¯t feel any ill effects, she would consider the berries safe and eat more of them. if the berries were poisonous, hopefully one berry wasn¡¯t enough to kill her.


    after a solid ten minutes passed, two notifications suddenly sprang into the air in front of her.


    through training, you have increased an attribute!


    willpower 120 -> 121


    you have leveled up!


    survivor: 4 -> 6


    alice blinked away the notifications and went back to concentrating on her body, trying to figure out if eating the berry had any ill-effects.


    after the better part of an hour, she still felt fine. deciding she had waited long enough, she began ravenously devouring the berries, letting loose after spending a few days not eating.


    after eating almost all of the berries off of the first bush, the rumbling in her stomach was finally gone. instead, she now felt very full. it was the first time she had ever realized being full was such a wonderful feeling, and without realizing it, she smiled a bit to herself.


    alice sighed, realizing that her stomach actually felt a bit uncomfortable. perhaps she had eaten too much. she took a look around before she decided to sit down, giving herself a small break as a reward for finding food today. out of curiosity, she popped open her status screen, absently thinking about what each stat actually meant.


    come to think of it, how do stats even work? i mean, on its surface, my [endurance] stat seems to raise as a result of me walking, but does that mean i¡¯m getting more resilient against damage? am i just getting better at ignoring pain and pushing forward? do i have some sort of hp bar i¡¯m not aware of, and endurance is raising that?


    [strength] seems to indicate how much physical force someone can exert. but what happens if, for example, i only trained my leg strength for a long period of time? if [strength] increases the same way [endurance] does, training should raise my attributes. however, if i get a point in strength by training my legs, would each point of [strength] make my legs stronger, or make my entire body stronger?


    also, what is the average for this world? i guess that based on my performance in gym class compared to the average student, the strength and endurance stats average for my classmates on earth would probably be around 80 or 90, but i have no idea how the more ''mental'' stats would look at all. and i have no idea what a normal person looks like in this world, either.


    alice shrugged, before realizing that something she had never seen before was present in her status screen.


    next to her [survivor] class, the words ¡®level 5 perk available¡¯ had appeared. frowning, she concentrated on the survivor class for a moment, and suddenly her status screen disappeared, before being replaced with a new set of floating words. detailed within the words were five different ¡®perks,¡¯ along with various requirements to learn them.


    perks? alice frowned, taking a closer look at the floating letters in front of her.


    foraging


    requirements: survivor level 5 or higher


    gain knowledge of berries, vegetables, and roots, where edibles might be easily found in the wilds, and what natural foodstuffs are poisonous. also increases abilities centered around food preparation.


    primal instinct


    requirements: survivor level 5 or higher, perception higher than 100


    allows you to very slightly sense where danger lies in the world around you. higher perception will increase the effectiveness of this skill. the more knowledge you have of the cause of a particular kind of danger, the more quickly and easily you will be able to detect danger in advance.


    primitive warmth


    alice tried to weave the bottom of the basket together, and the basket once again fell apart, but this time alice got another point in woodworking out of it.


    alice quickly realized the benefits of having an rpg system boosting her actions. every single time she got a point in a skill, she had a slightly better idea what the ¡®correct¡¯ way to make a basket was. if she had enough time, she would eventually become a professional at basket weaving even with no teacher, assistance learning, or even though required. trying the same thing over and over again was still able to benefit her learning and growth.


    with one more point in woodworking, she noticed a definite difference. her fingers felt slightly more nimble and dexterous, and her motions became more fluid. the bottom of the basket took longer to fall apart than before. she looked at her previous clumsy attempts at weaving a basket and felt that something seemed off. however, she couldn¡¯t quite pinpoint what it might be, so she tried again.


    five more failures later, she gained a point in dexterity.


    seven tries after that, she gained her first point in weaving. she began trying to twist the branches into a more circular pattern, feeling that perhaps her method of making the bottom of the basket was wrong from the very beginning.


    sixteen tries later, alice finally had the beginning of a more regular bowl shape. it was the ugliest bowl alice had ever seen, but the sides were tilted in a way that would at the very least let her store about a third of a meal¡¯s worth of berries.


    in all, her attempts had taken her around three hours of work, but now she could continue to follow the river while having a few light rations. she ate another meal of berries, and then began storing some berries in her makeshift container.


    you have leveled up!


    survivor: 6 -> 7


    alice stored her berries and started working on another campfire. this time, without hunger gnawing away at her thoughts, she realized kindling would make starting a fire much easier. after nearly twenty-five minutes of rubbing sticks together, alice finally managed to light a small campfire, and was rewarded with warmth and another survivor level.


    for dinner, she roasted the nuts by dumping them into the fire before using a wet stick to roll them back out of the fire once they were cooked. afterwards, she let the nut cool down a bit before peeling off the outer shell and then eating. the nuts were oddly spicy, and a nice change of pace from the berries she had been eating all day.


    after that, she walked over to the stream and greedily swallowed down several mouthfuls of water. she still wished she had the ability to boil the water, but her shoddy bowl definitely wasn¡¯t watertight. or fireproof. for now, she would just have to put up with it and hope for the best.


    finally, she began thinking about constructing a shelter to sleep in for the night. she thought it was still three or four hours away from darkness, at least based on the time the sun had set yesterday, but her sense of time in a world without clocks was hazy. besides, sleeping next to a food source didn¡¯t seem like a bad idea. she would have easy access to breakfast before she started moving again tomorrow.


    after a moment, however, she frowned, realizing that other animals probably also fed off of the berries in this area. if lots of animals were present in the area, she might run into a carnivore, which had a high chance of ending badly for her.


    after some thinking, she grabbed a burning branch to carry with her and ensure fire-starting would be easier later on, and then continued heading downstream a bit, moving far enough away from the berry bushes that she could move back to them easily, but ensuring animals wouldn¡¯t directly stumble onto her while she was asleep. she quickly re-kindled her fire, placing some stones around the fire to avoid starting a forest fire, and then began trying to figure out how to build a basic shelter.


    she had no cluehow to construct a shelter out of sticks. if she had animal hides, she figured she could have at least made a really crude tent, but she had nothing but sticks and leaves right now.


    ¡°hmm... i probably can¡¯t construct anything useful out of the sticks in the surroundings, i don¡¯t have logs, i have no way to acquire them, and i don¡¯t have anything to cover any holes in a makeshift tent, even if i manage to make one.¡± alice thought about the problem for a while, but she still had no easy way to resolve the problem of freezing to death. last night she had been so cold that she had woken up much earlier than she meant to, and when she had woken up her limbs were cold and numb. the source of heat behind her heart was enough to keep her alive, but it was still highly unpleasant.


    she also had no idea what this planet¡¯s seasons looked like. assuming this world had seasons, which may or may not be correct. she could very well be about to enter winter, which would suck. and if winter was coming, she wanted a good shelter before the cold really set in.


    after thinking about her crude tent some more, alice realized that the ¡®framework¡¯ for a tent might still work. to make a basic shelter, she needed some sort of frame, some way to cover it up, and maybe a bit of luck to keep the mess together. alice looked around again, and then realized that she was an idiot. the grass in the area around her reached close to her knees when she was standing up in some places. as long as she wove the long grass together, wouldn¡¯t that perfectly cover a frame? if she could build some sort of frame out of sticks or wood or something, she could probably cover it with some sort of grass mat and it would at least keep some of the wind off of her and keep some of the warmth in. it would be good enough for now.


    the only problem was that she had no clue how to weave grass together. and she somehow doubted the grass would be as easy to work with as the branches.


    alice spent a minute daydreaming about modern houses. she really wanted to return to modern society and sit inside a warm, insulated house again. thinking of how well they kept the cold out and kept warmth in made alice long for sturdy walls, before she shook her head and returned to her current reality.


    sighing, alice got to work by plucking out several stalks of grass and then trying to tie them together. she had no idea what she was doing, but if she tried random ideas long enough, {weaving} would bail her out, right? she just needed to keep grinding at it.


    however, before she obtained a single point in any of her skills, she realized that it would be much easier if she just used a stalk of grass to tie together other stalks of grass and then interconnected them... somehow. possibly by tying together more stalks of grass.


    she bunched a handful of grass together and then used some of the thicker stalks of grass to tie them into a bundle. then she grabbed another handful of grass and did the same, over and over again...


    after a bit, she got the second level of the weaving skill and her fingers started to feel a bit more nimble. she continued her boring and monotonous task, weaving together bundles of grass over and over again with an occasional break to grab a few more branches to chuck into the fire.


    two hours later, when she was at the fifth level of weaving, she felt a small change in the way the skill aided her. before, each level of weaving would increase the dexterity of her fingers when weaving, but they weren¡¯t yet strictly helping her weave so much as making her less clumsy. however, at the fifth level, she felt like her understanding of weaving itself grew a bit. she started to understand more about what made a stable knot of grass stalks. she still wasn¡¯t entirely sure how to connect everything together in the most optimal way, but she was reaching the point where she could at least tie her grass knots to a wooden framework and make a crude outer layer to a tent. after making enough grass knots, alice grabbed a few fallen branches from her surroundings, drove them into the ground to make a very basic wooden framework, and then began tying stalks of grass between the branches to make a crude shelter.


    by the time she was done, the sun had begun to set, and her shelter still wasn¡¯t particularly well put together or stable. however, it would do for the night. alice eyed the fruits of her labor. the result of three hours of her life...


    three hours of staring at grass and trying to weave it into a wall for a shelter. it was, quite possibly, one of the most tedious things she had done so far. at least it looked like it would retain some warmth and keep the wind off of her. at this point, that was all she was really asking for. tired and exhausted, she crawled into her crude tent and went to sleep, hoping tomorrow would be better than the last few days had been.


    you have leveled up!


    survivor: 8 -> 9

 Chapter 4

    chapter 4


    alice slept poorly - she was used to sleeping in a silent bedroom, and now that she was farther away from the massive area of dead trees and messed up animals she had first arrived in, shuffling sounds and animal calls kept her on edge throughout the night, making it hard for her to stay asleep. alice woke up the next morning feeling groggy and irritable when the sunlight started creeping through the holes in the top of her ¡®tent.¡¯


    she shivered and rubbed her arms, but she was much less cold than she had been yesterday. the fire burning somewhat near the shelter at night had helped with warmth, even though it had gone out sometime during the night. the strange warmth near her heart had also helped, although alice was noticing that it was getting more and more faint as time passed. she didn¡¯t exactly know what the strange warmth was in the first place, so alice decided to simply take it in stride for now. even if it certainly helped her temperature problems, it obviously wasn¡¯t a long term solution, so she needed to adapt fast enough that she could survive without it once it was gone. she shook her head, trying to ease her doubts and worries, before she refocused on the world around her. specifically, her tent.


    i should be able to improve my tent construction after a few more tries, she thought as she took a careful look at the shoddy grass knots and attempts to make everything stick together. surely more stats and skills will get me somewhere if i just throw more tries at learning how to do this? then, she began thinking of how annoying it had been to construct her shelter. while the weaving process had gotten easier as she gained both skills and {skills} related to tent-construction, it had still taken her quite a while to construct the tent. perhaps there was some way to carry it with her so that she didn¡¯t have to reconstruct one from scratch? she wouldn¡¯t get any skills or attributes from retrying the process from scratch again, but she also desperately needed to focus on other things today, and being able to carry around her tent with her still help stave off the cold.


    she began looking at the edges of the tent, trying to figure out a viable way to carry away some parts of it, and eventually, she realized that taking the frame of heavier branches she had stabbed into the ground to hold up the woven grass was impractical. in order to make it into a shape that wouldn¡¯t be too awkward to carry, she would basically have to undo all of her work anyway.


    however, the sort of... blanket-like outer shell of grass could be taken with her if she was careful. therefore, she clumsily disconnected the outer layer of grass from the wooden stakes before folding it up into a blanket, then placed it underneath the berries in her bowl.


    fear me, for i am alice, queen of terrible craftsmanship and grassy... blanket things. she winced. everything she had built so far on this world really did look atrocious, and the shoddy craftsmanship really showed when she was trying to stave off the cold or stop her items from falling apart.


    she went back to the berry bushes and restocked her food supply, eating all of the berries she had picked yesterday as she walked before refilling the bowl with fresh food. then, she began travelling again, following the stream and hoping to find civilization somewhere.


    a few hours passed uneventfully as alice followed the stream, but she began to get more and more nervous as she looked at the sky. it was getting darker as a heavy blanket of clouds approached, gradually obscuring the sunlight and promising rain was coming soon. once again, it dawned on alice how truly far away from civilization she was. at home, a bit of rain didn¡¯t mean much to her at all ¨C she would be inside of a building for most of the day, and if she was in school the rain was just a sound effect that sometimes left puddles of water outside of the building.


    however, right now, she was dressed in pajamas, had little food security, and shelter that was, at best, flimsy. suddenly, freezing rain had changed from ¡®interesting but unimportant¡¯ to a life threatening disaster she couldn¡¯t escape. she glanced at her grass blanket and quickly realized that it wasn¡¯t going to keep the rain off of her. she stopped focusing only on following the river and paid more attention to her surroundings, hoping to find a cave nearby. if she didn¡¯t find one, she was almost certainly going to freeze to death. the strange warmth near her heart definitely wouldn¡¯t be enough to keep her alive if she was drenched in this weather.


    perhaps an hour later, the clouds finally arrived. and it didn¡¯t start raining, contrary to alice¡¯s earlier fears. instead, white little flakes began to drift down from the sky, fluttering lazily in the wind as they began to smother the earth, choking away the last remnants of warmth in the area. alice, both feeling the ever-dropping temperature and her lack of thick clothing more than ever before, looked at the sky and resisted the urge to start swearing. was it actually snowing? of all the times she could have arrived in this world, she had arrived here right at the start of winter?


    alice felt increasing tension and fear as she almost completely stopped worrying about following the river. she needed shelter now, and a town along the river wouldn¡¯t be enough to save her if she froze to death while travelling there. she began scouring her surroundings for any sort of shelter, praying for something to appear. she took note of what direction she could travel to get back to the river when the weather passed, but otherwise she completely broke away from the gentle slope of the river and focused entirely on finding something to keep the cold away.


    the snow began to pile higher and higher, and after another ten minutes of walking, her bare feet, which were already swollen and had numerous small cuts along the bottom of her feet, were beginning to sink into a thin layer of snow with every step. not only did she need to worry about pain and getting an infection, but she now needed to worry about frostbite. her body wasn''t reacting as poorly to the cold as she had expected it to, thanks to the strange warmth behind her heart, but she could still feel the cold creeping through her body and dragging her towards eternal sleep. the remnants of her mana baptism were slowing the process down, but not stopping it.


    am i going to die like this? she wondered. she had already wondered if she was about to die many times in the past few days, but this was one of the first times death felt so... stifling. she had almost died when she was dealing with mana poisoning, had somehow lucked out of getting this world¡¯s version of smallpox so far, and had almost gotten mauled by a strange animal. now, she was at risk of freezing to death as well.


    she trudged through the snow, plagued by lonely thoughts as she wondered if perhaps someone would stumble across her corpse one day and wonder who she had been. minutes ticked by while she searched for shelter and the temperature dropped, the stifling feeling of inevitability warring with increasing desperation as she tried to find some way to stay alive.


    finally, as her shivering was growing more and more uncontrollable, she stumbled across a ¡®cave.¡¯ it was really more like a rocky overhang with a sort of sideways bowl-shaped indentation in the stone around it, but it at least offered enough protection from the snow that she would be safer from the cold. she set down her bowl of berries, pulled out the sheet of grass she had used to create a crude tent the day before, and wrapped it around herself as a blanket.


    it was wholly holey, but at this point anything helped. then, after spending a few minutes shivering under her grass blanket, she realized her limbs were growing numb. she began rubbing her limbs together, trying to get some warmth back into her fingers and toes after recognizing the warning signs of frostbite.


    minutes ticked by, and she grew colder and colder while the specter of death loomed ever closer. her fingers and toes still had some feeling in them, but she felt cold and increasingly sleepy. she looked over at her basket of berries and grabbed a few half-frozen berries to nibble on. finally, she realized that this wasn¡¯t a sustainable method of survival ¨C even if it was desperate, she needed to go back out into the cold to grab some tree branches, hopefully dry ones, and get some sort of fire started. otherwise, she would definitely die here.


    she stepped out of the cave, trying to work her way through the biting cold as it penetrated into her veins. the snow had stopped falling, but the carpet of snow on the ground already reached up to her ankles. she might have found it beautiful, if she were at home and waiting for christmas to come, but right now it seemed to blot out the color in the world, dyeing the world monotone shades of white and grey.


    quickly, she grabbed some cold branches from the area around her and shook the snow off, looking at the still-green leaves on the branches and wondering if they would catch flame. they looked damp, and she doubted she could dry them out, but it hadn¡¯t been snowing for that long yet. apart from the exterior of the branches and leaves, perhaps something here was still able to catch fire?


    for several minutes, she grabbed branches and dragged them back towards her cave, trying to ignore the sinking feeling as her feet started to get more numb. right now she didn¡¯t have time to keep massaging her limbs and keep blood flowing to her fingers and toes, so she was stuck praying for the best. then, back inside of her cave, she first peeled away the outer layer of bark on some of the branches. to her surprise, an entire outer ring of bark came off of each branch easily, leaving only the dry interior of the branches while casting away the outer layer of wet wood. she had no idea what kind of tree this was, but right now her trademark curiosity had been nearly stifled by her desperate circumstances. with no interest why these branches could be peeled so easily, she began rubbing sticks together with some tinder, hoping for a fire. a stick snapped, cutting her palm. she gritted her teeth and kept going, knowing that failure wasn¡¯t an option.


    finally, a spark caught, and she leapt up and danced with joy. the tiny little ember of fire spread to the dry innards of the branches, and soon, a cheery blaze was burning away in her cave. she stuck out her hands and feet, warming them up while occasionally nibbling on a few berries. within another hour, she could feel all of her toes and fingers again, thankfully, which meant that she should at least be able to avoid losing her fingers or toes to the cold. warmer and more comfortable, she soon fell asleep again.


    you have leveled up!


    survivor: 9 -> 11


    * * *


    the next day, alice woke up to find that the snow had stopped falling. her campfire, unnoticed, had burnt out while she was asleep. thankfully, the smoke had been guided away from the shelter by the shape of the cave, which was something she only realized once she woke up. she hadn¡¯t paid any attention to the smoke at all, and if the cave had been shaped a bit differently she might have never woken up. she also realized that she had gained another two levels sometime last night, either when she had started a fire or when she was asleep. either way, it had given her another perk slot, so she started out by taking a look at what was available. her first perk had given her the ability to easily identify food, something she desperately needed right now, and this perk could also be a lifesaver.


    dark vision


    requirements: survivor level 10 or higher, perception higher than 100


    allows you to see your surroundings as if they were fully lit up, regardless of the level of light present in your surroundings. this may be turned off. will not physically alter your eyes.


    microbe resistance


    requirements: survivor level 10 or higher


    name: alice verianna


    age: 15


    strength: 44


    perception: 101


    dexterity: 47 -> 48


    intelligence: 153


    endurance: 44 -> 50


    willpower: 118 -> 121


    charisma: 125


    magic: 0 -> 5


    primary classes: 2/5


    survivor: 0 -> 12 (level 10 perk available)


    explorer of magic: 0 -> 1


    n/a


    n/a


    n/a


    perks


    foraging (survivor 5)


    secondary classes


    0


    skills


    english (language proficiency): 100


    woodworking: 0 -> 7


    weaving: 0 -> 5


    achievements


    outworlder (rarity: 10)


    baptized by broken mana (rarity: 6)


    she closed the status screen, wondering how much she had changed in the short period of time she had been here. already, she was desperately trying to level up in order to survive. despite the fact that she was both nervous about the levelling system and baffled by its implications, it seemed like she also needed to rely on it. otherwise, the myriad of problems an interdimensional traveler would inevitably face would probably kill her within a week.


    after all, she was just a fairly normal girl from the modern world. she had no familiarity with camping, much less surviving in the wilderness with no supplies. her body was wholly unsuited to survive in this world, disease and infection would kill her without access to modern antibiotics and medicine, and while some of the biology of this planet was suspiciously similar to earth¡¯s, the rest was totally alien to her. without any help, she estimated her odds of surviving this planet to be close to zero. for now, the system was able to provide that help. if levelling up was the way to survive so that she could investigate the system and the magic of this world, she would need to level up.


    such were the thoughts of a young girl alone in the frozen wilderness.

 Chapter 5

    chapter 5


    the rest of the day passed uneventfully, with alice occasionally going to get a few more tree branches to peel whenever the fire started to run low on fuel, but she mostly stayed near the fire and occasionally ate some of her berries. they weren¡¯t very filling, but they were far better than nothing.


    through training, you have increased an attribute!


    endurance 50 -> 51


    she spent the night huddled under her grass blanket inside of her cave, cold but alive. when she woke up, she realized that sometime during the night the cloud had moved away and the sun had returned. alice was glad to see sunlight, but she felt uneasy after her close encounter with hypothermia.


    after deciding she needed to eat something besides berries today, she began carefully making her way around, periodically checking the surroundings for food. she found more of the strange nuts that she had roasted a few days ago and put them into her basket, as well as some more dead branches that could be turned into firewood. finally, she found a weird plant that looked like a fist-sized glob of wax. she had no clue what it was, but {foraging} claimed it was edible, so she rinsed it off in the river and ate it. it tasted like cardboard, but hopefully it would make up some of the nutrients she didn¡¯t get from berries and nuts.


    she carried everything back to her cave and stripped the wet outer bark from the trees, gaining a point of [dexterity] in the process. afterwards, she turned a quarter of her firewood into a small blaze, roasted the nuts, and had a late lunch of roasted nuts along with the rest of her berries. after eating, she was still hungry, but at least the worst of the hunger pangs were gone.


    alice needed to decide whether to stay in the cave and try to survive the winter, or keep following the river and hoping to find civilization. it was a decision that could determine her survival. her initial instinct was that she should keep following the river ¨C after all, if there were more people around, her odds of surviving would be better if this was the modern era.


    however, recent events and deeper thinking had caused her to wonder if that was just wishful thinking. as much as alice longed for human company, it was entirely possible that she wouldn¡¯t find civilization for a long while. and what would happen if she did find civilization?


    as of right now, she was worse than a bedraggled refugee - she had no money, if there was even a currency system in this world. she had no ability to defend herself, no connections, and no reason for anyone to help her unless they felt sympathy for her. frankly speaking, if the rest of this world had grown up with the system, right now she might also be as weak as a kitten compared to the average person, meaning that her ability to work in any useful capacity was questionable. which meant trading labor for food would also be difficult.


    she felt very uncomfortable placing all of her hopes on the kindness of strangers, especially if winter was approaching. if she found a village and they just considered her a useless mouth to feed, why in the world would they give her supplies and help her survive? and even more problematic was travelling barefoot through the snow - her feet were already scratched up, and although she had dodged frostbite so far, she seriously doubted that she would keep all of her toes if she tried to continue travelling through an unknown amount of snow.


    on the other hand, if she stayed in the wilderness, she had no thick clothing, so staying warm when she wasn¡¯t near the fire would be hard, even though she could warm up back in the cave. wild animals might attack her, she still had no clue how to use magic despite numerous failed attempts, food was unreliable, and water she knew she could trust was a luxury instead of a staple.


    however, she also had her cave, which was able to keep the worst of the elements off of her while she slept at night, and a way to obtain firewood, even if it was somewhat time consuming and labor intensive. while it required a lot of time and exposure to danger, her [survivor] class was also helping her get the tools she needed to survive in this world, and would probably continue to do so as long as she kept levelling up.


    she tossed her options around in her head, weighing her options as she tried to figure out which option had a higher chance of keeping her alive. finally, alice decided to stay in this area for now. it was a difficult decision: she had only been here for a few days, and she was already starting to feel lonely without being able to see other people and talk to them. however, continuing to search for civilization when she had thought it was spring or summer was completely different from trying to find civilization while travelling through piles of snow. as counterintuitive as it seemed, alice thought she actually had a higher chance of surviving in the wilds right now since she had no clue where a city might be or how helpful it would be to find one.


    having made her decision, she began gathering more branches, this time not bothering to peel the outer ring of wet bark off since it would dry out from being near the fire anyway. as long as she was careful to avoid setting her stack of firewood alight it seemed like a workable plan.


    alice looked at her pajamas again. they were somewhat thin for this weather, and didn¡¯t do a very good job of keeping heat in. if she could find some way to replace them, it would be ideal. could she make some sort of clothing out of leaves? if she found a way to weave them together it might do a better job of keeping in heat. however, she discarded the idea after a bit. she didn¡¯t have the supplies or {weaving} skill required to pull it off, and the leaves might not last through the winter.


    alice sighed and returned to the camp, then sat next to the fire and tried to think positively. at least for now, she was warm and not too hungry. she found comfort in the small victories right now. she had a cheery blaze going inside of her little cave, and a blanket of grass to help keep the warmth in. her feet hurt from getting scratched up walking through the wilderness, but at least she had an extra bit of firewood and a way to gather food. for today, at least, that was enough.


    * * *


    the next day, the snow had at least melted enough that she could see hints of green peeking through the snow again. she decided today was a good day to restock on food.


    the nuts she had been roasting would probably keep through winter with no problems, so it was also a good idea to store some in advance, if she could. nuts didn¡¯t go bad after being picked, at least to the best of her knowledge. furthermore, the shell of the nuts were poisonous, which meant that a good portion of the local wildlife probably avoided eating it. therefore, she decided to gather as many nuts as she could today and store them for later.


    perhaps i could bury them in the ground, to make sure wildlife doesn¡¯t get at it? after all, the nuts must have evolved the poisonous shell to avoid getting eaten by something, which means that whatever that something is, it probably also evolved some countermeasure for the poison...but i don¡¯t have a way to plan around that right now. alice sighed, realizing that she was once again stuck in a position where she didn¡¯t know enough, and could only hope for the best.


    deciding she needed to get a move on, she started searching her surroundings, and managed to find several more baskets of nuts. she carted them back to her shelter, before she began to bury the nuts in the soil. the ground was hard, probably because it was still half-frozen, but with some effort she managed to use a few sticks to dig an untidy little food storage hole. then, she covered the area up with soil again and stuck her digging tool into the ground nearby, to make sure she didn¡¯t lost track of her food reserve.


    even though it was fairly obvious where she had buried her harvest, at least after burying it, the local wildlife would struggle to steal her food before she noticed and scared the animals off.


    by the time she had finished her eighth haul of nuts and her third haul of firewood, evening had once again come.


    you have leveled up!


    survivor: 12 -> 13


    through training, you have increased a skill!


    the second thing she knew was that she had no flipping clue what the book said. this meant that she didn¡¯t have any sort of auto-translate function added onto her {outworlder} perk. still, she dutifully flipped through the pages of the book, and noticed that all of the pages were still relatively intact, despite the fact that it had been in the stream for an unknown length of time. in fact, the moment she had lifted it out of the water, the water slid off of it without leaving any indication that it had been there in the first place. that meant that whoever had made the book had somehow made the paper waterproof.


    alice had no clue whether this was accomplished via technology or magic. since alice had no clue how magic worked, she was still working entirely on guesses for how or what mages looked like in this world.


    there was also another bright side, which was that her status screen had {english (language proficiency)} listed as one of her skills. that meant that, with practice, she could probably pick up whatever language this book was written in, which would be critical when it came to communicating with the locals. alice briefly wondered whether language skills differentiate between written and spoken language. alice¡¯s status screen only had the{english} listed, meaning that the system didn¡¯t differentiate between reading and speaking the language. then, alice frowned. the system didn¡¯t seem to have any sort of supernatural awareness of what skills she had possessed back home, so ¡®written english¡¯ might just not be listed in her perks yet. she had talked out loud a few times after coming to this world, but she hadn¡¯t tried writing anything yet...


    she tried writing a few random sentences into the dirt with a stick, but didn¡¯t pick up a {writing} skill or anything of the sort. for now, she would take that as a light confirmation that language skills didn¡¯t differentiate between written and spoken language. which was a weird thought ¨C was everyone on this planet literate as long as they had functioning eyes and the ability to speak a language? it would be hilarious if she stumbled across a stone age civilization with a higher literacy rate than a developed country on earth.


    wait a minute... come to think of it, i was able to read my status screen before the system had figured out what the english language was. what?


    she pulled up her status screen, which displayed all of her attributes in nice, easily legible arabic numerals and english words.


    but the system hadn¡¯t known what language she was proficient in when she first arrived in this world. when she had just arrived on this world, her {language proficiency} had looked like a glitched-out error message. in other words, the system did not recognize the english language and had struggled to make sense of it. and yet, somehow, it had still displayed her entire status screen in a language it did not understand.


    alice struggled to comprehend what that meant, or how that was even possible in the first place. a few minutes later, alice¡¯s head started to hurt. that just didn¡¯t make sense, did it? she could put aside the fact that the system had managed to figure out the english language in a day or two ¨C while it was an unreasonably high learning speed, given what else she had seen the system do, learning a language in less than a week seemed downright normal in comparison. however, she had no clue how the system could make a status screen for her to read in english without understanding english.


    she sat down and began to think, trying to figure out how these two seemingly contradictory facts could both be true at the same time.


    there was a logical explanation somewhere, she just knew it. she thought about it. very hard. she continued thinking...


    eventually, alice slammed her head into the rock she was using to smoke her fish, just to make sure her brain was still working properly. if an outsider had been observing this moment, they probably would have pointed out that anyone randomly banging their head against a rock for seemingly no reason probably wasn¡¯t all that sane to begin with. fortunately, there was no such person nearby.


    alice lapsed into twitching as she rubbed her head. ¡°all right, what does that actually tell me?¡±


    alice thought long and hard about the subject, before finally arriving at a conclusion.


    "first, from what i know, the system is obviously capable of interacting with my thoughts as well as my physical body, at least on some level ¨C otherwise, it would be impossible for it to do things like improve my willpower and give me hints about how to properly start a fire and make a basket. however, it seems hard for anything to able to communicate with me without understanding what i¡¯m saying. rather, this information is directly conflicting with itself, as far as i can tell. it¡¯s like saying someone can speak and read english perfectly, but doesn¡¯t understand the language at all ¨C it almost seems like a definition error or something. so, maybe the system is somehow communicating directly with me without using language at all, or something?¡± alice frowned. it was her best guess for now, at least.


    ¡°also, a humanoid intelligence, if they were powerful enough to recalibrate my physical body without me noticing, read my thoughts, and watch over every second of my life while presumably doing the same for every other sapient intelligence on this planet, probably shouldn¡¯t take several days trying to figure out what the english language is even though i think in the language, know exactly what the language is called, and don¡¯t know any other languages. which makes me wonder if the system is intelligent at all, because given the seemingly godlike abilities the system has thus far demonstrated, it doesn¡¯t seem to make sense for them to be so bad at learning the name of the english language. that feels more like an automated process stumbling over its feet, although i could be mistaken in my assumptions.¡± alice shrugged. it was her best guess about the nature of the system for now, although she definitely needed more information to confirm or deny her assumptions.


    most of her reasoning was made based on rather loose assumptions. the biggest thing alice could think of that made her theory likely to be correct was the fact that she couldn¡¯t conceive of a human communicating without understanding their own communication at all, but a computer program did that all the time. in some sense, that was what most computer programs were doing anytime they functioned ¨C a program was essentially long string of code telling a program how to do something and defining all of those ¡®somethings.¡¯ it was also why computer codes were hilariously finicky, and broke if even a tiny bit of syntax was wrong, while a human reading a language could usually work around a few minor grammatical errors and still figure out what they were hearing or reading.


    however, alice tried her best to remind herself that she didn''t have enough information yet. she could be misunderstanding something, or totally wrong. however, it was an interesting train of thought to pursue.


    through training, you have increased an attribute!


    intelligence 153 -> 154


    had... had the system just given her an attribute point for concluding it probably wasn¡¯t intelligent? it did make sense, at least in some ways ¨C she had followed a fairly specific chain of thinking and logic in order to arrive at this conclusion, after all. still, the system rewarding her for calling it dumb was quite amusing. she tried to feel out the changes caused by gaining one [intelligence], since it was her first time gaining a point in that stat, and realized that her thoughts were, perhaps, just a tiny bit faster and clearer than before. her memory was also the tiniest bit better, and she was able to remember things a bit more clearly than moments earlier. however, it was fairly difficult to feel out the changes in a bigger and more concrete way, and the differences were slight enough that they could also be attributed to the placebo effect.


    alice shook herself out of her thoughts, and refocused on the book she had found. with the book, she might be able to pick up a language skill as well. she needed to finish catching and smoking her fish, but later on, she would have a book to investigate! regardless of what the book was about, it would definitely be nice to have something else to focus on during her time here. if she was lucky, the book might have useful information about this world, and she would also get the ability to communicate with people if language skills worked the way she thought they did.


    alice got back to fishing. less than ten minutes later, more things started floated across the patch of river alice was fishing in. a few fragments of wood drifted by. then a piece of cloth, that she couldn¡¯t determine the use for but quickly ran over to snag. maybe it could be made into clothes later on. then some bruised purple and red round things that looked sort of like giant berries, but her {forager} perk stated, in no uncertain terms, that eating it would be the worst, and last, mistake she ever made.


    and finally, a horribly mangled human corpse floated downriver. she couldn¡¯t tell what the gender of the person had been ¨C male or female, it was hard to tell in this state. it looked like it had been tossed over and over in the river until it resembled a rag dunked in acid instead of a human corpse. most notably, it looked like the heart had been carved out, although at this point it was hard to tell whether it had been dug out by a wild animal or a human.


    alice stifled a scream, lurching away from the river and feeling nauseous. she could have tried to stick around, either to scavenge more supplies or figure out what had happened to this person, but she had no clue if whatever had killed the man was nearby, possibly hunting for another meal. something felt wrong here, and she didn''t want to die trying to figure out what it was.


    she immediately hurtled over to the fire she was using to smoke the fish and threw dirt on it to put it out, before grabbing her fish and erasing any evidence that anyone had been here. she had no idea what had killed this person, be it wild animal, human, or something else entirely, but she wanted to be as far away from it as possible.


    she grabbed her new cloth and the book, and moved her way back into her cave and hid for the rest of the day, anxiously watching the surroundings for any sign of something or someone hunting her down. she waited for hours with nothing happening, until finally, she drifted off to a fitful sleep, startling awake at the smallest noises throughout the night.


    even until that morning, nothing came.

 Chapter 6

    chapter 6


    when morning came, alice was freezing. she hadn¡¯t dared to light a campfire, afraid that whatever had killed the man in the river would find her if she made herself more visible. however, after several hours of nothing happening, her frayed nerves were beginning to restore themselves. cautiously, she poked her head out of the cave, before slowly scooting her way back into the sunlight. after another tense minute of observing her surroundings, she breathed a sigh of relief, before she once again inspected the things she had found from the river yesterday.


    of greatest interest to her was the soaked piece of cloth she had found floating down the river. since she frequently suffered from the cold weather in this world, having thicker and warmer clothing or better blankets for the night would drastically ease the difficulty of surviving. after taking another look at the incredibly soaked cloth, she unfolded it and placed it on a nearby rock, hoping it would dry out by nightfall. then, she returned to the river, keeping a wary eye on her surroundings just in case. for the next several hours, she didn¡¯t spot anything out of the ordinary as she caught and smoked fish.


    four smoked fish and one level in the {fishing} skill and one level in [survivor] later, alice returned to the cave. midday had come, and there were still no notable incidents. since [survivor] had reached level 15, alice had another perk selection available, and she wanted to see what was available before she started studying the book she had found.


    enhanced regeneration


    requirements: survivor level 15 or higher


    any damage to your body heals at a significantly faster rate without increasing the consumption of calories and nutrition.


    enhanced endurance


    requirements: survivor level 15 or higher


    the effects of the [endurance] stat are increased by 5%.


    bone strengthening


    requirements: survivor level 15 or higher


    your bones become able to resist outside impacts more effectively and resist breaking more efficiently without any negative side effects.


    nutritional balance


    requirements: survivor level 15 or higher


    regardless of your food intake, your body will maintain proper nutritional balance. this does not substitute for lack of food - instead, it strips some of the nutrients out of various foods consumed and converts them into other vitamins and minerals based on what your body is lacking.


    friend of animals


    requirements: survivor level 15 or higher, charisma 110 or higher


    simple minded-animals are less likely to bear ill will towards you, and are less likely to attack you or steal your food. does not affect monsters.


    extremophile


    requirements: survivor level 15 or higher


    extends your survivable temperature range by 10 degrees celsius. you will suffer no ill effects or discomfort while within this extended temperature range. (this applies to both hotter and colder temperatures).


    {friend of animals} was almost immediately struck off the list. she wasn¡¯t sure what the distinction between ¡®simple minded¡¯ animals were and regular animals, which made the usefulness of the perk too uncertain for her tastes. even though being less likely to tangle with the wildlife was somewhat tempting, it simply wasn¡¯t tempting enough. she did note that the perk mentioned ¡®monsters,¡¯ which made her quite nervous, but she had no idea how many or how few monsters might be present in this area. hopefully she just wouldn¡¯t stumble across any until she returned to civilization?


    {enhanced endurance} was also eliminated by her, since it didn¡¯t have a very big impact either. while it might be more useful in the long run, she also needed to live long enough for there to be a long run. {bone strengthening} and {enhanced regeneration} were also removed from consideration after some brief debate ¨C she wanted them, of course, because they seemed like they would be useful. however, compared to the last two perks, they didn¡¯t do anywhere near enough. she had no idea how much {enhanced regeneration} boosted her regeneration by, and having sturdier bones and quickly regenerated wounds just didn¡¯t seem to deal with the most likely ways she would die, which alice currently believed to be hypothermia and starvation.


    that left {extremophile} and {nutritional balance} as the two perks that she felt were most useful right now. alice didn¡¯t have to think for too long before she picked {extremophile}. problems caused by lack of nutrition seemed much less lethal in the short run than freezing to death, and an extra ten degrees celsius of warmth could make a huge difference.


    although, alice did wonder why the system seemed to consistently use the metric system. not that she objected ¨C even though she was raised in america, she naturally had to use the metric system in her science classes, and had a good enough understanding and familiarity with celsius and meters that it wouldn¡¯t hinder her usage of the system. however, thus far she had been guessing that the system seemed to translate perks and ideas into language that she found most easy to understand, based on her analysis of its interaction with the english language, so the sudden demand that she think in metric units threw her off a bit.


    immediately after picking the perk, she felt the difference. the air around her felt warmer, the cold less biting, and the misery the weather in general seemed to disappear. alice had been nervous for a while, because the strange warmth near her heart that had kept her alive after her mana baptism had been fading day by day, but suddenly the problem seemed utterly nonexistent. ten degrees celsius felt like more than enough to survive chilly weather, as long as she didn¡¯t take a bath in ice cold water or something. if before she felt like she had been locked into a walk-in freezer, now it felt closer to a chilly room. she still found the temperature unpleasant, but it was no longer cold to the point of being life-threatening.


    after a lunch of smoked fish and nuts, she began studying the book during the second half of the day. she first started by looking for any common and repeated characters in the book ¨C it was important to know whether the language had an alphabet or whether it was closer to a language like ancient chinese, where most concepts and ideas each had their own unique symbol.


    luckily, the book¡¯s language clearly used some sort of alphabet. there were 39 different characters in total, and all of them were repeated several times. while she didn¡¯t know what any of them meant, she at least didn¡¯t need to decipher 10,000 or more unique ¡®letters¡¯ to read. after some more analysis, alice started making a few guesses about some of the character she saw repeated throughout the book.


    are some of the characters punctuation, perhaps? she tried looking through the book to see if there were any common ¡®periods¡¯ or something that seemed to crop up after a certain amount of text had been written, and found a few different characters that seemed to show up less frequently and were more evenly spaced out. it could be a coincidence, or it could be punctuation.


    at least it was somewhere to start. afterwards, she began counting various other things, trying to find other patterns within the language. fifteen minutes later, the real result she was hoping for finally appeared.


    through training, you have increased a skill!


    illvarian language proficiency 0 -> 1


    suddenly, alice felt very nervous. what was attacking her wasn¡¯t just a wild animal, it was, for some reason, classified as a monster. alice didn¡¯t know what the difference between a wild animal and a monster was, but all sorts of crazy and scary ideas for what the difference could be sprang into her thoughts as she observed the spidercrab hurling itself against the tree below her.


    it was also very clear that the system wasn¡¯t going to save her here. level 17 did not grant a perk, and she probably needed to get to level 20 before she got another perk. in other words, she was on her own. not to mention, even if she survived this encounter, the message accompanying {monstrous encounter} hinted that, rather than being unlucky she had stumbled across a monster, she might be lucky that she hadn¡¯t found any so far.


    alice looked at the creature below her again, and imagined a giant swarm of them tracking her down and eating her as she tried to follow the river upstream. then, she imagined a swarm tracking her down while she slept and eating her inside of her cave. she had no idea how she would survive either encounter. in the end, it seemed to come down the fact that she had no way to defend herself alone in the wilderness like this...


    panic seized her thoughts, and for a moment, she wondered if there was any way to survive at all. even if she lived through this encounter, would she live through the next one?


    no. she clamped down on her panic, trying to regain her focus. she refused to die here.


    she frowned, and looked at the spidercrab. it was still hurling itself against the tree, over and over again to no effect. it didn¡¯t seem particularly intelligent, and was very, very hostile towards her for some reason. however, it had no way of climbing up the tree, and didn¡¯t seem able to use its spidery legs to climb for whatever reason.


    alice glanced around again, and confirmed that she had no weapons or offensive tools. if she had been thinking more clearly, she would have carried her stick with her instead of leaving it to keep smoking her fish by the fire, but she had panicked when she had seen the monster rushing at her.


    the monster showed no signs at all of giving up, and if anything it was throwing itself at the tree more ferociously as time passed, so this wasn¡¯t something she could just wait out. alice looked around her, and saw browning leaves and dying tree branches... tree branches?


    alice grabbed one of the sturdier tree branches that she was able to reach, and after several tugs managed to break it off. the branch was around four or five feet long, and was much more unwieldy than a real spear, but at least it would help her attack from a distance. she inspected the point at the end of the branch, which had luckily produced something that at least resembled a sharp tip, and decided that it was probably able to make a dent in the softer parts of the spidercrab¡¯s body. as the spidercrab hurled itself at the trunk of the tree again, alice stabilized her position on her tree branch as best she could, and then stabbed towards one of the fleshier spider limbs.


    she felt a tremendous jerk as she nearly dropped the branch, unprepared for how much force was behind the animal¡¯s leap. however, fortunately, she felt something squish.


    skreeeeeeee! the spidercrab¡¯s howl sounded like nails being scratched on a dozen chalkboards at the same time. if before it had been thinking of her as a meal, now it was seriously pissed off.


    more system notifications sounded in her ears, but she ignored them.


    although she hadn¡¯t done any major damage, she had injured it!


    ¡°die!¡± alice yelled, half to hype herself up and half to try to intimidate her opponent. it would have sounded much more intimidating if her voice hadn¡¯t quivered halfway through her statement, making her sound more terrified than brave.


    she stabbed at the spidercrab again.


    this time, her aim was much worse than before. she managed to stab the air above the spidercrab¡¯s legs, injuring nothing besides her pride.


    the spidercrab, seeming to have realized something from her previous attempt, leapt towards her again. however, this time, it swiped with its legs in midair, trying to knock the stick out of her hands. alice instinctively flinched away the moment the monster did something unexpected, saving her from losing her weapon as she cowered back onto the tree branch. more system dings rang out, all of which she ignored.


    the creature leapt for a final time, ignoring the tree trunk entirely this time as it tried to reach alice. as it was doing so, she managed to steel her heart and stab once more towards its eye. more through sheer coincidence than any skill, alice managed to penetrate the thing¡¯s eye, and felt something else squish under the force of the stick.


    the thing shrieked again, and alice could almost feel its anger as it lost one of its twelve eyes. upon landing on the ground again, it shrieked, then hurled itself against the tree trunk again as if it had lost its mind. alice stabbed at it, trying to get in another lucky blow, but missed completely. finally, spidercrab failed one of its landings and flopped onto the ground below. alice crawled down one or two rungs of tree branches and stabbed at its softer underbelly as it tried to claw its way back to its feet. even with her terrible aim, she could hit a flailing stationary target, and stabbed it in the stomach. after she managed to get in a few good jabs, spidercrab was noticeably injured and bleeding, favoring one of its sides as it finally climbed back to its feet. it screeched at her one last time, letting her know just how pissed off it was, and then scuttled back towards the trees. it wasn¡¯t dead, but it had given up on turning her into a meal.


    alice stayed on the tree branch for almost an extra half hour, waiting anxiously as she stared at where the spidercrab had disappeared back into the wilderness. she couldn¡¯t shake off the fear that the creature was preparing to ambush her the moment she lost her safe spot in the tree. however, eventually, she calmed down her wildly beating heart and rough breathing and realized that the creature was gone for now. slowly, she checked her system messages.


    through training, you have increased an attribute


    strength 47 -> 50, endurance 55 -> 56, dexterity 51 -> 52


    through training, you have increased a skill


    spearmanship 0 -> 5, climbing 0 -> 2, dodge 0 -> 1


    you have leveled up!


    survivor: 17 -> 19


    alice looked over her levels and attributes and realized that she had gained more levels in the last hour than she usually got in a day. not to mention, she had gained almost as many stat points during the fight as she had during her entire stay on this planet so far. this led her to some new guesses about how the system worked.


    the ¡®levels¡¯ obviously seemed to work differently than they would in most rpg¡¯s, since her ¡®survivor¡¯ class kept levelling up based on her wilderness survival instead of killing monsters or something. however, perhaps fighting monsters still boosted her experience point gain or something? maybe that was why her magic class wasn¡¯t levelling up... ?


    or, alternately, perhaps the system responded to danger. since she had almost died in the last hour several times during the fight, she had been exposed to far more danger than she had at any other point in time on this planet. perhaps that somehow increased the rate of stat gain or something. or maybe there was a totally different set of rules that she wasn¡¯t aware of. honestly, she had no idea. even if it were true, she wasn¡¯t exactly eager to throw herself into danger in order to gain more stats and levels. that just seemed like a good way to end up in a monster¡¯s stomach.


    alice finished climbing back down until reached the ground, making sure to keep her weight off of her injured foot as much as possible, and waited another five minutes at the tree base to make sure the spidercrab hadn¡¯t just been waiting for her to get down from the tree before making a move. then, after seeing no movement in her surroundings and deciding she was safe, she flopped onto the ground and took a few minutes to just rest her injured and tired body.


    afterwards, she slowly limped back towards her fishing spot. after seeing to the fish that she had been smoking, alice was relieved to find that they were still intact. although, that raised another question. why had the monster gone for her and not the food? it seemed to be pursuing a meal, but many animals on earth would have gone for the food she was cooking after scaring her off, rather than risking a fight with a potentially unknown animal.


    furthermore, the system hadn¡¯t classified a single animal she had seen so far as a monster, but specifically distinguished this one as a ¡®monster.¡¯ even the weird, scary raccoon-like creature she had seen on the first night hadn¡¯t triggered the {monstrous encounter} achievement. what was the difference? aggression? some quirk of biology? alice had no idea.


    alice sighed. she had no idea how to answer any of her questions for now. what she did know was that there was an entirely new component of the environment she hadn¡¯t paid attention to before that had a very high chance of killing her. she hadn¡¯t thought much about her initial run-in with the raccoon thing her first night, due to how much she was trying to process at the time, but this had brought that encounter back to the front of her thoughts. in addition to potentially toxic mana, starvation, freezing to death, and the difficulties of surviving alone in the wilderness, she had to worry about freaking monsters.

 Chapter 7

    chapter 7


    after nearly getting eaten, alice had to re-evaluate her priorities. she had a hard time keeping track of how long she had been in this dimension for, but she was sure that it had been a little under a week. in other words, within less than seven days of arriving on this world, she had nearly been eaten by a monster on top of all the other problems she had encountered.


    obviously, this did not bode well for her future if she remained as weak as she was now.


    she ran over her options, trying to figure out what the best way to achieve at least some level of combat proficiency was.


    could i make a bow and arrows? i have no experience at all with shooting, so even if i made a bow and arrows i wouldn¡¯t be able to use it. perhaps a skillwould make up for that if i just practiced enough ¨C but i don¡¯t know if i can afford to patiently grind out an {archery} skill when i could run into danger at any moment. this solution feels somewhat unreliable. also, i have no idea how to build a bow either, meaning i would need to grind out the relevant crafting skill first. woodworking would probably help me, but i¡¯m definitely nowhere near the level of being able to make a functioning bow with it. it doesn¡¯t seem like a solution that would be useful in the near future.


    knives? i can¡¯t make anything that refined with stone yet ¨C besides a knife wouldn¡¯t give me the range i would want. getting my hand near spidercrab¡¯s mouth just seems to be asking to lose a finger, or my whole hand.


    spear? a shoddy spear helped against the spidercrab, although admittedly circumstances were favorable. however, it keeps monsters away from me if they want to bite me, and a spear is also pretty easy use. while a spear isn¡¯t easy to make, it¡¯s much less hard for me to make than a bow. it might be a pretty good option.


    after a quick evaluation, a spear seemed like her best option.


    she went back to the tree branch she had used as her makeshift weapon during the fight with spidercrab and grabbed it. afterwards, she moved back to her cave, scanning her surroundings carefully as she walked to avoid getting ambushed by a second monster, before she returned to her cave.


    then, she got to work. she began by finding a stone with a somewhat sharp surface, and then began awkwardly carving away the edges of the stick, trying to refine it into a sharp wooden spear point. however, in a flash of inspiration, she grabbed two more rocks ¨C one that she was going to make into a spear tip, and one to use as a carving tool. she placed the first rock down on a particularly large boulder near the entrance to her cave, then placed the rock with a sharp edge against it.


    then, she began using the third rock as a makeshift hammer, banging it against the second rock over and over again to chip away at the edges of the rock.


    through training, you have increased a skill!


    stoneworking +1


    it took a great deal of time and work, with alice nervously surveying her surroundings over and over again to see if the noise had attracted any monsters or wild animals, but thankfully, nothing showed up to attack her while she was working. finally, she had a decent spear point. it was the first object she had made in this world that didn¡¯t look like an incredibly shoddy, inferior knockoff item.


    she looked back over to the piece of cloth she had found yesterday ¨C then, she began trying to tear a strip of cloth from it.


    the cloth was much tougher than alice would have thought possible. in fact, it seemed quite bizarre, since she could clearly feel the fact that the cloth was somewhat coarse. it was a large bolt of some sort of rough fabric, nothing particularly fancy, but no matter how she strained against it, she simply couldn¡¯t tear off a piece of the edge with her bare hands.


    finally, she began carefully poking little holes into the fabric with her stone spear point, weakening the edge of the cloth. then, she managed to tear a rough strip of cloth from the edge of her new blanket. finally, she tied the spear tip to the wooden branch with her strip of cloth, making the tightest knot she was able to with the assistance from the {weaving} skill.


    by the end of it, she was holding a serviceable spear with a stone tip.


    alice took another look at her work. it was really, really ugly. functional. but ugly.


    she waited. usually every time she accomplished something that furthered her survival, the system rewarded her with a level. however, this time, nothing came up.


    seriously? nothing at all? alice felt depressed after a while. maybe this was the difference between leveling up at low levels versus high levels? she sighed, before returning her focus back to her spear.


    at least she had a stone spear now. it would be useful both for fishing and for fighting off any other monsters that wanted to maul her face off.


    she glanced back at the strip of cloth, trying to figure out if she could make proper clothing out of it, before deciding that it was outside of the range of her current abilities. perhaps in the future, but for now it would just continue to serve as a blanket.


    stone spear in hand and slightly more confident, alice returned to fishing, although this time she kept a much closer watch on her surroundings. her carelessness had cost her a painful bite on her ankle earlier, and she was determined not to let it happen again.


    she caught another fish, and the system gave her a happy ding as a notification appeared.


    through training, you have increased a skill!


    fishing +1


    you have unlocked the class fisherwoman as a result of catching several fish through your own efforts, as well as having access to the fishing skill. would you like to make this class a primary class?


    yes


    no


    alice quickly selected no, since she doubted she would use this class very much. the river might freeze over soon, and she wasn¡¯t quite desperate enough to pick a class she didn¡¯t think would be useful for more than a week or two, maybe a month at most. besides, she was curious to see what the difference between a primary and secondary class was.


    she also wondered why the [survivor] and [fisherwoman] class seemed to have such a high level of overlap. [survivor], as far as she could tell, was a class that boosted her ability to survive in the wilderness by herself. it seemed to focus on giving her some aspects that wild animals benefited from, such as ¡®fur¡¯ through perks like {extremophile} and other beneficial traits like night vision, while also giving her knowledge and information early hunter-gatherer humans used to survive in the wilderness. included within that were several abilities that were related to food, water, and shelter. even though fishing was a bit different, at heart it was focused on providing food, making it feel like a more concentrated [survivor] class in some respects. were classes overlapping in abilities and purposes a good thing, or a bad thing? alice decided that once she had a better idea what the difference between a primary and secondary class were, she would need to think very carefully about her primary classes. if she could get five overlapping magic-related classes as her primary classes, for example, she would have five times the amount of magic-related perks.


    that being said, it also raised the question of why the person floating down the river had been next to a book about magic. were mages hunted down by society, the same way ¡®witches¡¯ had been burned at the stake back on earth? that didn¡¯t seem to explain why the man¡¯s heart was missing, but it could be some sort of ritual ¡®purification.¡¯ it could also be a cult going around killing people, or the man could have simply been a merchant attacked by bandits, or it could mean any number of other things.


    she thought about the corpse for a while, but couldn¡¯t come to a conclusion. right now, she simply didn¡¯t have enough information. however, it was clear that something had killed the person. she didn¡¯t know who, or what, or why, but she had a sinking feeling in her stomach that she might find out why at some point. especially if the man¡¯s death was related to magic somehow.


    or, perhaps, the reason might find her.


    * * *


    alice spent the next few days devoting far more time and attention to the book than she previously had, raising her language proficiency and trying to translate the book as she nibbled away at her fish and nuts. she occasionally went back to fish some more and smoke some more fish, with growing nervousness as the river began to show more and more signs of freezing over. the {camouflaged} perk did help her a bit with catching fish, although alice began diverting more and more of her time away from gathering supplies as she focused more on the book she had found. the fact she had a book about magic kept her hopes up about her survival through the winter, even as the temperature dropped and supplies became more scarce.


    on the fifth day, alice¡¯s {illvarian language proficiency} reached level 22.


    her ongoing attempts at translating the book were getting closer and closer to paying off. she couldn¡¯t translate enough of the book to make sense of it yet, but she could, at the very least, tell that the book was talking about the theories on the development of something called a magic seed, and the four main forms of magic seeds commonly used throughout the world.


    specifically, alice had learned that a magic seed was what allowed a human to use mana, although alice couldn¡¯t understand more than that yet. in other words, the reason so many of her attempts at using magic had failed was because she didn¡¯t have a magic seed, and she needed to form one. however, she was very unclear on how this could be accomplished. as a result of her efforts at learning a new language, the system had also offered her a new class, which was a welcome surprise after spending hours slogging through text she didn¡¯t understand yet.


    you have unlocked the class scholar as a result of studying a single topic for several days, reading a book on the topic, and attempting to think beyond the teachings of the book and apply it to the world around you. would you like to make this class a primary class?


    yes


    no


    alice thought very carefully about the question. [scholar] was... not useful to her current circumstances. at all, in fact. one could say that, compared to [survivor] it was a waste of a main class slot when it came to surviving her current circumstances. however, if there was one thing she loved doing, it was immersing herself into the study of knowledge.


    this world had the bizarre, reality-breaking system in it, and it fascinated her. it also had magic. there was a lifetime¡¯s worth of things to study in this new world. she closed her eyes, hesitating for a moment as she tried to assess whether it was more important to think about the present or follow what she wanted to do in the future. then, she tapped the ¡®yes¡¯ button.


    there was no huge change in either her body or mind. that was to be expected, since the class was, after all, just level one. she hadn¡¯t even noticed the effects of the survivor class on her actions even when it was at level five, and even now it just seemed to vaguely ¡®help¡¯ her think of ways to deal with problems she encountered that were within the scope of the class.


    still, after taking the [scholar] class, she felt better. more resolved. in the nearly two weeks she had been here, she had spent the first week teetering from crisis to crisis, always on the verge of dying if she was just a bit unlucky when the next challenge came her way. to some extent, this was still true ¨C she had no idea what had killed the guy who had drifted down the stream last week, although she felt ominous prickles at the back of her neck when she thought about the event even now.


    she hadn¡¯t seen any other monsters, but knowing that they were out there meant that she was at risk of being attacked anytime. she also had no clue whether spidercrabs were weak or strong compared to other monsters, and had no clue what she might need to defend herself from in the future. if she was particularly unlucky, stronger monsters might even be able to use magic, adding a whole new dimension to the dangers of the wilderness around her.


    however, even with all of that, the [scholar] class called to her. it made her feel as if she was planning for the future instead of just surviving in the present. and hope was something she desperately needed right now, almost as much as any practical ability. the [scholar] class seemed to promise her that in the future, she would be safe again, and she would be able to study the things she loved once the current crisis was over. it might take some time, but eventually she would get there.


    after taking her new class, she turned her attention back to the book. finally, after a great deal of guesswork and translation, she finally managed to translate something a little more useful.


    the basis ... .... ... magic is a magic seed. they are ...... ...... a mixture of ..... ... .. ..., and primarily fall under four. ... ... .. . the kinetic-magic type seed, the ...... type seed, the electromagnetic type seed, and the ..... ... type seed. to form one, one must ..... ..... ... [magic] stat must be above 0. this may be done by... ... .. ........ .... with a high lethality rate. assuming these conditions are .... ........... ...... .... then, one must form a magic seed by ..... ..... on the concept one wishes for their magic to ...... there appears to be... .... ... .... .... . once a seed is constructed, ... ... ....... ...... .. that is also why ..... less likely. however, one cannot say that..... ... basic four .... all magic. plenty of other.. . .... .... after all, the basis ...... .... ..... .... .... belief. at least, ... .... humble author¡¯s .... .... ......... ... .. ....


    the words were a mix of things she could actually translate as well as a few words she had guessed based on the way the illvarian language and sentence structure worked, but she was getting more confident that her translations were correct, even the words that weren¡¯t given to her by her language proficiency skill. her illvarian language skill was also levelling up far more quickly than her other skills, like {stoneworking} or {weaving}, even though she still used the latter two skills more often. this baffled alice. perhaps language skills were somehow special? or she was somehow displaying more proficiency with the skill since she was actively trying to translate beyond the skill¡¯s auto-translate abilities? it was a question to keep in mind for later.


    she frowned, poring over the information she had learned from the passage. she was a bit nervous about the fact that the book had mentioned a ¡®high lethality rate,¡¯ but stopped herself before she could delve too deeply into her worries. perhaps the book was referring to the method of getting the magic stat above zero? the achievement she had gotten for almost dying of mana poisoning had mentioned something about a high lethality rate as well. also, the fact that the book directly mentioned the ¡®magic stat must be above 0¡¯ told her that the other people on this planet also had access to the system. otherwise, they wouldn¡¯t be referencing ¡®stats¡¯ as if it was common knowledge in the book.


    in other words, until proven otherwise she would assume that every living creature had exactly the same system as she did. which brought up the question of what exactly the system was again, but alice just didn¡¯t know enough to make a good guess yet.


    she could only translate two of the four types of magic seed, given the limitations of her language skill, but what interested her the most was that the two types of magic listed seemed to actually be based on physics. unlike the system which could somehow reshape her abilities at a moment¡¯s notice, the very fact that an ¡®electromagnetic¡¯ mage seemed to control electricity and magnetism gave her some hope that magic, at least, was based on something she was more familiar with from her time on earth.


    of course, her translations of most of the book were quite patchy, so she was partially guessing at what an [electromagnetic mage] actually did, but given the name [electromagnetic mage] there were only so many different things they could specialize in.


    she hadn¡¯t managed to translate many of the other pages of the book in such great detail, so her understanding of a lot of the other parts of the book were still very weak. however, the other important she had managed to translate the page describing magic seed formation, and she had at least a guess about what she was supposed to do.


    a magic seed seemed to require a few things.


    first, one needed to have a magic stat. [magic] stat at zero meant that it was impossible.


    then, one needed to forcibly impress their understanding of a concept onto their mana, whatever that meant. interestingly enough, there didn¡¯t actually seem to be any skills required for this, at least if her translation was correct. even if one didn¡¯t know how to feel, see, or detect mana in any way, shape, or form, as long as one had a [magic] stat it was possible to form a magic seed. the author had seemed to be pointing out exceptions to some sort of rule of magic, but she hadn¡¯t managed to figure out what exactly the rule he was talking about was. it seemed to be related to ¡®extra seeds¡¯ beyond the basic four, which alice was fairly certain was the actual topic of the book ¨C contrasting the ¡®basic four¡¯ magic seeds with whatever other magic seeds there were.


    either way, alice had no understanding of [magic] right now. a ¡®basic¡¯ seed sounded ideal for her if she was going to figure out how to do something without hurting or killing herself.


    she thought carefully for a few moments longer, before finally, she made her decision. even though the {illvarian (language proficiency)} skill had been growing more quickly than her other skills, ultimately, it was still progressing more slowly as its level got higher. the words and grammar rules she got at each level of the skill were far more noticeable than other skills ¨C after all, she could understand words that she hadn¡¯t known a few minutes ago each time the skill levelled up. however, she had no idea when she would be able to translate the rest of the book, and a more powerful monster might show up and eat her if she waited too long to improve her safety. the spear would probably help against monsters like spidercrabs, but the fact that she had no clue what this world would throw at her next made her very uneasy.


    of the two magic seeds she could translate, kinetic magic sounded like it would be more useful. the author, unhelpfully, didn¡¯t add in any explanations of the ¡®basic four¡¯ magic seeds beyond the names when he was comparing them to whatever the main focus of the book was. however, based on the name, she could guess what it was supposed to interact with. thus, she quickly made her decision.


    tonight, she would try forming a kinetic magic seed.

 Chapter 8

    chapter 8


    she spent the rest of the day anxiously making preparations, however futile those preparations might be. she peeled several roasted nuts in advance, in case forming a magic seed was really demanding on her calories and she needed a quick resupply partway through the process. she also filled her bowl with boiled water, just in case she needed it, either to drink or in case her first attempt at magic somehow caused something to catch on fire and she needed to put it out. apart from that, she also got some smoked fish ready, as an extra bit of food if she needed it.


    after preparing everything, she recognized that none these preparations were likely to be useful useful. she was mostly just trying to calm her nerves. she had no real knowledge of magic, and she was about to jump knee-deep into it in hopes that it would help her not get eaten. if she misunderstood something, or messed up, it might kill her. but the clock was ticking, and if she had already run across one monster in only a week, odds were pretty good she would run into more.


    soon, the sun began to set. it was time.


    she did her best to follow her half-translated notes about how to make a magic seed, hoping that this wouldn¡¯t kill her or cripple her. she had chosen to form a kinetic seed, so she focused on everything she remembered from her physics class.


    the laws of kinetic motion, equations for force, a variety of half-remembered concepts and ideas about kinetic energy floated through her thoughts as she tried to turn those ideas into a magic seed. after a few minutes of concentrating, she finally felt something move inside of her, just behind her heart where the unnatural heat had lingered after her baptism. she kept focusing on that sensation, trying to push her understanding of kinetic energy into that one specific area. she had a vague sensation of moving something, a muscle that she had never moved before, although it was very vague. after a few hours of trying to narrow down that peculiar sensation, finally, she felt something snap and change.


    suddenly, she felt something streaming through her, pulled out of the air before it flowed through her body and towards her heart. then, she felt something thrumming deep in her chest, behind her heart, for a brief moment. it beat in time with her heart and her thoughts, over and over again, like a second heart, and she could feel warmth and energy flowing deep inside of her again.


    it was like when she had suffered from mana poisoning, but rather than scorching flames and acid, this was more like a campfire, warm without burning her or hurting her. it was actually quite soothing, warm and friendly instead of hot and painful. she focused on that sensation, continuing to imprint her thoughts on kinetic motion into it in case she wasn¡¯t done yet. the warmth behind her heart continued to soak up ideas and energy from the air around her like a sponge.


    at the same time, she could feel the seed becoming attuned to something, and with a growing sense of realization she could feel the seed beginning to interact with motion.


    she realized she was finally feeling mana in the air around her, filling her with energy that hadn¡¯t been there before. it surged through her veins, and for a moment, she panicked, wondering if she had somehow lost control.


    then, with a second and final snap, seemed to fall into place. the heat behind her heart rapidly cooled down, the sensation of energy in the air around her disappeared, and everything felt strangely quiet. everything except for a single kernel of energy that pulsed and thrummed just behind her heart, that is.


    she felt a strange sense of loss as her sense for mana faded, as if she had been blind her whole life, and for just a brief second she had been allowed to see colors before losing her sight again. she opened her eyes, trying to fight off the strange sense of loss as a system notification dinged at her.


    you have successfully formed a ¡®kinetic¡¯ magic seed (100%)


    you have leveled up!


    explorer of magic: 1 -> 4


    100%? what the heck does that mean? alice had seen the author reference magic seeds, but she didn¡¯t remember him mentioning anything about random percentages. alice frowned, but couldn¡¯t figure out what it meant, so she ignored it for now.


    instead, she opened her status screen to see what had changed recently.


    name: alice verianna


    age: 15


    strength: 52


    perception: 103


    dexterity: 52 (102%)


    intelligence: 154


    endurance: 57 (102%)


    willpower: 121


    charisma: 125


    magic: 5


    primary classes: 3/5


    survivor: 20


    explorer of magic: 4


    scholar: 1


    n/a


    n/a


    secondary classes: 1


    fisherwoman: 2


    perks:


    kinetic manipulation 0 -> 1! mana control 0 -> 1!


    alice frowned, trying to figure out what the two new skills did. she reached out her mana tendril again, waving it around, before trying to pump a bit more mana into it. the other side of the mana tendril was only touching air, so all that she created was a slight breeze, but alice got at least a rough idea what the two skills seemed to be doing as she felt the changes in how her mana worked now.


    mana control was her ability to move the mana tendril around, granting her greater control over her new magical limb. it was difficult for her to control it right now, but with more levels in mana control she might eventually be able to move it even more quickly and precisely than her real limbs. kinetic manipulation seemed to be related to how accurately she could actually move things. before, she had thrown the rock upwards, but hadn¡¯t had very much control over what direction and how hard she actually threw the rock. the single level of kinetic manipulation didn¡¯t improve her control that much, but she could still feel a slight difference.


    alice grinned, and checked the available perks for [explorer of magic]. she had already had this class for almost two weeks now, and it was the first time the class actually did something for her.


    second seed


    requirements: explorer of magic level 5 or higher


    allows you to grow a second magic seed at a maximum 15% mana conversion ratio.


    magic proficiency


    requirements: explorer of magic level 5 or higher


    grants a greater level of intuitive control over your mana and its effects on the world around you, along with improved understanding of manipulating magic in general.


    magical growth


    requirements: explorer of magic level 5


    increases the rate at which the magic stat grows by 20%


    hmm. based on her understanding of magic seeds right now, magic seeds were similar to the ¡®elements¡¯ that one might find in most fantasy settings. however, instead of fire, water, earth, or air, it was kinetic energy, electromagic energy, and other types of magic seed that she couldn¡¯t translate yet.


    a second magic seed would probably be pretty useful to her in the long run, but having an intuitive level of control over her mana would also be important to surviving now. more importantly, she still wasn¡¯t entirely sure whether there might some extra risks involved with magic, and if she hurt herself with her own magic it would incredibly dangerous since she had no way to fix any problems she caused. she also had no idea what mana conversion ratio was either, although the perk explicitly mentioned it. that made it very hard to evaluate how useful {second seed} was as a perk.


    {magical growth} looked sort of interesting at first, but given the fact that progress towards the next attribute seemed to take more and more work the higher the attribute was, she didn¡¯t think that the effect would actually be very large. not to mention, she already had a total of +80% growth to the [magic] attribute from {outworlder} and {baptized by broken mana}. adding 20% on top of those two didn¡¯t seem particularly impressive, even if {outworlder} wouldn¡¯t keep helping once her [magic] stat reached 120 or higher.


    sighing a bit, alice chose the magic proficiency perk. alice knew that electromagnetic energy had all sorts of strange uses, but frankly, her physics classes hadn¡¯t covered the core concept of electromagnetic force in that much detail, and the parts of the force she understood would be difficult to apply and use in her current situation. while a second magic seed might be useful, it wouldn¡¯t do her much good if she had no idea how to use it, and right now she had no clue what she was doing. right now, she felt it was best to double down on what she already had and train it to a level where it was actually useful. it was much better to have one fully developed tool for survival, rather than having several undeveloped ones.


    furthermore, having an intuitive level of understanding her mana would probably allow her to grow her [magic] stat and level up more quickly, based on how the system seemed to award stats and levels. it probably wouldn¡¯t compare to the ¡®magical growth¡¯ perk, but it was more applicable to her current situation.


    as the perk adapted itself to her body, she could intuitively feel her mana more clearly than before. the information her phantom limb fed back to her improved, and while before she could only tell whether or not it was touching something, now she could at least get a very vague feeling of the ¡®texture¡¯ of whatever it was touching. more importantly, she could feel that the mana tendril was actually an active, if small, strain on the little mana seed inside of her chest. every single second she maintained its existence, it ate a tiny amount of mana in order to maintain itself, although the amount was quite small. she could also move her mana tendril more fluidly and precisely, as if she had gained several extra levels in the {mana control} skill.


    she could also tell how much energy was left in her mana seed more accurately than before. at the moment, it felt like she had a small thimble of water deep in her chest. it didn¡¯t seem to ¡®exist¡¯ physically, but she could still feel it somewhere behind her heart. it was already almost half empty just from her moving the rock around a bit and maintaining her mana tendril, probably because her [magic] stat was a measly 6 right now.


    she briefly glanced at her ¡®preparations¡¯ for creating her magic seed, and confirmed that besides settling her nerves they had done nothing useful. although settling her nerves before trying something risky still had a value of its own.


    she left her cave, satisfied for now, and checked her food and firewood reserves. both were still enough to sustain her for a few days, especially after she got the {extremophile} perk, which had drastically reduced her need to use firewood except for cooking. still, it wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea to get more supplies. the temperature had been dropping sharply recently, and she would need more of practically everything if she wanted to live through the winter.


    she went to her usual fishing spot, and noted with some worry that the river was definitely starting to show hints of freezing over. if the river froze, she would lose access to fish. perhaps she could give hunting a try? would there even be animals to hunt over the winter? this was definitely something she was worried about.


    still, for the next few days at least, she was fine. she went quietly back to fishing, humming a merry tune to herself. as she felt her mana slowly recovering, she used it to experiment, trying to lift and move small objects in her surroundings and figure out the limits of her new ability.


    she found that moving any object, regardless of what it was and whether it was closer or farther away, was incredibly difficult as she ran out of mana. she attributed that to her low stats and skills, but right now she was only capable of nudging objects a few centimeters random directions. she could move an object ¡®away¡¯ from her or to the left or right, but it would often also shift in an unexpected angle due to her lacking control.


    furthermore, she couldn¡¯t really ¡®control¡¯ an object for a long period of time ¨C if she moved an object with her mana tendril, even if it didn¡¯t move very fast, she had a pretty hard time getting the mana tendril to touch the object again while it was still in motion. it wasn¡¯t as easy to ¡®catch¡¯ an object with her man tendril as it was to catch something with her hands. that could probably change with practice, but right now, it was too difficult for a beginner like her.


    if she hadn¡¯t had her perk guiding her, she suspected it would have been even more difficult.


    however, she did still manage to ¡®catch¡¯ a rock she had tossed upwards one time, although it was more by luck than skill. she confirmed that stopping an object in motion was possible, although it was very difficult for her right now. in the future she could probably use this to stop a charging spidercrab dead in its tracks, once she had enough mana to exert more than a puny amount of force on the objects around her. holding a spidercrab in place and then stabbing it with her spear sounded a million times safer than trying to dodge and weave out of its way, or starting another desperate fight with a spidercrap while stuck in a tree. it was impossible for her right now, but the system rewarded training and constant grinding, and alice was more than happy to play with her newfound magic abilities. of all of her stats, this one would probably be the easiest to level up just because it was so fun to use.


    for now, however, more complex usage of her new powers was out of her reach. she could finally use her magic stat, and she had a new tool that would hopefully drastically improve her survival odds once she got more used to it.


    she completely ran out of mana partway through the fishing session, and got a minor headache once her body realized it was out of mana. rather than keep trying to push it, she waited for her mana to refill. she had no idea how long it took mana to regenerate, but at least her attribute gains were pretty sizeable for [magic] today. she needed to keep training, as well as make some more plans for food, but things were looking up for her. the river wasn¡¯t going to stick around for much longer, and when it went away, it would take her fish with it. but with her kinetic magic growing by the second, she would at least have a tool to defend herself against further monster attacks. and with what she had caught today, she probably had a week¡¯s worth of food supplies. even if that that wouldn¡¯t last the whole winter, she had more time to fish right now. now that one of the biggest questions and problems that had plagued her since entering this world were finally solved, she felt optimistic about her chances, however slim they might be.


    through training, you have increased an attribute!


    magic 6 -> 12


    you have leveled up!


    explorer of magic: 5 -> 8


    through training, you have increased a skill!


    mana control 1 -> 2, kinetic manipulation 1 -> 3, fishing 1 -> 3

 Chapter 9

    chapter 9


    alice settled into a routine over the next week as the temperature continued to drop. in the morning, she would wake up and train her magic, moving objects around and trying to improve her proficiency, as well as training {sprinting} and {spearmanship}, since those seemed to be relevant to combat and easy to train. she also tried throwing stones at herself using her magic to train {dodge}, but her control over her magic wasn¡¯t very good and it was hard to launch stones at herself that wouldn¡¯t hurt her too much if she failed to dodge. after some training, alice didn¡¯t see a single notification that {dodge} had increased, so she gave up on this part of her training after a while.


    it became easier to keep up her training routine after the wound in her leg had finally healed, much faster than the wound would have on earth. alice attributed it to some influence of her increasing [endurance] stat. along with this increased speed of regeneration, alice had noticed that her [endurance] stat was gradually making her body stronger and tougher. her feet didn¡¯t get as scratched up as they used to when alice walked over the forest ground without shoes, and her body was also becoming increasingly resistant to cold temperatures even without taking new perks that improved her temperature resistance.


    after her training in the morning, she would replenish her firewood and bury some nuts, then catch and smoke some fish. afterwards, she would eat some berries, then work on creating some stone and wood tools to make her life easier. at night, she read her book by the fire, boosting her language skill and helping her level up [scholar].


    she had also managed to, with equal parts luck and skill, make a stone knife after several tries of using rocks as both hammers and chisels, even if the knife¡¯s edge was rather uneven. with it, she had carved a few wooden boxes to store her smoked fish. most importantly, she managed to grab some branches and smaller tree logs and had made a very rough that covered some of the edges of the cave. it wasn¡¯t made very well, and didn¡¯t cover the gaps in the cave perfectly, but it still helped keep the heat in. slowly but steadily, her life in the wilderness was improving as she grew stronger and more experienced.


    as time passed, [survivor] had also leveled up to 21, [scholar] had leveled up to 3, and [explorer of magic] had made it to level 10. the progress was much slower now, but if alice¡¯s earlier guesses were correct, the system might respond to ¡®risk of death¡¯ by increasing her experience gain. during her encounter with a monster she had gained 4 levels in survivor in less than an hour, while it had taken her a week and a half to get up to level 12 in survivor beforehand, and now that there were no monsters and alice had solved most of the major threats to her life in the woods, she was naturally at a much lower risk of dying than when she had first arrived in this dimension.


    her level 10 perks for [explorer of magic] hadn¡¯t been too exciting, but she had grabbed {enhanced regeneration}.


    enhanced regeneration


    requirements: explorer of magic level 10 or higher


    allows you to regenerate mana 10% faster for all seeds.


    like all other stats, [magic] increased when she used it. therefore, regenerating mana 20% faster meant that she would have more training time than other people at the same level, boosting both her [magic] stat and [explorer of magic] levels by a significant margin as time passed. alice¡¯s magic still barely at a usable level, but alice was determined to turn her magic into a major tool for survival. apart from that, she had acquired two more skills related to magic, both of which seemed quite useful.


    through training, you have increased a skill!


    mana precision 0 -> 1, kinetic force 0 -> 1


    {mana precision} helped her control how much mana she sent through her mana tendrils. if the first time, she had been grabbing random amounts and pumping it through her mana tendril, now it was at least a bit more refined, allowing her to avoid wasting mana when she didn¡¯t need to.


    {kinetic force} was much more interesting, primarily because it seemed like the most odd skill she had gotten so far. most of the other skills she had gotten so far improved her knowledge and instincts. sprinting, for example, seemed to help her naturally adopt a proper running posture, something she could have theoretically learned even without the system. {mana precision}, as another example, improved her control of mana, but if she had sufficient practice, she probably could reached the same level of control anyway. it just would have taken a far longer period of time. by contrast, {kinetic force} didn¡¯t seem to be doing any of that ¨C instead, with the exact same amount of mana, she was able to exert more force on an object. alice was baffled by the question of where this force came from, since she wasn¡¯t using any more mana than before, but at least thus far she had no idea where the extra kinetic energy was coming from if it wasn¡¯t fueled by mana.


    alice was also beginning to wonder how big of a role innovation played in her level growth, considering how much her levelling speed had slowed after her week in this world. she still got someprogress from repeating her routine and preparing for winter. however, she had gotten multiple levels per day during the first week, and now after a week of training she had only gained two levels in [explorer of magic]. part of the reason alice had been thinking about this was also due to the name of the class. [explorer of magic] indicated that it was about learning and innovating with magic, and all of alice¡¯s classes seemed to level up whenever she did stuff related to their name. however, [survivor] still seemed to reward her when she ¡®invented¡¯ a new tool that boosted her survival odds, so getting rewarded for trying out new things obviously wasn¡¯t unique to [explorer of magic].


    alice had also figured out how mana regeneration worked, at least to some extent. she found that if she drained her magic seed, it took slightly less than two days to fully replenish, or at least it had before she got the {enhanced regeneration} perk. she guessed that the ¡®base value¡¯ for magic regeneration was probably exactly 2 days, and then her 15% enhanced mana regeneration from {baptized by broken mana} was boosting that regeneration speed by enough to make the math screwy, but with enhanced regeneration alice took around 40 hours to go from no mana to full mana again. as a result, with her morning training sessions she made sure to leave a little over half of her mana available, to deal with any emergencies, while draining half to get whatever stats, skills, and levels she could.


    it felt good to settle into a routine. no sudden emergencies plunging her into a crisis, no trying to figure out how to deal with the influx of new problems, no near death experiences. just slowly and steadily working towards her goal of surviving the winter. although her start had been a bit rocky, she was finally starting to reach some level of stability after three weeks in this dimension.


    however, her somewhat comfortable lifestyle came to an end one morning. a problem she had known was coming for a while finally reared its ugly head.


    specifically, the river finally froze. the fish had been thinning out for a while now, but with the river gone alice would be fully cut off from her supply of smoked fish. not only that, but the berry bushes she had found near her cave had stopped producing berries entirely. she had about two and a half week¡¯s worth of food, give or take a bit, but that was far from the three months worth of food she needed for winter to pass. at least, assuming seasons were still around ninety days on this world, which was something alice had yet to verify.


    she wandered around the region, trying to find new sources of nutrition that would last her through the winter. she could rely on {foraging} to help cue her in on what was and wasn¡¯t edible, so she just needed to see new plants to hopefully find something to tide her through the winter.. furthermore, although she didn¡¯t remember it particularly clearly, but she was pretty sure she had seen a rabbit on her second day here, when she was suffering from mana poisoning. that meant there should be other rabbits in the area, if she could find them. she could also try going after some birds, although their thinning presence in the area meant that they had probably migrated for the winter and would soon disappear entirely.


    however, as she stepped through the trees, concentrating on random plants, she felt a familiar icy sensation of fear trickling down her spine. danger.


    she looked around, avoiding moving too much, and spotted another spidercrab. this time, she didn¡¯t fly into a blind panic. the creature was sniffing around the trees, about 10 meters away, but it didn¡¯t seem to have fully caught onto her scent yet. she had a few moments to think about things.


    am i about to get stuck in a tree again? alice looked at her stone spear, which had a sharp and sturdy point. her kinetic magic seed was about 70% full, having recharged somewhat from her morning practice. she hesitated. then, finally, she extended a mana tendril out from her seed, preparing for a fight with a spidercrab. these things were obviously common around here, and if she couldn¡¯t even defeat one of them it would mean that she would need to flee whenever she saw one. that would seriously hinder her attempts to find supplies for the winter, and so she felt the need to put the skills she had been training to use. not to mention, when she got closer to civilization there might not be as much tree cover as there was in this area. if she couldn¡¯t fight spidercrabs on the way back to civilization she might get eaten before she arrived. fighting at least one spidercrab at a time might be manageable for her, and if she managed to kill one she would vastly improve her survival odds.


    the spidercrab seemed to sense it the moment she used mana, and turned towards her, giving off a screech that made her wish she was deaf. then, in one swift movement, it pounced towards her.


    clumsily, alice maneuvered her mana tendril towards the spidercrab as it got within a meter of her. then, she gave it a shove with her mana the moment she had a proper connection, trying to throw the spidercrab to the ground and mess up its balance.


    instead of getting smashed into the ground, alice felt as if a large part of her mana was trying to push through a barrier that had never been there before. a large part of the mana that she was trying to feed into spidercrab disappeared somewhere, throwing her calculations completely off balance. alice panicked, but luckily, even though the spidercrab resisted over half of her mana, the remainder still threw it off balance and flung it to the ground. the spidercrab stumbled to its feet as it tried to recover its balance. before it could, alice shoved it again, this time committing much more of her mana to account for the creature¡¯s mana resistance.


    then, alice took a step closer before she stabbed at spidercrab with her spear. she managed to nick the monster on one of its legs. green-white blood spilled out, and the thing released another screech, before launching itself towards her again. she used magic to flip over the two front legs of the spidercrab, stopping it in midair and leaving it struggling on the ground. while it was distracted, she stabbed its underbelly. the spear punched through its stomach, where none of its annoying chitin protected it, and it flailed and screeched for a brief moment before it managed to free itself again. however, she could see it was slower now, much more heavily injured than before.


    unlike the first spidercrab, this thing didn¡¯t run away. it leapt to the side, then bounded towards her again, completely unfazed by how injured it was.


    alice tried to dodge and stumbled. she fell down, and the spidercrab¡¯s teeth sank into her stomach. alice screamed, and threw every last remaining shred of mana into throwing the spidercrab upwards. a sudden headache formed as her mana seed ran dry.


    spidercrab lifted several centimeters upwards, giving alice just enough space to get her spear and ram the spear point into spidercrab¡¯s head.


    spidercrab made a sort of warbling sound, trying to screech through the stone and wood buried in its throat. then, it made a sort of warbling sound as its bottom legs scrabbled against the ground. alice held on, not letting the spidercrab free of the spear before spidercrab started slowing down. a few seconds later, it stopped twitching entirely, its body going limp and sagging towards the ground.


    alice breathed in and out, blinking away the various notifications that had popped up in the middle of her fight. her stomach hurt. she looked down, and saw blood. panicking, she ran back to her cave as blood trickled out of her wound.


    she cut another strip of cloth from her blanket, a larger one this time, while also using some boiled water to clean the wound. fortunately, once she got a better look at it, she realized that it wasn¡¯t actually that bad ¨C it hadn¡¯t managed to seriously mangle her flesh, or penetrate too deeply. really, the wound was about a quarter of the length of her pinky. which, while very painful, wasn¡¯t lethal unless it got infected. it felt much better once a strip of cloth was wound around it. hopefully her stats would do the rest of the healing she needed.


    calmer now, alice tried to ignore the pain in her stomach as she took several deep breaths. she took a few minutes to relax, going through a vaguely remembered breathing exercise as her body and mind calmed down after the fight. after she settled her racing pulse and thoughts, she finally took a look at the notifications from the fight and its immediate aftermath.


    you have leveled up!


    survivor: 21 -> 23


    explorer of magic: 10 ->14


    through training, you have increased an attribute!


    secondary classes: 1


    fisherwoman: 3


    perks:


    foraging (survivor 5)


    microbe resistance (survivor 10)


    extremophile (survivor 15)


    camouflaged (survivor 20)


    magic proficiency (explorer of magic 5)


    enhanced regeneration (explorer of magic 10)


    skills


    academic skills:


    english (language proficiency): 100


    illvarian (language proficiency): 27


    magic skills:


    mana precision: 5


    kinetic manipulation: 9


    mana control: 9


    kinetic force: 4


    crafting skills


    weaving: 11


    woodworking: 8


    cooking: 4


    stoneworking: 6


    physical skills


    fishing: 7


    spearmanship: 11


    sprinting: 6


    digging: 4


    basic medicine: 3


    dodge: 3


    climbing: 3


    mana seed: 1/1


    kinetic seed (100%)


    achievements


    outworlder (rarity: 10)


    baptized by broken mana (rarity: 6)


    monstrous encounter (rarity: 1)


    monster slayer (i) (rarity: 1)

 April Fools Chapter

    april fool''s chapter


    alice looked at the ominous blue circle in front of her, wondering what the hell was going on. i did my homework, ate dinner, chatted on discord with my friends for a bit, and went to sleep. how the hell did that result in waking up in the middle of a goddamn giant circle of-


    suddenly, the blue circle faded away, and alice was deposited into the middle of a giant room.


    ¡°hero! you have come!¡±


    a guy with black hair and green eyes looked at alice, his eyes shining with excitement as he looked at her.


    alice felt... disturbed. this guy¡¯s gaze was a little.... no, way too intense. and-


    ¡°wait, hero!? what the hell?¡±


    ¡°opt...iii...mull?¡± the man wearing a steward¡¯s robe tilted his head to the side, trying to sound out each syllable. in the end, he still seemed confused.


    ¡°so, you paid a huge price to graft a boon of growing faster onto me, who came from another world. can i ask why, if you possess the ability to already graft this ability onto someone, you decided that it was a good idea to pay however much it costs to drag someone from another planet onto this one with this ability instead of just giving it to one of your knights or soldiers?¡±


    ¡°i... i didn¡¯t think of that.¡± the man seemed dumbfounded. ¡°truly, this is the wisdom befitting a hero!¡±


    ¡°what? wait, no that¡¯s just straight up ridiculous. if i¡¯m not mistaken, just based on some guesswork i can figure out that reaching into another dimension must be expensive as hell ¨C otherwise i would have heard of people on earth occasionally being summoned to other dimensions, not just as a standard isekai story i read as a guilty pleasure sometimes, but as a normal, frequently occurring part of everyday life. so you decided that, rather than giving someone who is already loyal to your kingdom or nation or whatever the ability to grow faster, thus dealing with whatever threat this planet is facing, the optimal solution was to reach into another dimension, paying dozens of times the cost of the actual ¡®growth¡¯ ability, just to summon a random person who might help you and then give them the growth ability? what the hell is your brain made of, cheese?"


    ¡°well, when you put it that way it just sounds silly,¡±


    ¡°i wonder why,¡± said alice, her voice dripping with sarcasm. ¡°fuck this, i¡¯m going home. this just makes no sense.¡± and in a puff of logic, the entire dimension disappeared.

 Chapter 10

    chapter 10


    with her first monster successfully slain, alice felt a lot more confident in her survival in this world. even though she had suffered a wound during the fight, it was a minor one, and as time passed she would get more levels, skills, and achievements to work with. since she had survived her first fight with a monster at her current level of strength, she could definitely survive future battles as her strength grew. for the first time, alice felt prepared for the world around her, something that she wouldn¡¯t have even been able to imagine three weeks ago.


    however, after her crab meat party, she was starting to pay attention to other, less important problems. previously, she had no way to address some of these problems, but now that she had solved fundamental problems like disease, food, and warmth, she was able to pay attention to details she had previously ignored. one thing that definitely hadn¡¯t fared well over the last three weeks were her pajamas, which were growing more and more ragged as time passed. in the past three weeks, she had torn off part of the pajama sleeves to use as bandages, been injured by monsters twice, and gotten the pajamas scratched up as she wandered through the forest. pajamas were never particularly sturdy in the first place, and by this point they were incredibly ragged after all of the abuse she had put them through.


    alice looked at the remains of her feast, then looked at spidercrab¡¯s chitin, trying to figure out if there was anything she could do to make it into clothing.


    that¡¯s not happening. not only is there an ick factor, but i don¡¯t think i can bend it without breaking it. is there any use for this chitin shell at all?


    alice looked at her hastily built walls for the cave, and then at the round shell. maybe it could be used as a construction material?


    that was probably a terrible use of it. hmm. actually, it¡¯s pretty close to the right shape for a bowl. is it flammable? alice shrugged, got a pile of snow, and tried boiling a bowl of water in the shell. her previously made stone bowl had required a huge amount of labor to take shape, so if she could use the spidercrab shells as bowls to store food and supplies it would save her a lot of time in the future. even after alice exposed it to her campfire, the shell didn¡¯t catch fire or show any adverse reactions to being heated up. after a while, she had a bowl of boiled water. she shrugged, and grinned to herself. so it does make a good bowl.


    however, that didn¡¯t solve her clothing problem. she looked, with some regret, towards her blanket, which was already missing two strips of fabric, and wondered if there was a way to make it into a new set of clothes.


    hmm... i think it¡¯s possible, but i need some sort of needle, as well as a way to make thread. i have neither, and i definitely wouldn¡¯t succeed in making stone needles if i tried. maybe bone?


    alice looked at the remains of spidercrab again, but saw no materials in the corpse that could solve her problem. after a while, she sighed. this was something she felt should be doable, but she just had no idea how to do it. maybe she should fold it up and turn it into a toga when she returned to civilization. at least it would be better than her ragged pajamas, and she would be less likely to be mistaken for a beggar. her pajamas would hold for a while longer, so it wasn''t an immediate concern, but having better clothing to ward off the cold would have certainly been nice. she really wished she could go get something from a clothing store, though it was clearly impossible in this world right now.


    at the thought of civilization, a familiar, growing pang of loneliness shot through her. it had been nearly a month since she had heard another human voice, and she had no one and nothing to talk to. there were some days where she swore that she heard human voices in the distance, and would get excited and rush towards them, only to find that nobody was there. right now, her only companion was her status screen.


    alice sighed and looked back at the river. the book and the corpse had been washed downstream by the currents, which meant something was farther upstream. that being said, she had no clue why the corpse had no heart, and she felt all sorts of uneasy about what that meant. perhaps a monster had killed the guy and eaten his heart, before his body was tossed into the river? or maybe pirates had killed the man? alice was afraid of walking right into the middle of a bandit camp and getting stabbed, although she had no better leads on where to find civilization either.


    after a few minutes of thought, alice sighed to herself. it was useless to speculate right now. in any case, without the cave, her ability to survive the journey north was still dubious. the weather was too cold, and the potential danger of stronger monsters meant she had to remain wary of her surroundings at all time. any attempts to contact civilization would need to wait until winter ended.


    * * *


    a week after alice had successfully slain her first monster, her wounds finally healed up. her attempt at smoking monster meat had, for whatever reason, failed. on the bright side, alice had gotten the idea of using the cold temperature and some {stoneworking} to make a small fridge for herself, considering how easy it was to acquire snow right now. this idea worked much better than her attempts at creating smoked monster meat, and had even netted her another level in [survivor]. due to her training, she had also gotten another level in [explorer of magic], giving her another perk choice.


    sense mana


    requirements: explorer of magic level 15 or higher


    allows you to innately sense mana in a small area around you.


    lesser combat spellcaster


    requirements: explorer of magic level 15 or higher, magic 25 or higher


    living creatures resist your mana less effectively


    another seed


    requirements: explorer of magic level 15 or higher


    allows you to grow another magic seed with a maximum 25% mana conversion ratio


    she carefully thought over the three perk choices, before she chose {lesser combat spellcaster}. the perk description finally allowed alice to understand why half of her mana seemed to vanish during the fight with spidercrab. while inanimate objects had no particular resistance to her moving them around, it seemed that living creatures had some sort of innate resistance to external mana influences, or at least that was what the perk made it sound like. since alice needed her magic to improve her fighting odds against even weaker monsters right now, alice chose {lesser combat spellcaster}because it improved her combat ability and food-gathering ability at the same time. that simply felt too appealing to pass up.


    requirements: survivor level 25, magic greater than 0


    you gain immunity to various kinds of negative ''radiation'' and similar effects, including broken mana, uv rays, and radioactive substances.


    she looked at harmful energy immunity and snorted. it was a bit late to gain immunity to broken mana poisoning, now that she had already narrowly escaped dying from it. although the fact that the perk directly referred to broken mana as something similar to radiation was interesting, at least.


    she also didn¡¯t remember finding any areas filled with broken mana in this world yet. while {harmful energy immunity} might provide her protection against skin cancer, she had much bigger problems to worry about right now. though, alice did wonder how much mana there was in her environment, and whether there were any other unique ¡®harmful energies¡¯ in this world. right now, she couldn¡¯t even sense the mana outside of her body, so she had no way of telling what else she was missing in the world around her.


    as she looked over the other perks, she decided to avoid {stoneskin} because she was afraid of getting skin literally made out of stone. the earlier perks had almost universally had guarantees that there wouldn¡¯t be any... odd side effects if she picked them, but this one didn¡¯t. this made her wary of the perk. {tough} was also discarded, because it simply didn¡¯t seem useful enough to waste a perk slot on.


    alice picked {sixth sense} and tried to figure out what had changed. after a while, she felt that she could detect... something in the air around her. it felt heavy, like a thick blanket of fog surrounding her, but her senses were still incredibly vague. although the perk claimed it gave her a sense of the mana around her, the ¡®sixth sense¡¯ was so weak and vague that it was practically worthless.


    alice wondered if she had just paid a perk slot for something useless. if the perk¡¯s ability to detect monsters was also weak, this perk would have been a huge waste of a perk slot. alice read over the perk¡¯s description again, hoping to figure out if there were any activation conditions or boosts that would make the perk more useful. she didn¡¯t find any, but part of the perk description she had previously overlooked did catch her eye.


    mana. that¡¯s what separates monsters from animals. normal animals don¡¯t react at all if i use mana near them, and i didn¡¯t get {monstrous encounter} from interacting with regular animals like fish either. by contrast, the moment i use mana near spidercrabs, they immediately detect me and attack. it also offers a better explanation for how their biology works, since they shouldn¡¯t be able to support their bodies if their biology is anything like a spider back on earth. if they use mana as some sort of replacement for food, or oxygen, or both, the question of how their biology works is answered, at least to some extent.


    in that case, had getting a magic seed actually screwed her over? did monsters leave people alone if they weren¡¯t mages? alice didn¡¯t know, and it probably wouldn¡¯t have mattered in either case ¨C she hadn¡¯t exactly had a choice in her mana baptism, after all. however, if alice¡¯s new guess about monster biology was currently, she suspected that the reason spidercrabs were so bent on hunting her down and eating her was because of her status as a mage.


    * * *


    day 31


    alice finally finished translating the other two kinds of magic seed described by the book she had found, and felt incredibly baffled when she looked over the names for the four basic magic seeds. the four basic seeds, according to the book, were electromagnetic, organic, kinetic, and thermal magic.


    electromagnetic and kinetic magic seeds were pretty close to the laws of physics, and she was kind of fond of those names. kinetic magic had kept her alive for quite a long time in this world, and even though alice doubted her rudimentary robot programming experience would be useful in the near future, she liked the idea of electricity being a fundamental component of magic in this world. electromagnetic energy was also one of the four fundamental forces of the universe, and so seeing it show up in this world made her oddly happy.


    thermal magic baffled her a little bit more. temperature was, fundamentally, a measure of how quickly atoms in the air vibrated and moved around. if they moved quickly, the temperature was higher, and if they moved slowly, the temperature was lower. therefore, the fact thermal magic was its own kind of magic seed, rather than just being part of kinetic magic, was something that confused her quite a bit.


    and the last magic seed made alice feel even more baffled, because she wasn¡¯t quite sure what an organic mage did.


    ¡°what in the world is organic magic even supposed to be? do they... manipulate organic material or something?that¡¯s... that¡¯s terrifying.¡± alice suddenly had a vision of someone poking her with a mana tendril and warping her into a cthulu-esque monstrosity, or just denaturing all of the enzymes in her body and instantly killing her. she had no idea what an organic mage was capable of, but the name alone made alice feel very uneasy. she had experimented quite a bit with her kinetic seed, and had naturally made some mistakes during her training. this had usually entailed accidentally throwing a rock in the wrong direction, or accidentally dropping an item she was trying to throw.


    the idea of someone messing up while playing with the fundamental building blocks of a plant or animal were much more concerning, because it seemed like it would make a five-headed horse or a super plague if someone messed up in the right way.


    alice twitched as she looked at the final kind of magic seed, trying not to think about the implications. that being said, if [organic mages] were one of the four basic kinds of magic and had dozens of ways it could go horribly wrong and end the world, what did nonbasic magic look like? why was this planet still in one piece and populated? alice was pretty damn sure that if nations in the middle ages had access to bioweapons, civilizations never would have advanced to even the renaissance era, because the human race would have stopped existing long before that point.


    slowly, she calmed down, trying to think things through. ¡°maybe there are extra restrictions on organic magic, or something else i¡¯m not seeing? it can¡¯t just be straight up manipulation of all organic matter, right? i can manipulate all kinetic energy in the surroundings though... i suddenly have a terrible feeling about this.¡± alice twitched. maybe she was going to go upstream and find the ruins of a civilization that had created a zombie virus or seven different strands of the bubonic plague by accident? though, she did suddenly find herself wondering if she was safer in the woods...


    day 33


    with some of her spare time, alice finally made an axe, intending to chop down some trees and use the lumber as building materials for her cave. she had often felt that the cave¡¯s entrance was too open, and logs would provide a much more solid and sturdy way to close out her sleeping space from her surroundings and keep in heat. she had also recently realized that a spidercrab could, theoretically, waltz into her cave while she slept. however, if she built a nice sturdy wall to finish closing off her cave, it would at least help keep some heat in and random monsters/animals out.


    she quickly realized that she had underestimated the difficulty of logging. however, it was still something she thought would be useful, and she now had enough food and water that she wasn¡¯t quite so worried about supplies. she decided that even if cutting down trees was slow and difficult, it was worth it to keep going. besides, alice was hoping to pick up some sort of {woodcutting} skill to make the work easier once she tried enough times.


    day 35


    alice confirmed that there was no lumbering or tree cutting skill, or anything similar. this made alice feel frustrated, but she kept working.

 Chapter 11

    chapter 11


    day 37


    while alice was logging, she finally got to observe the ¡®monster sense¡¯ component of {sixth sense} perk in action. it quickly changed her opinion on the perk, making her feel that it was very specialized, but incredibly useful. the moment a spidercrab walked within about 200 meters of her, she instantly noticed its mana. to her, it felt like a bright light had suddenly been turned on in the middle of the night. she could tell exactly where it was, and the spidercrab didn¡¯t sense anything at all from her until it got much closer. she could even tell roughly how much mana the spidercrab had, although she didn¡¯t know what to do with this information. she noticed, with some interest, that this spidercrab was also moving downstream for some reason. perhaps spidercrabs migrated downstream during the winter or something?


    either way, being able to tell the instant a spidercrab was nearby was incredibly useful. she was running a bit low on meat, and she still wanted to preserve her smoked fish as much as possible, so she moved to hunt down the spidercrab she had used as her test subject for her new perk. with her growing stats and skills, hunting a lone spidercrab when she had the element of surprise was no longer a challenge, and so she simply walked up to it, held it down with kinetic magic, and stabbed it a few times. she only got a single level in [explorer of magic] from the fight, probably because she wasn¡¯t really surviving a threatening encounter anymore. as a result [survivor] got very little exp. at least, that was her current guess for why the fight gave so few status screen related rewards.


    either way, it was good to know that the seemingly useless perk was pretty useful. it was just highly situational.


    day 39


    alice finally finished chopping down trees and building up the walls of her cave. her shelter was finally complete, and was constructed of logs and sticks piled together. alice hadn¡¯t had a good way to make the logs stick to the ground properly, so she had ended up digging little holes to put the logs into, keeping them at least reasonably stable. however, there had been some gaps in between the log-based wall, so she had filled those in with rocks and sticks, making something that kept air and heat in reasonably well and blocked off monsters and animals. even though it was far from perfect, alice was still happy to improve her living conditions again.


    admittedly, her cave now looked like a beaver dam gone horribly wrong. however, it kept the cold out far better than before, and that was what mattered. she had a difficult time with smoke from her fires, since it didn¡¯t leave the cave quite as easily now, but alice could manually disperse it by temporarily opening a little chunk of the sticks near the top of her new wall with her kinetic magic to let out the smoke, so it wasn¡¯t too big of a problem.


    her [survivor] class jumped up two levels for the first time since it had reached level 25, reaching level 27 on the day she finished building her new set of walls. alice grinned. even though her levelling speed had dramatically slowed down after level 25, it was nice to know that big accomplishments would still reward her with a good amount of exp.


    * * *


    day 40


    [scholar] finally reached level 5, and alice eagerly pored over the available perks.


    improved memory


    requirements: scholar level 5 or higher, intelligence 100 or greater


    greatly improves your ability to remember information.


    speed reading


    requirements: scholar level 5 or higher, perception 100 or greater


    you read more quickly


    intelligent


    requirements: scholar level 5 or higher, intelligence 100 or greater


    increases the effect of the [intelligence] stat by 2%


    alice quickly grabbed {improved memory}. the other two perks were kind of bland and unimpressive. she had always wished she had a photographic memory, and this seemed like a good way to get much closer to her dream. besides, alice felt that {improved memory} would probably help her level up some of her skills more quickly than before. language, for example, was something heavily reliant on learning and remembering the vocabulary of a new language. alice didn¡¯t know if {improved memory} would actually increase the levelling speed of her language skill, due to the fact that the system controlled most of her language learning, but it seemed worth a shot.


    day 43


    alice found two spidercrabs at once while collecting firewood. alice could only form one tendril of magic at a time, so even though she could easily kill one spidercrab, she wasn¡¯t really that confident in taking on two at once. her physical stats were improving, but they were still seriously lacking, even if she no longer found herself out of breath after a light jog through the forest for a few minutes.


    alice was certain that fighting them head on would end poorly, but after thinking back to her first encounter with a spidercrab, she realized there was a way to exploit the low intelligence of the creatures. she first got near them, climbing up a tree. then, she watched for a few minutes as they bashed themselves against the tree trunk, making sure that their behavior wasn¡¯t significantly different from other spidercrabs she had seen. then, finishing her observations, alice began manipulating her spear with her kinetic magic, trying to use her mana as a ¡®third hand¡¯ instead of as a sling to hurl objects. it proved far more difficult than she had expected to hold an object in midair without dropping it or throwing it. to do so, she needed to apply exactly enough kinetic energy to counteract gravity without adding any extra mana, or she would accidentally send the spear flying into the air. however, she managed to accomplish her goal after some trial and error, after which she tried stabbing one of the spidercrabs with the spear without losing control of her projectile.


    this failed, unfortunately. she launched the spear straight into one of the spidercrabs, but failed to control the speed well enough to retract the spear afterwards. the spear killed the first spidercrab, before lodging itself into the dirt. it was out of range of her mana tendrils, so alice gave up on experimenting with her new idea.


    with one of the two dealt with, alice slid back down a few branches, getting the other spidercrab in range of her mana tendril, and then picked up the monster and slammed it into the ground. while it was stunned, she climbed down, pulled out her stone axe, and brained it.


    in addition to the meat, she got enough levels in [explorer of magic] to level to 20 in one go, as well as push [survivor] to 29. it seemed that her attempt at balancing her spear against gravity counted as ¡®experimenting¡¯ with magic, giving her a bunch of levels in her magic class, while killing two monsters at once for the first time gave her some levels in [survivor]. since [explorer of magic] reached level 20, she also had a new perk slot. she looked over her options, and found one of the perks a bit more interesting than what she was expecting.


    mana interference


    requirements: explorer of magic level 20 or higher


    increases the natural resistance against external magic produced by your skin by a slight amount. your [magic] attribute moderately improves this effect. all levels, attributes, and skills very slightly increase this effect.


    the first perk wasn¡¯t that appealing, but it did indicate alice was correct in her earlier assumption that living creatures seemed to resist external mana intrusion. if nothing else, having the system provide more confirmation for her theory was nice, although alice wasn¡¯t that interested in the perk itself right now.


    kinetic senses


    requirements: explorer of magic level 20 or higher, kinetic magic seed at 25% or higher


    improves your ability to sense kinetic movement and energy within ten meters. your perception stat increases this range.


    interesting, but not that appealing. although it does seem quite useful to improve my senses by a bit... hmm...


    magic seed


    requirements: explorer of magic level 20 or higher


    allows you to grow another magic seed with a maximum of 29% mana conversion ratio


    alice was still slightly interested in getting another seed, but she felt it was more important to develop her kinetic magic more. she didn¡¯t have the time or training to pick up an entirely new magic seed yet, although eventually she wanted to for the sake of research purposes.


    improved seed


    requirements: explorer of magic level 20 or higher


    allows you to improve one magic seed''s mana conversion ratio by 10%. this is only effective on magic seeds below 200% mana conversion ratio.


    so 100% isn¡¯t the maximum mana conversion ratio a seed can have. i had assumed it was, but now i¡¯m incredibly curious. alice had been wondering what ¡®mana conversion ratio¡¯ meant for a while. it showed up in several of the perks she had been offered by [explorer of magic], but alice had zero context for understanding what the term meant. the book she had been reading didn¡¯t mention the term either, so alice was excited at the prospect of finally figuring out what this term meant. since the other perks weren¡¯t incredibly powerful, she decided that she would grab {improved seed} this time, just to learn some more. besides, this perk seemed built to improve a magic seed, and since alice wanted to concentrate on developing her kinetic magic this perk fit her interests perfectly.


    the moment she got the perk, she could see it move into her status screen, similar to other perks. however, unlike other perks, it also had a little + symbol next to it. she concentrated on it for a moment, and it displayed a list of her magic seeds. of course, alice only had one magic seed right now. she selected her kinetic magic seed, and a moment later, the little percent symbol next to the seed she had formed suddenly increased to 110%.


    she frowned, trying to feel out the differences. it took a moment, but after a few moments, alice finally realized what was different.


    her mana pool was suddenly bigger. she also noticed that it was easier to push kinetic mana through her mana tendril, by a small but noticeable amount. if she was to keep comparing her mana tendril to a pipe and her mana to liquid she wanted to move around, this felt like she had expanded the pipe and lowered its viscosity, making it pass through her mana tendril more quickly and easily when she willed it to.


    she manipulated the environment around a bit, trying to figure out how much more mana she had than before, before coming to a conclusion that it was around 10% higher. seeing that, she had a new guess. maybe her ¡®mana pool¡¯ for kinetic mana was her magic stat multiplied by her magic seed¡¯s mana conversion ratio? if that was the case, it seemed to indicate every magic seed had its own, independent mana pool.


    alice suddenly wondered if she had made a mistake in passing up so many other magic seeds. if every seed had its own mana pool, picking up a new magic seed would increase the amount of time she could fight, as well as the amount of tricks she had in combat and the amount of mana she could spend on making herself more comfortable every day.


    a moment later, though, she realized there was a significant problem with that idea. the higher the magic seed¡¯s conversion ratio, the easier it was to manipulate that particular seed¡¯s mana. in other words, the reverse would probably also be true. the lower the conversion ratio, the weaker her control of the seed would be, and the harder it would be to use the mana from it. if she formed a bunch of magic seeds left and right, while her maximum mana would increase by a fair margin, it would be too slow and difficult to use in an actual fight. of course, if she found other ways to improve magic seeds, having more magic seeds would obviously be better. however, due to the differences in how easy it was to manipulate mana within a seed based on its conversion ratio, focusing more on one particular seed was probably optimal for combat.


    either way, it was a decision she could make again when she reached a higher level and saw her next round of perks. for now, she was just happy she had gotten so many levels from a single fight.


    day 53


    alice¡¯s [survivor] class reached level 30 while she was asleep. alice wasn¡¯t sure why. her best guess was that perhaps something dangerous had prowled around the area while she was asleep, or perhaps [survivor] just passively got a little bit of experience from her continued woodlands survival each day. she was extra cautious as she observed the area that day, but she didn¡¯t find anything particularly new or deadly, and eventually decided her second theory was more likely.


    dexterity: 81 (103%)


    intelligence: 155 (103%)


    endurance: 89 (103%)


    willpower: 125 (103%)


    charisma: 125 (102%)


    magic: 91 (101%)


    primary classes: 3/5


    survivor: 34


    explorer of magic: 26


    scholar: 8


    n/a


    n/a


    secondary classes: 1


    fisherwoman: 3


    perks:


    foraging (survivor 5)


    microbe resistance (survivor 10)


    extremophile (survivor 15)


    camouflaged (survivor 20)


    sixth sense (survivor 25)


    enhanced training (survivor 30)


    magic proficiency (explorer of magic 5)


    enhanced regeneration (explorer of magic 10)


    combat spellcaster (explorer of magic 15)


    improved seed (explorer of magic 20)


    seeds of magic (explorer of magic 25)


    enhanced memory (scholar 5)


    skills


    english (language proficiency): 100


    illvarian (language proficiency): 88


    kinetic manipulation: 31


    weaving: 27


    woodworking: 25


    spearmanship: 19


    mana control: 17


    kinetic force: 14


    mana precision: 14


    sprinting: 13


    cooking: 12


    stoneworking: 11


    climbing: 9


    fishing: 9


    digging: 8


    dodge: 7


    basic medicine: 3


    magic seed: 1/1


    kinetic seed (135%)


    achievements


    outworlder (rarity: 10)


    baptized by broken mana (rarity: 6)


    monstrous encounter (rarity: 1)


    monster slayer (i) (rarity: 1)

 Chapter 12

    chapter 12


    realizing that it was time to leave, alice grabbed the supplies she felt she needed, such as food, and stored them in her basket. she also grabbed her spear, stone hatchet, and stone knife, because having some weapons on hand in case she ran into something else terrifying might be critical. she spared a glance at her cave, which she had slowly worked to transform into a somewhat cozy home, before she turned back towards the entrance. she didn¡¯t feel regret over leaving it behind. it had been her home for four months, but she missed other people far more than she would miss her time in the wilderness.


    the only other thing she brought along was her book on magic, which she had long since memorized. it had taught her magic, and also a language. she was reluctant to leave it behind. besides, in less technologically advanced societies, paper was hard to produce. alice had no clue whether books were easy or hard to produce in this world, but there was a chance she could sell her book for a fair amount of money when she reached civilization.


    she left behind taps, the pet rock that she had painted a face on a while ago. before she left, she knocked him against the wall one last time. he could guard the cave for her and keep it safe. then, she took one last look at the cave, before she turned to the sky above this world. despite the fact that it looked similar to the sky back on earth, alice knew that she was looking at a completely different sky now. her thoughts drifted back to home.


    sorry, mom and dad. i still don¡¯t know how to get home. i wonder if you two are thinking of me right now? the cops must have declared this to be a missing persons case by now. they might have even decided i was dead. i wonder if they¡¯ve stopped searching for me. i hope you¡¯re doing okay. it might take a while, but i won¡¯t forget where i come from. someday, i¡¯ll see you again. i¡¯ll try my hardest to get back soon, so don¡¯t feel too bad while waiting for me, okay?


    after that, alice grabbed her stuff, and began walking upstream. she didn¡¯t see any monsters with {sixth sense}, so the creature that had been roaring earlier wasn¡¯t close enough for her to worry about yet. based on that information, alice kept a pace that would make good time, but would keep enough energy in reserve to let her sprint away if need be. with how much tougher her body had grown during her time in the wilderness, she no longer feared her feet getting cut up by the wilderness, and any lingering remnants of winter and the cold didn¡¯t pose any threat to her.


    another roar sounded in the distance, but as far as she could tell, it didn¡¯t seem to be moving closer to her. still, she felt uneasy, and picked up her pace a little in hopes of escaping the territory of the creature in the distance as quickly as possible.


    a few hours later, she heard another one of the terrifying roars. this time, however, it was much closer, almost on top of her. she froze, her heart hammering in her chest as she scanned each direction.


    something massive stepped into the range of {sixth sense}. when she turned to her left, she saw a bear towering over its surroundings. its eyes were an inky black color, and it was looking right at her. alice paused in shock for a moment, wondering why the monster had locked onto her location so quickly, and then her brain unfroze. she began running for her life, following the river and hoping she could run faster than the creature. however, her hopes were in vain, and the creature quickly caught up with her. out of the corner of her eye, she could see that even the plants seemed to be quivering under the lumbering strides of the creature.


    then, a few blades of grass grew in length as they reached towards her ankles. alice tore through them, since a few blades of grass couldn¡¯t stop her from fleeing. however, ahead of her, larger, thicker cords of grass were forming. she realized that, somehow, the bear was controlling the grass around her.


    shit! that¡¯s not one of the four basic magics!


    alice heard another roar, and she glanced over her shoulder, seeing the bear grow in real time as it rapidly closed the distance between them. then, she realized it was literally growing. before, it had stood two and a half meters tall on its four legs, but now it was closer to three. panicking, she felt her stomach churn with dread as she realized she was going to die here. she was still trying to run away, tripping over the cords of grass and vegetation, but she wasn¡¯t going to make it.


    half-blind as she struggled to focus, alice took a misstep in the wrong direction, and crashed into the thawing river. the ice shattered, and freezing water snapped her out of the primordial terror that had torn into her brain moments ago. she saw, in a brief moment of lucidity, the bear seem to shrink instead of grow, but before she could process what had changed, the bear also jumped into the water to keep chasing her.


    suddenly, she felt much heavier. at the same time, she realized that {sixth sense} was now picking up on the presence of two monsters, instead of just one. her eyes flicked down, and she saw a fern-like creature scuttling along the bottom of the river, its three-meter long plant maw filled with teeth opened wide as it pointed its mouth directly at her and the bear. she extended some tendrils of magic towards her makeshift toga and draggedherself upwards, desperately trying to stay away from the river-monster below. the creature¡¯s mana felt like it was squirming around, and alice realized that she hadn¡¯t been imagining things earlier ¨C the creature was somehow dragging her towards its mouth. however, the bear was much closer to the creature and much heavier than alice.


    the bear suddenly seemed to shrink into itself, and one of the trees from nearby tried to extend a helping branch towards the bear. the beast¡¯s size continued shrinking as it desperately tried to swim away, until its height shrank to two meters. then, its head dipped below the roiling current, and even its angry growl vanished beneath the waves. as alice used her nonexistent swimming skills and kinetic magic to keep her head above water, the massive bear sank lower and lower into the water. finally, the plant-monster¡¯s mouth snapped shut, and the vinebear stopped thrashing. the plant monster stopped using whatever magic it had available, and alice popped straight out of the water as her kinetic magic dragged her upwards.


    for a brief moment, alice flew out of the water, her kinetic magic launching her out of the stream like a cork from a bottle before her momentum faltered and she flopped back into the water. alice struggled for a moment to get back into a swimming position, before she looked down one final time. whatever was at the bottom of the river was working on swallowing the bear whole, and didn¡¯t seem worried about her any longer. terrified, alice quickly swam back to shore, eager to get out of the way of the plant monster before it got hungry again.


    after a brief swim she collapsed onto the sandy riverbank, exhausted and terrified. it had only taken the blink of an eye for the newly awakened monsters of this world to nearly kill her. even though her physical abilities had nearly doubled since she had come to this world, she had barely survived. she couldn¡¯t help but shake as she remembered how hopeless she had felt when she was being chased by the bear, as well as the strange abilities of the plant monster.


    she took a few minutes to relax, just breathing in and out, before she finally checked her system notifications, realizing that this encounter had finally pushed her to level 35 in [survivor]. she examined her surroundings to make sure she was safe, before looking through her new perk options while praying they would give her new tools to survive the monsters she had just encountered.


    sense hostility


    requirements: survivor level 35 or higher, perception 100 or higher


    whenever any being gazes upon you with hostile intentions, you will sense it, as well as sense the direction of the entity in question and its power relative to you. if said being is significantly stronger than you, or is too far away, locating them may be impossible. improves the effect of the {perception} attribute by 20%. enhanced by your perception attribute.


    ambush predator


    requirements: survivor level 35 or higher, stealth - related perk unlocked at any point in time within the [survivor] class


    while undetected, you gain the ability to see twenty meters around you in all directions with any senses available to you. when attacking a target which has no knowledge of your presence, you will be able to pinpoint its weaknesses more accurately, and it will lose blood much more quickly for two minutes after your first attack.


    hardy


    requirements: survivor level 35 or higher, endurance higher than 75, magic higher than 25


    your body gains a significant amount of natural resistance against hard impacts and magic. effects of the endurance stat increase by 20%.


    slayer of monsters


    requirements: survivor level 35 or higher, monster slayer achievement, 3 stats at 100 or greater, no stats below 50


    if you have killed a monster within the last 7 days, all of your stats have their effectiveness increased by 15%. your ability to track and locate monsters is improved. (when determining whether you have killed a monster, this perk only counts the final blow.)


    as she observed the little farming town more closely, she realized that the age of people seemed to directly correlate to how superhuman their actions were. people around 30 and below still seemed somewhat similar to a mediocre olympic athlete, while those between the ages of 30 and 50 seemed to be the ones who could give olympic athletes a run for their money and also had a few supernatural abilities slapped on top of that. she also saw a few older people helping out, although they seemed notably weaker than the younger ones. apparently, even the system didn¡¯t prevent the physical deterioration brought about by old age.


    still, the casual superhuman strength everyone displayed with was astonishing for alice to see. while they were all significantly slower and weaker than what she had seen from the bears that controlled plants and fear, they were much stronger than her. alice had no clue what the soldiers of this world looked like, but if these people were average [farmers] she should probably expect something far more ridiculous from people actually trained to fight. despite this casual superhuman ability, the [farmers] still kept one eye on the forest at all times, making alice wonder if they were afraid of vinebears or monsters creeping up on them and attacking them.


    as she walked closer, she could also see that there was a [guard] post of some sort outside one of the walls. a group of wagons approached the guard on duty, resulting in some gesturing before the guard began moving to check the wagons. some sort of tariff, perhaps? wondered alice as she observed the exchange. the wagons were pulled by horses, and she couldn¡¯t find a single hint of automation or machinery anywhere. therefore, the world she was currently was somewhere in the middle ages. this was important information, and made alice somewhat more hopeful about the prospect of selling her book for some survival funds later.


    meanwhile, a large number of other people in plain clothes labored near the river, digging at the area for some reason. back on earth, the digging probably would have taken hours, or even days, while here it took mere minutes for visible progress to come from each [laborer.] she was a little astonished to see the means of this new world at work as she watched some of the piles of dirt fling themselves away after people had stopped touching them, sliding away from the working site as if they were ice skating on dry land.


    alice took a deep breath, before trying to look as natural as possible and hoping nobody would accidentally squish her in passing. considering how strong these people were, alice felt that a casual fistfight with a regular inhabitant might crush her ribcage or kill her on the spot. then, working up her courage, she kept walking towards the town, homing in on the [guard] station.


    now that she was closer, she could see that the people around her weren¡¯t quite as superhuman as she had first thought ¨C while the [farmers] and [laborers] were, without question, far stronger and more durable than she was, she didn¡¯t see people moving fast enough that she struggled to track them, or anything of that sort. putting together what she had seen from her own perks beyond level 25 in [survivor] and her rudimentary understanding of stats, she quickly realized that most of these people were probably several levels higher than her in some sort of [farming] class, and that probably gave them several boosts to [endurance] and [strength]. at least, that was her best guess about why these people seemed to have such stilted physical attributes ¨C their dexterity was definitely higher than hers, based on speed they moved, but the difference didn¡¯t seem to be overwhelming.


    finally, she reached the guardhouse. the people there were wearing leather armor and holding long, metal pikes. alice nodded to herself, more sure than before that the industrial revolution had yet to reach this world. then, she marched towards the second guard outpost, trying her best to seem normal while she fabricated a story. it wasn¡¯t perfect, but it would do on short notice. before that, she had to wait in line, since the guard was apparently still checking the wagon in front.


    while she waited, a group of kids playing scrambled by as alice watched in bemusement.


    ¡°tag! you got eaten!¡±


    ¡°ahh! i got eaten again! that¡¯s no fair!¡±


    another kid showed up, wearing a yellow armband. ¡°bzzt! i got the monster!¡± he said as he touched one of the other kids.


    ¡°aww!¡±


    ¡°all the monsters are dead! civilians and mages win the round!¡±


    ¡°who are the mages this time?¡±


    ¡°i want to be a monster!¡±


    ¡°i got eaten three games in a row! i want to be something besides a civilian!¡±


    the group of kids drifted off while alice pondered. at the very least, it doesn¡¯t seem like mages are hated here. that¡¯s a relief. although, if normal people can do this much, what the heck killed the guy whose body i found? i might have suspected a vinebear before, but there¡¯s no way he got killed by a monster even i escaped from if this is what an average civilian looks like. there must be much scarier monster than just vinebears somewhere around here. or scarier people. alice shivered.


    the guard finally finished checking the wagon in front of her, collected some silver coins from the group, and waved them through. alice stepped up to the guard.


    he looked at her, and seemed surprised for a moment. alice winced. her ¡®toga¡¯ was definitely weird compared to the other clothes she had seen ¨C most people wore tunics and pants, or dresses and skirts, depending on gender. she hadn¡¯t seen anyone else wearing what looked like a clumsily folded piece of cloth. at least, although there were a few holes and bite marks here and there, it still covered everything, but her attire definitely stood out.


    ¡°name? occupation? actually, do you have an occupation? what¡¯s your reason for travelling here?¡± asked the [guard] giving her a suspicious look. it was probably more than alice deserved, considering the fact that she had shown up looking like a filthy beggar, but the [guard] didn¡¯t seem to mind.


    alice took a deep breath before launching into her pre-prepared story. she wasn¡¯t sure if the guard would be able to tell from the minute twitches of her body or something equally ridiculous if she was lying, so she kept her statements as close to the truth as possible.


    ¡°my name is alice. my father was a [merchant], but i encountered misfortune, and i¡¯ve been surviving in the wilderness alone ever since. i am here because i have been looking for a town or some other bastion of civilization, and i saw the walls from the distance.¡± technically, everything she said was the truth ¨C her father worked to sell electronics, which was a kind of [merchant]. she wasn¡¯t interested in divulging the fact that she was an {outworlder} until she knew more about her situation ¨C it was best to pretend to be a local for now. if she needed to run, she was pretty sure she had zero chance of escaping the civilians here, so she really needed to blend in... as much as she could when she walked slower than the average twelve year old and was covered in a few days of mud and dirt. at least her dunk in the river while fleeing from the vinebears had worked as some kind of bath and helped her clean up a bit, and after she had figured out how to boil water she had begun occasionally wiping herself down with a wet cloth to stay clean, or she might have smelled like a marsh monster. if she hadn¡¯t, alice wondered if the [guard] would have chased her away before she could even enter the city.


    the guard raised an eyebrow, and suddenly alice felt as if he could see through her for a moment. then, the feeling faded as he shrugged and waved her forward. ¡°do you have any perks which allow for the storage of items?¡±


    ¡°no?¡±


    she felt as if the guard was looking inside of her again, although {sense hostility} still didn¡¯t pick anything up. she tried to identify what was going on, and after a moment, made a guess. some sort of lie detection perk? it does seem to be in-flavor for a [guard], at least.


    please read this statement out loud.¡± he handed her a block of stone with some words carved into it.


    ¡°i am entering this city while bearing no hostile intentions towards the city, nor do i anticipate my intentions changing before i exit. i do not intend to physically harm any person within the walls, nor do i anticipate my intentions changing before my exit. i am not a spy of the sigmusi empire. i am not a spy from any other nations. i have no outstanding arrest warrants, and do not intend to take any illegal actions while within the city walls.¡± the feeling of the guard seeing through her returned. after a moment, he nodded.


    ¡°good enough. go to the guardhouse just inside the gates and talk to the receptionist.¡± for the first time, alice saw a hint of sympathy in the man¡¯s gaze. ¡°if you¡¯re interested, at least. he can help get you caught up with whatever you¡¯ve missed, and possibly help out a bit with getting familiar with the area. at the very least he can offer you some information.¡±


    alice nodded, trying not to think any more about her parents that she might never see again. for now, at least, she was in the company of humans for the first time in months. she had finally reached a town, and it seemed like monsters avoided this area. she stepped through the gates, filled with a mixture of nervousness and hope.

 Chapter 13

    chapter 13


    when alice stepped through the gates and into the city, her first impression was architectural chaos. at least in the outer region of the city, the buildings were strewn about like a giant had casually tossed markers in random directions and people had then built exactly where those markers landed, regardless of how much sense it made. much of the town was still under construction, with people transporting building materials and workers ... everywhere.


    there were huge plots of vacant land right next to filled in areas, with a few skeletons of buildings still being filled in here and there. from much farther away, she could see the construction of a large landing area for ships underway. she could even faintly see someone dressed in a white dress that seemed absurdly out of place ordering around groups of workers while giant blocks of construction material floated in midair around her. at the very least, it put to rest any lingering fears alice had of witch hunts, or any similarly nonsensical problems of that vein. the woman was openly and obviously using her magic while throwing orders at people, and they obeyed without a hint of hesitation.


    despite the seemingly random building placement and general chaos, however, alice was also surprised to see some seemingly modern aspects of city-planning. unlike what she had expected to find once she learned of the technology level of this world, there were still clearly marked streets and sidewalks, although currently the streets were still under construction. furthermore, she could even see an occasional ladder down into what she assumed was a sewer system, covered with some sort of reinforced wooden cover to prevent random entry or accidentally falling in.


    in a daze, alice stepped forward, trying to take in her first steps inside of a city in nearly three months. things she had tried to avoid thinking about in months flickered through her thoughts. people. friends. family. she could at least find one of the three here.


    and the other two were still missing from her life, possibly gone forever.


    alice shook away the dark thoughts inside of her head, and instead focused on scanning her surroundings. the guard outside of the gates had said to find the guardhouse, where she could at least get acquainted with the town a little bit. that was a good place to start, before she did anything else.


    the guardhouse wasn¡¯t too hard to find, since it was one of the few buildings made out of stone in a sea of wooden buildings and areas still under construction. it also had a giant block of stone with the words ¡®guardhouse¡¯ written on it, probably leveraging the fact that 100% of the population could read as long as they had functioning eyes and were old enough to talk.


    she proceeded into the building, briefly surprised when she saw another eleven guards sitting inside and eating lunch, their combat gear still partially on. perhaps to quickly get to work if stronger monsters attacked the farms outside? it seemed like a plausible guess, at least.


    the person at the desk, by contrast, gave off a feeling similar to one she might expect back on earth ¨C that of a person working a boring desk job and waiting for their shift to end.


    when he noticed her, he looked up. ¡°what do you need, citizen?¡±


    ¡°the guard outside the gates said you could help me? something about getting acquainted with the town, or at least recent news?¡±


    the expression of boredom on the man¡¯s face didn¡¯t quite leave, but at the very least, alice could tell that he was paying a bit more attention now.


    ¡°what kind of information are you looking for? what¡¯s the reason for the request?¡±


    ¡°i haven¡¯t been in civilization for a few months ¨C i need an update on what¡¯s going on in the area.¡± the bored expression on the guard¡¯s face finally disappeared, replaced with a scowl. alice nearly left, uncertain why he was so angry, before she realized he wasn¡¯t mad at her.


    ¡°the damn sigmusi have been everywhere lately. there¡¯s all sorts of nonsense going on in the background these days. one of their spies took out the mayor of riverbranch and five of the city¡¯s best mages in the middle of the night. how the hell they managed to deal with five damn mages in the middle of town is beyond me. one of them was even rumored to have two post-50 perks, or a combined perk, for system¡¯s sake! i hear the whole town is up in arms.¡± he snorted. ¡°besides that, those bastards upped the bounty on both mage cores and live mages again, trying to stir up troublemakers. fucking bastards don¡¯t even have the decency to just declare war and be done with it, so they stick to this quiet war shit and kill off our best and brightest in the background instead.¡±


    alice frowned. despite how random some of the statement seemed, they contained a wealth of information she needed to parse over. the guard outside of the gates had also mentioned something about the sigmusi empire as part of her entry statement. and... bounty on mage cores?


    she was, as far as she knew, a mage. if she wasn¡¯t mistaken, there had been a feeling of warmth behind her heart when she had formed her magic seeds.


    come to think of it, the corpse she had found was missing a heart, as well as the area around it. and was carrying a magic book for some reason.


    alice was suddenly very, very nervous.


    quietly, she moved back to the docks section, searching for an area where she could sit back and observe for a while. after some searching, she found what appeared to be an open-air market and settled down to watch.


    it only took a few minutes for her camouflage skill to activate, although the guard who briefly strolled through the market about an hour in seemed to know someone was lurking around and spent a minute or two looking for her. he could clearly sense her, and knew she was doing something, even if he couldn¡¯t quite pinpoint her location. she quietly retreated from the market, then deactivated her perk. she waited for several minutes, hoping for the guard to go away, before she moved back towards the market. she didn¡¯t want to miss her best opportunity to sell the book, after all. this time, however, she avoided activating her {camouflaged} perk - it seemed like it would be far more trouble to be caught using a stealthy perk in public than it was to look like a person wearing a weird toga thing.


    over the next few hours, she found out that the kingdom used a coin system for currency, based around ¡®small¡¯ and ¡®big¡¯ coins of various metals. small copper coins were the smallest denomination of currency, followed by big copper coins, each of which were worth five small coppers. one big copper could purchase one skewer of meat and vegetables from one of the stalls in the area. four big coppers made up one small silver, and five small silvers made up one big silver. ten big silvers made one small gold coin. the coins likely had actual names to them ¨C however, as it currently stood she mostly noticed the difference in coin size and the value of the metal.


    luckily, she also saw a few people selling books at stalls that sold ¡®odd things.¡¯ each book was sold for a handful of large silvers, although the price seemed to vary some from book to book. those stalls also sold a variety of other strange objects, an esoteric collection of nick-nacks, odd-colored crystals, old rings, and other things that she couldn¡¯t identify.


    after observing one of the stalls for a while, alice decided to try her luck selling her book to them instead. there was no real reason to sell to a bookstore if there was a place to sell here, after all. furthermore, she had seen a boy in even more ragged clothes than hers sell a few things to this stall already, so it seemed relatively likely she could get away with doing the same. trying to seem like she belonged, alice walked up to the stall.


    the stall keeper gave her a glance, and his eyes contained a gentle sparkle as he looked at her. ¡°what can i do for you, miss?¡± his voice was calm and relaxed.


    ¡°i am looking to sell this book.¡± alice pulled the book out of her makeshift basket and showed it to the stall owner.


    the man frowned, looking over the book for a moment, before turning back towards her. he looked much more closely than before, taking in her dirty appearance and her clothes, before his gaze relaxed. ¡°you aren¡¯t used to this, are you?¡±


    ¡°huh?¡±


    ¡°poverty. you look pretty enough that your charisma is well above 100, right? not to mention you were sitting at the edge of the market for a few hours, watching everyone to see how everyone was acting and how to copy them. you also move too slowly for your dexterity to be above one hundred, although i would wager it¡¯s pretty close. slum girls don¡¯t get that kind of stat build from living in poverty, and even if they come to the frontier afterwards to make a new life for themselves, their stats take quite a while to fit into whatever new life they¡¯re making for themselves. now, you could end up with a stat build like yours if you were a fallen noble,¡± he said, giving her a thoughtful glance. ¡°however, you don¡¯t have the demeanor of one of those brats. ¡± alice flushed and shook her head. the man let out a good-natured chuckle.


    ¡°so here¡¯s what i¡¯ll tell you. your book there is worth a bit more than the usual ones, since my {appraisal} says it¡¯s a book about magic seeds. most places, there are always a few newly baptized mages that would probably value a book like this quite highly. that being said, newly baptized are also usually poor and desperate, unless they found a master or joined an academy. and right now, this town doesn¡¯t even have 20 mages between its walls, and every one of them is experienced or already under the wing of a teacher. the people that come this far south, mostly, are the desperate and those looking to start a new life for themselves. other than the mages who owe a favor to the city lord, most mages are still up north, closer to the capital where they can keep living in comfort and luxury, and the new ones tend to stick to their academies, an enchanter, or the army. this book is quite valuable in the north, but down here it¡¯s dead weight, i¡¯m sorry to say.¡±


    alice felt incredibly disheartened. the stall owner¡¯s demeanor had been open and honest the whole time, and she didn¡¯t think he was lying to her. however, if her book didn¡¯t have much of a market in this region, then it was truly dead weight. gold was worthless if there was nowhere to spend it, and, similarly, the book wasn¡¯t useful anymore if she couldn¡¯t sell it. worse, if someone knew she had the book and tried to rob her, it would place her in a dangerous situation, which meant that the book was almost a liability rather than something useful.


    ¡°however,¡± the man continued, with a kind smile, ¡°i¡¯m a travelling merchant. since i move from town to town, i might actually have a chance of selling that book. it probably won¡¯t sell for months, but you seem like you could use a little help right now. how about i buy it for a golden sun?¡±


    alice felt her eyes grow a little hot. she knew he was overpaying - some of the other books she had seen were also on magic, and had still only gone for 7 or 8 big silvers. ¡°thank you very much.¡± she said. she gave the merchant the book, and he handed her a small golden coin in exchange.


    ¡°i hope that whatever is happening in your life, you manage to recover from it and move forward, young lady. ah, or perhaps you prefer to be referred to as an adult now? you do look about the right age...¡± he gave her a good natured grin. ¡°either way, i hope things turn out well.¡±


    alice¡¯s hands shook a bit, and she turned back to the merchant. ¡°thank you very much.¡± she repeated, her voice dropping a bit.


    she turned around and left. she walked to the side of the road for a moment, clutching the golden coin tightly in her fist as if her life depended on it. she took a few deep breaths in and out, calming her nerves. today, she had spoken to another human being for the first time in months, three times in fact, and she had been terrified. she had prepared and watched before talking to the merchant, preparing and running over possible scenarios, and it turned out... fine. he had been nice.


    after a few more minutes, she straightened up. she needed to find a tailor, maybe take a bath, get something to eat, and then she wanted to find a library, if there was one in the town. if there wasn¡¯t, she would figure it out later. for now, she had things to do.


    and as she walked, unnoticed by her, her footsteps were firmer. she moved with purpose that had been lacking for the past few months. she had something resembling a plan, which she had been missing since she had been dumped into this foreign dimension.

 Chapter 14

    chapter 14


    after that, alice briefly debated her options, trying to figure out if it was better to head towards a tailor first or find somewhere to take a bath. eventually, she settled on heading towards a tailor first ¨C she hadn¡¯t been able to take a proper ¡®bath¡¯ during the entire winter due to fear of freezing to death, but she had at least been able to take a wet rag with some boiled water and wipe herself down. by contrast, the weird toga was both filthy and stood out like a sore thumb. it needed to go as fast as possible.


    alice strolled around town for a while after that, looking for a tailor, and realized something she hadn¡¯t initially noticed about the town: the population ratio was seriously skewed towards males. she wasn¡¯t sure whether that was because women were expected to stay inside the house in this era, or because there just weren¡¯t that many females in the town, but even if women were expected to stay inside the house she would have expected to at least find more females around places like the market. however, the amount of females remained pretty low. the number of children was even lower ¨C the farms outside had maintained a fairly reasonable ratio of children to adults, but the moment she had entered town the population seemed to consist almost entirely of men carrying around logs and beams. odd. perhaps it was because the place was a frontier town? she would have to look more into this topic later.


    finally, she backtracked towards the tailor that had specialized in dresses that she had seen earlier. she wasn¡¯t a huge fan of dresses, but if she could get something like a sensible skirt and a shirt or blouse, alice thought that would probably be for the best. most of the women she had seen around town were wearing dresses or skirts, and while the occasional girl was wearing pants, they were also carrying around wooden beams along with the men. alice didn¡¯t have enough physical stats to pull off blending in with the [laborers], so it was probably best to look like a normal girl as much as possible.


    she stepped into the store, and a pleasant jingling sound echoed from thin air in front of her. alice looked around, startled, and found ¨C nothing. on earth, she might have attributed that to some sort of electronic device, but there were no electronics here, and there certainly didn¡¯t seem to be any sort of bell attached to the door either. another perk?


    ¡°just a moment!¡± a woman in the back called out, so alice sat down on one of the chairs near the entrance. she looked around, noticing that while there were a few ¡®display clothes,¡¯ there were no immediately available clothes hanging around, the way she would expected there to be on earth. however, she did notice a few other things with price tags attached to them ¨C primarily, a variety of backpacks. most of them cost a few small silvers, although there were two with notably increased prices that seemed no different from the other backpacks, save the fact that they were red and purple.


    a few minutes later, a woman came out from the back of the store. she wore a longer green dress and some sort of cloth shoe that alice couldn¡¯t identify, and alice placed the woman¡¯s age at somewhere between thirty and forty, probably leaning more towards the latter.


    ¡°i¡¯m evalyn, owner of this shop. how can i ... oh dear.¡± the woman turned towards alice, and seemed almost... offended as she stared at her. ¡°that¡¯s... yes, you quite need my help, dearie.¡±


    ¡°yes, i¡¯m looking for new clothes.¡± alice spun around once, before gesturing back towards her toga-thing. ¡°as you can see, my current attire is rather... rough.¡±


    the woman gave alice an appraising glance, before nodding. ¡°i can do new clothes. are you looking for a dress or a work-skirt? or something fancier?¡±no?vel binz was the first platform to present this chapter.


    ¡°no, something a bit easier to move in. just in case i need to run from monsters.¡± or people. just in case.


    ¡°something a bit sturdier, then? i can make something that works for that ... let¡¯s see... stand over here, would you? i just need to check...¡± alice moved to the spot the woman had instructed, and the woman expertly pulled out some ropes with little numbers written on them. alice had just enough time to recognize 80cm as one of the numbers before the woman seemed to suddenly speed up. before, she had been moving at almost the same pace as alice, but now she was whirling around alice as if someone had pressed the fast-forward button on a tailoring video. she felt several measuring ropes briefly close around various parts of her body before quickly being released, as the woman muttered a jumble of numbers and words she couldn¡¯t make out. then, the woman stepped back, suddenly reverting back to a normal movement speed again.


    ¡°i can do a sturdier skirt and blouse combination with a {modesty} perk to keep you from flashing the town if you need to move around a bit more, unless you would prefer an adventurer¡¯s dress? i have some other perks that could keep it from getting your way, but they¡¯re a fair bit less effective since i haven¡¯t gotten my first post-fifty perk yet. if you¡¯re doing heavy labor or monster hunting, frankly i recommend a knee-length skirt and blouse. all of my work comes with a free {sturdiness} perk enhancement as well.¡±


    {modesty} perk? wait, what? alice had to test it out.


    ¡°i¡¯ll take the skirt and blouse, please. what would the pricing be?¡±


    ¡°what color are you looking for? if you want green, blue, white, or grey, it¡¯ll be three silver crowns and two silver suns, plus an extra silver sun if you want the {modesty} perk. if you want a second set of clothes, i can give you a discount and make it six silver crowns, and i¡¯ll throw in the {modesty} perk for free. if you want any of the dyes imported from the corellion empire, the price will at least double.¡±


    ¡°took you long enough, girl. how low is your [dexterity]?¡± alice winced, realizing her experimenting might have taken a bit too long, before trying to change the topic.


    ¡°ah, do you have any use for the fabric?¡± alice didn¡¯t want to keep carrying around her crappy toga around, now that she finally had real clothes.


    the woman gave the fabric an appraising glance, before giving it a dubious sniff and then wrinkling her nose. ¡°i don¡¯t want it. just throw it in the trash.¡±


    alice shrugged, before grabbing a backpack off of one of the shelves. after parting with six silver crowns and five silver suns, she winced, staring at the three and a half remaining large silvers in her purse.


    she found a cobbler within a few more minutes of walking, eventually settling on a level 48 [cobbler]. she exited another one and a half silver crowns poorer, but she finally had a nice, sturdy pair of boots to travel with her. she also only owned two silver suns, but she finally had a good set of clothes to walk around in.


    ¡°all right, bath time.¡± now that alice was finally wearing clean clothing, it was time for a real, hot bath.


    she remembered seeing a bathhouse in the dock district, so she headed back there, keeping a close eye on the people around her to make sure nobody stole from her or stabbed her or something. however, the people around her ignored her ¨C if anything, now that she was finally wearing regular clothing, most of them seemed like they couldn¡¯t be bothered to even notice her as she walked by.


    entering the bathhouse cost one big copper, and some soap and a washing sponge cost another few small coppers, but when alice stepped into a hot bath for the first time in over three months, she felt an unprecedented sense of happiness and relaxation. ah, yes, so this is what being clean feels like. alice spent a few minutes contentedly cleaning herself as she tried to figure if the bath was heated with a perk or with some other means. i have seen magic in this world, but based on the number of mages available in this town, it seems unlikely that a mage has enough spare time to heat up some water. so magic is out. so, perk or boiling? alice spent a while thinking about this, and out of curiosity, searched around to see if she could find a heating mechanism in the pool. however, there didn¡¯t seem to be any mechanism behind the hot water at all. moreover, the water was mysteriously cleaning itself. even as she watched, a speck of dirt from her hair seemed to dissolve into the water, disappearing into nothing at all. definitely some kind of perk, then.


    finally, after far too much time, alice got out of the bath, put her clothes back on, and dumped the sponge into one of the trash cans sitting around in the street. after that, she continued wandering around the town, trying to find anything resembling a library. unfortunately, she had no such luck, and when she tried asking one of the pedestrians wandering the street, the man simply gave her a mirthful chuckle.


    ¡°there¡¯s no such thing as a library in this town, little lass. if you want to find one, you¡¯ll have to go north. even then, you¡¯d need to be part of one of their fancy mage academies to get access to the books in most places. down here, we¡¯ve got neither.¡±


    then, alice stopped searching the town, because she caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye. something that was so patently ridiculous to her earth sensibilities that she simply had to stop and figure out what was going on.


    there was a building on the street, painted with a riot of colors and images. in one of the images, a {farmer} looked over massive fields of wheat, taller than a human by almost a full meter. in another of the images, a {swordsman} stood at the head of an army, swinging a sword that glowed bright orange and cast a hazy glow over both the army he led and the opposing side. beyond that, there were other images as well - of a mage lifting a mansion by herself, a painter creating a giant painting that beggared the imagination when it came to both scale and detail, and many more. the paintings were a variety of different things, but they all had one thing in common ¨C they showed a seemingly ordinary person doing something completely unimaginable by alice¡¯s standards. the building also used several differently colored dyes, including ones alice now suspected were highly expensive in the kingdom she currently resided in. the building had four stories to it, unlike the other buildings in the surroundings which only had two or three, and at the top she could see a bell made out of copper. compared to the relatively drab and humble surroundings in the rest of the town, the building practically reeked of wealth.


    however, what was most ridiculous of all was the sign just outside of the door. it was simple, as the signs for many of the buildings were, but the simplicity was the most damning and confusing part.


    the holy church of the almighty system


    ¡°what the fuck?¡±

 Chapter 15

    chapter 15


    alice stared at the sign, trying to comprehend what she was looking at. the... church of the system? how the heck, what? the system is ¨C huh.


    alice thought about what the system had done so far. it had ¡®blessed¡¯ her with attribute points when she worked for them, granted her knowledge and abilities beyond what she had access to whenever she ¡®achieved¡¯ a level, granted her ¡®blessings¡¯ every fifth level that allowed her to dramatically improve her strength, showed her the ¡®right way¡¯ to do things whenever she got enough skill levels for it...


    yeah, okay, worshipping the system as a god actually seemed surprisingly reasonable. alice was still pretty sure the system wasn¡¯t actually sentient, but if she was wrong on that, the system could totally qualify as a god, at least as far as she could tell. still, to see something she suspected was an inanimate object being worshipped as a god was... jarring, to say the least.


    more out of morbid curiosity than a desire to pay respects to the ¡®god¡¯ of the church, alice stepped inside the church. it was time to see how deep the rabbit hole went.


    her first steps inside of the church was another riot of color, deepening alice¡¯s impression that the church of the system was wealthy. the [tailor] had mentioned something about dyes imported from the corellion empire ¨C while alice didn¡¯t know what colors the corellion empire exported, the church had a variety of paint in every color along the walls.


    however, upon seeing the images, alice was even more baffled. the images outside had been of individuals doing incredible feats by themselves, which she had assumed might be some sort of gimmick about how ¡®even you can do this if you worship the system¡¯ or something. however, even inside the church, what was on display were clearly humans, rather than some sort of iconography related to the system. they were all humans doing incredible things, but ultimately, they were all still humans.


    the inhabitants of the church didn¡¯t clarify things much for her, either ¨C she could see an incredibly attractive man who looked to be in his forties speaking with some children, apparently teaching them mathematics while they did a variety of physical exercises. he wore a rich purple robe, a color alice hadn¡¯t seen anyone else wearing, and although it didn¡¯t really match with the rest of his attire, he still looked stunningly handsome. there was a variety of symbols stitched onto the robe ¨C a symbol of an eye, a plow, a knife, a sword, and a variety of other tools related to different professions, some of which alice could identify and some of which she couldn¡¯t.


    alice felt her eye being drawn back towards the man over and over again as she tried to figure out what the heck was going on. finally, she remembered the [tailor] mentioning something about noblewomen using [charisma] boosts to make themselves more attractive ¨C perhaps [priest] also had [charisma] as a focus? with a mental tug, she forced herself to stop staring at the man.


    the children made sense, at least ¨C alice had wondered why there were so few children inside the town, but if the church was handling education of children it explained why there were so few of them on the streets. there still weren¡¯t more than a hundred children or so in the building, but alice had no clue how many churches there were. either way, it went some way towards solving the mystery. however, she had no clue what the heck the church believed in at this point.


    she stepped up to the group, and the priest simply nodded to her before gesturing towards one of the seats near the back of the group. taking that as the man indicating she should wait, she listened in on the lesson while waiting for the group to finish up. her curiosity was burning at this point.


    ¡°so, if that¡¯s the case, what¡¯s four times four?¡± sixteen, obviously. it¡¯s nice to see that math never changes, even in another dimension.


    ¡°sixteen!¡± called out one of the boys near the middle of the group.


    ¡°well done!¡±


    through training, you have increased a skill!


    basic mathematics +122


    upon receiving this skill, alice felt... nothing change at all. she already knew how to add, subtract, divide, and multiply small numbers together before she earned this skill. it was interesting that the system hadn¡¯t noticed her basic math proficiency until now, even though she had done some basic addition while in the wilderness when looking at her status screen. maybe ¡®acquiring¡¯ the {basic mathematics} skill required a ¡®classroom environment¡¯? odd, and it hinted that maybe the system had some fairly specific requirements for accessing certain skills.


    she almost blurted out ¡®what¡¯s an immortal,¡¯ but managed to stop herself in time - the priest acted as if knowledge of immortals was simply common sense. she didn¡¯t want to expose too much ignorance, for fear of the possible consequences. how could she - ah.


    ¡°how do you become an immortal then, sir friedhem? i¡¯ve always looked up to them, but nobody can tell me.¡± the priest seemed to consider her a bit backwards and simple-minded, on account of her supposed ¡®differing faith.¡¯ there was no harm playing into that if it got her more information.


    the priest actually snorted a bit. ¡°one cannot simply become an immortal, girl. no one knows the exact requirements of becoming an immortal, as it appears to vary from person to person, but whenever one reaches a high enough level in one of their classes, one is said to be worthy of immortality. most guesses put that at somewhere around the 25th level of a second tier class, a rare and exceptional achievement even for the most talented and dedicated. it requires decades of hard work, grinding up your levels and achievements in order to slow down your ageing until your practically stop growing older, and avoiding not only the vagaries of age but the dangers you must face in order to advance to heights beyond mortal reach. they are stars in the sky to be admired and something to strive towards, not simply something you can become just because you want to.¡±


    ¡°a second tier class?¡± alice was incredibly confused. all of her classes didn¡¯t seem to have any tier though? what the heck? was there some part of her status screen she had been missing?


    ¡°oh? you aren¡¯t even familiar with second tier classes?¡± the priest seemed genuinely surprised, before his gaze turned surprisingly gentle, the haughtiness and disdain in his gaze fading away. ¡°are you an orphan, dear? i find it hard to believe that anyone wouldn¡¯t at least be familiar with the idea of second tier classes...¡±


    ¡°my parents are fine.¡± alice hissed the words out, not realizing until this moment how afraid she was. she had been dumped into this world with no warming and nothing but the clothes on her back. she had been assuming ... no, she had been hoping that they were still on earth, alive and well. however, she had practically died of mana poisoning within hours of coming to this world. if her parents had somehow come here as well, and she couldn¡¯t find them... maybe they were... she didn¡¯t want to think about this. they were alive and well, on earth and wondering where their daughter had gone. there hadn¡¯t been any other signs of humans near her for months, and she had wandered around the forest with the broken mana for hours. if they were there, she surely would have run into them. she would find her way back to them once she mastered magic and learned all of the secrets of the system.


    the priest¡¯s gaze turned even gentler. ¡°there¡¯s no fear in being abandoned or having no parents, young lady. the system embraces all, regardless of their circumstances. here, if you really don¡¯t know...


    ¡°a tier 0.5 class is an [apprentice], [student], or [disciple] class that offers bonuses to learning, levelling speed, and memory that people take early on, in order to learn more effectively from their parents or masters. after that, at level 25 they evolve to a tier 1 class, which doesn¡¯t receive any special designation from the system. the class is reset back to level 1, and most people spend another year or two plowing back through the early levels. most people aim to hit about level 30 or 35 by the time they reach the end of their ¡®golden years,¡¯ which is between age 12 and age 20. surely you have noticed that you level up and gain stats much more quickly than you did when you were six or seven? that is because during your growth period, your stats and levels are more easily gained than during your childhood years. of course, your levelling speed will stay much higher than during your younger years, even after you turn past 20, but your stat gain will definitely slow down.¡±


    alice was taken off guard by the priest¡¯s suddenly kind words and intentions, and tried to switch her thinking back on track and suppress her churning emotions. immortals! dangerous! scary! investigate!


    ¡°are there any kingdoms or major powers run by immortals or destroyed by them?¡± the priest seemed a bit taken aback, and alice realized she had completely derailed the subject. however, if anything, his gaze became even kinder, to an almost painful degree, and alice felt a sudden desire to leave the church and avoid this situation. she felt... uncomfortable, and... lost. she shook her head, concentrating on the conversation. the priest, seeming to realize she didn¡¯t want to talk about it, simply cleared his throat and pretended her statement hadn¡¯t been a non-sequitur.


    ¡°an immortal toppling a nation by themselves? that¡¯s impossible. the only nation that could possibly be destroyed by a single person is a nation that is already so weak and beset by problems that a stray breeze could topple it. realistically, an immortal is a pinnacle of human achievement, which one can strive for in order to showcase the superiority and pinnacle of humanity. however, no person can fight an army alone. even the sun knight is only estimated to be the equivalent of a few hundred elite soldiers on his own ¨C while he safeguards and protects illvaria, he is famous as a general, not as a single fighter, because no single fighter can turn the tides of a war. this is true even if one is an immortal well into their second tier class.¡±


    the priest shrugged. ¡°as for immortals founding nations, plenty of more powerful empires have immortals as [emperor]s ¨C the advantages of having an unageing and incredibly powerful ruler that can afford to think in centuries instead of years or decades should be self-evident. of course, that¡¯s far more common in the central continent ¨C here in the shil confederacy, most nations don¡¯t have many immortals, although the larger nations can at least field a few. combined, the shil confederacy can field a fairly sizeable few hundred immortals, though, which even the imperia sigmusi couldn¡¯t ignore. of course, nobody on the central continent can afford to ship a few dozen immortals to the southern continent either ¨C they have much bigger concerns on their home continent, after all.¡±


    alice closed her eyes, spending a few moments trying to re-focus herself on the conversation. it didn¡¯t really work. for now, she was pretty sure that immortals were probably limited somehow in power, at least enough to not be the kind of existential threat she was worried about, but for the life of her she couldn¡¯t focus on extracting more information out of the conversation. it was time to get out of here and cool down.


    ¡°thank you, priest friedhem. i really appreciate you taking the time to speak with me.¡±


    ¡°may your struggles be fruitful, child.¡± the priest simply gave her a gentle smile as she wandered out of the church.


    after alice left the building, she walked back towards the river that wound its way through the center of town. soon, she reached the river again, and sat on the grass as she watched the dimming light of the sun as day gave way to night. she hadn¡¯t seen any other signs of any other humans the whole time she was here, or anything else from earth - even her bedroom failed to make an appearance, and it was definitely closer to her than her parents had been. they were fine. they were fine.


    she stared at the sky for almost an hour, worry and anxiety churning in her mind. in that time, her only companion was the alien moon, so similar to earth''s and yet always carrying a subtle feeling of being the slightest bit foreign, as it slowly rose over the horizon and the sun¡¯s light faded. her thoughts were of home.

 Chapter 16

    chapter 16


    as night started to fall, alice was startled out of her stupor by the loud clang of a bell that shook her out of her thoughts, ringing seven times before falling silent. she realized that she was sitting around and moping at a terrible time ¨C she needed to find a place to sleep, as well as somewhere which hopefully had a hot meal. she hadn¡¯t had anything to eat for several hours, and her stomach was informing her in no uncertain terms that it was very unhappy with her. she was interested in finding out more about the church of the system, and the priest made it seem likely that she would be welcome back to the church if she visited again. she would go back to investigate more when she was thinking a bit more clearly. for now, she needed to focus on food and shelter again.


    she got up and went back to looking through the dock district ¨C if she was paying attention, she could hopefully find an inn or something to stay the night.


    it took another half-hour of searching, but eventually she came to a building advertising ¡®room and board for one silver sun a night. daily special (meal) available for two copper artisans and three copper paupers.¡¯ alice was pretty sure copper artisans were the big copper coins and copper paupers were the small ones, meaning this was a little over half of a silver sun. since a meat and vegetable skewer costs around one copper artisan, this seems like a decent price? although it depends on quantity as well. still, worth checking. she stepped into the building, already thinking.


    if i¡¯m careful about this, i could probably learn a lot ¨C i have a good idea what some aspects of this world look like, but i have no clue what the geographical situation looks like at all, or what the ¡®recent news¡¯ being passed around among random people looks like. if i just find a place to sit down and listen in as people talk, i could get a great deal of useful information. if this inn serves alcohol, that would be even better, since people are less likely to mind a random person asking questions if they¡¯re drunk.


    after snapping out of her funk, alice had several questions she wanted to confirm ¨C for one, the rarity of mages. the merchant at the square had claimed there were less than twenty mages in the town, and alice hadn¡¯t seen anyone use magic besides the woman lifting construction materials at the docks. however, while she was just guesstimating, she had seen hundreds of people in this town during her walk here, and she would be surprised if the town¡¯s population was below 1,000. it might even be significantly higher ¨C maybe 2,000? maybe even 5,000? were mages really so rare?


    apart from that, she wanted a better grasp of geography. she wasn¡¯t particularly interested in getting caught up in the crossfire between the sigmusi empire and the country she was currently in, so finding somewhere new to live would be ideal. preferably somewhere she would be able to get access to research about either dimensional travel, the system, or both, and where the nation would be willing to let mages work for their education. if she could find an area where her life was less at-risk, she could devote more time and energy to her research.


    she stepped into the inn. she took a look around, and realized that the building was far more populated than she had expected ¨C she hadn¡¯t been sure how many people would be staying at the inn, but it looked almost like the inn doubled up as a restaurant or something, with several workers happily eating and chatting with each other.


    a {barmaid} continuously ferried meals and alcohol between the kitchen and various tables, moving faster than she had any right to but not fast enough to quite keep pace with the incoming orders. apart from that, a man also whisked coins off of tables and helped the {barmaid} when he had time, while occasionally firing a joke or a smile at one of the customers. alice looked around the room, not quite sure where to go to ask for a room and a meal. was there some custom here she was missing? there didn¡¯t seem to be a counter of any sort that she could simply walk up to. what was she supposed to do?


    hesitantly, she stepped into the room, and the man who was moving around the room gave her a broad smile. ¡°welcome, come in! take a seat.¡±


    alice looked around the room, trying to find an empty table. there were none, but she realized after a second that this might actually work to her advantage ¨C if she could just chat with her tablemates some, it would probably be much easier and less suspicious than it would be to try to awkwardly listen in to random strangers talking halfway across the room. therefore, she looked for the busiest table which still had an open seat, and sat down with a group of five {laborers}, four men and one woman. after less than a minute, the man who had been whisking coins around earlier stepped up to her.


    ¡°hey lass, what can i get you? meal, bed, or both?¡±


    ¡°i¡¯m looking for a room and a meal ¨C i need a place to sleep for the night.¡±


    ¡°that¡¯ll be one silver sun, two artisans, and three paupers ¨C if you want breakfast tomorrow, i can make it a round two silver suns instead?¡±


    alice thought about it for a moment before she nodded, although she involuntarily winced a little. that was another tenth of her remaining money gone. perhaps the innkeeper had seen her wince, but he had a thoughtful expression. after a moment, he made her an offer instead.


    ¡°hmm... lass, if you¡¯re interested, you could work for your meal instead. tessa is my only {serving girl} tonight, so i¡¯m a bit short-handed, and none of the {laborers} would be interested in extra work after a full day of hard labor. if your effective strength and dexterity are above 75, you have any sort of memory or learning boosting perk, and you¡¯re willing to work for the rest of dinner and tomorrow morning, i¡¯m willing to waive the fees for the meal and a bed for the night. are you interested?¡± the man gave her an easygoing grin. alice tried to think ¨C she really was short on money, but would this make it harder to gather information?


    actually, this might make it easier ¨C she would have an easy excuse to be moving around the room, chatting with customers, and popping in and out of conversations. as the night moved on and the {laborers} became more and more drunk, it would probably also be easier to gather information from them. her previous plans would have involved her trying to eat as slowly as possible to stick around these conversations, but it would seem much more natural this way...


    ¡°sure, that seems good to me. can i eat dinner first and then get started?¡±


    ¡°sounds fine! daily special?¡±


    ¡°what¡¯s the daily special?¡±


    ¡°potato, corn, and spidercrab stew with spring aelthys.¡±


    it was only after getting a rough summary of the continent that alice understood how well and truly fucked she was geographically. she wanted to leave the illvarian south, because of the huge threat to her life present in the region, but her odds of surviving if she ran looked slim. if she ran south, the only end she could see was becoming monster food. whatever lived that way was much stronger than the vinebears, and those were dangerous enough. to the west was the sigmusi, where she was likely to get her core harvested if anyone discovered she was a mage. not to mention, illvaria and the sigmusi were more or less semi-openly skirmishing, so going west would be like travelling through a zone filled with two sides of a guerilla war. she had no confidence that she could survive a warzone.


    the shil confederacy, to the east, may be united against external threats, especially the sigmusi empire, but that was far from actually being united ¨C anytime a bigger threat wasn¡¯t present, the 400+ nations in the confederacy reverted back into a giant mess of squabbling, conflicting nations, meaning there was always a war going on inside of the confederacy. even if the corellion empire to the far east would probably be alice¡¯s first choice when it came to places to live, trying to get there was probably guaranteed to send her to the grave instead.


    finally, to the north was the heartland of illvaria, which was considerably safer than the south. however, first she would have to exit cyra, with stronger and stronger monsters wandering around the area as spring came. as time passed, most of the monsters would be put down by either adventurers or the army, but right now monster season was just picking up, and this area was still very newly settled ¨C monsters were just outside the gates, sometimes literally. most people came south or returned north with adventurer escorts to deal with monsters and stray outlaws, unless they had perks to ensure their safe passage ¨C and she had no way of affording this passage, since the cost would be measured in gold coins. not to mention, if they found out she was a mage, she had no way of guaranteeing they wouldn¡¯t turn on her for a bigger payday, since the sigmusi bounty on mage cores was far higher than whatever payment she could scrape together. the bounty on live mages was even higher ¨C since the empire was renowned for legal slavery and for their ¡®dog soldiers¡¯ formed from war prisoners, alice was very much not interested in joining the sigmusi soldata magicka, especially not under whatever means they used to control their enslaved soldiers.


    in other words, she was stuck in this town for the foreseeable future. that wasn¡¯t to say that it was all bad ¨C illvaria was renowned throughout the southern continent for its mages and magic academies. nobody in the inn had mentioned even the tiniest fragment of ¡®heroes from another world¡¯ or even just ¡®another world,¡¯ so alice thought it was likely that people from another dimension were at least rare, if not unheard of. if she wanted to find a way home, she might be best served by staying in illvaria, at least when it came to accessing studies on esoteric topics. however, that was true of the illvarian north ¨C not the south, which was a newly settled frontier area.


    as an interesting side note, she had discovered that the people of this world had an excellent understanding of the human body, and could directly and accurately reference all the purposes of the internal organs as if they were obvious, common knowledge. alice found this a little curious, both because it seemed to confirm that humans on this planet were, internally, exactly the same as her, as well as the fact that they had good understanding of medicine even if several other areas that seemed like they would have well-developed weren¡¯t. people had an understanding of microbes, diseases, the heart and lungs pumping blood and oxygen throughout the body, but even though they had electromagnetic mages they had no electricity? did mana somehow make electricity not work? alice found herself both intrigued and confused by this thought ¨C how did mana interact with electricity and the laws of physics she was familiar with, anyway? in theory, temperature was just the movement of atoms, but kinetic mages didn¡¯t seem to be able to interact with temperature at all, and there was even a separate category of magic called ¡®thermal magic¡¯ that, as far as she knew, did temperature related things. furthermore, one could apparently stop ageing if they levelled up enough, while other people seemed to age normally or age at a slightly slower pace. for all of these questions, she had a single, burning question: why?


    for now, she had no answers. before trying to experiment on her own, it would be best to look at what the natives of this planet had discovered ¨C something she would need books for. and in the south, unfortunately, there were few books available, and those that were actually available were expensive, costing at least several silver crowns, and books on magic usually cost at least a golden sun and some silver crowns in exchange. her ability to piggyback off of other¡¯s research and really figure out what the hell was going on was very limited right now.


    she sighed, staring at the ceiling while laying on her bed. even though she was still determined to find a way home, it really didn¡¯t seem like it was going to be easy. her parents and friends would have to wait ¨C she was stuck here for the time being.


    she eventually fell asleep, but only after several hours of fitful and uneasy staring and thinking. she did not sleep well.


    * * *


    the next morning, alice had a breakfast of a few eggs and some sort of chewy spidercrab and vegetable dish. she had expected meat to be expensive if this world was like medieval europe, but she saw meat products for sale pretty frequently ¨C maybe it was surprisingly cheap due to monster activity? something interesting to explore.


    she helped the innkeeper take orders and shuffle meals around during the breakfast rush ¨C as far as she could tell, the inn was a fair bit more popular as a restaurant rather than as an actual inn, which was amusing to think about. the conversations in the morning were much quieter, probably because the patrons were a fair bit less drunk. as a result, alice didn¡¯t manage to extract all that much information that she didn¡¯t already know. however, she still felt less directionless than before ¨C at the very least, she had a rough idea what the surrounding countries and geography looked like. with free room and board and two free meals, she felt like she had gotten a good deal.


    ¡°you do good work, lass. on nights when my {serving girl}s aren¡¯t around, you¡¯re welcome to come back if you want somewhere to work.¡±


    alice simply shrugged ¨C she wanted to find something to do with magic as her profession, preferably where she would be able to look at books and do some research in peace without getting hunted down and murdered by the sigmusi or the people looking for a quick payout from them. right now, she was thinking about trying to find a job at the {enchanter} she had found earlier, or the bookseller that she had previously seen.


    her tentative plan was immediately interrupted when a loud knocking sound came from the door, and then two {guards} stepped into the room.


    they looked towards her, and a moment later, {sense hostility} began picking up hostility in both of their gazes. not a lot, and certainly not to the point where the perk was screaming at her, but it was more than enough to make her want to run.


    ¡°miss alice? i am going to have to ask you to come with me.¡± one of the guards looked at her with a menacing expression. alice briefly debated trying to run away, her thoughts turning into chaos in seconds. the {guards}? why? what did she do?


    if she ran, there was no way in hell she would escape ¨C she had no doubts that the average person in this world was way stronger than her if they looked like they were older than twenty, and the {guards} were both at least in their thirties, if not older. one of them held up an badge which bore the insignia of a pile of coins sitting underneath a silver sword and a silver eye, and the {innkeeper} immediately got out of the way as if he had just discovered she had a contagious plague.


    ¡°may i ask why?¡± alice managed to squeeze out of her throat, panic rapidly overtaking her as the {guards} stared at her like pythons looking at their prey.


    the {guard} said nothing in reply, simply speeding up. in the span of seconds, he appeared before her, and then seemed to accelerate again before he grabbed her wrist and then jerked her body forward. suddenly, the strength drained out of her body, and she could feel her body¡¯s movement become sluggish, her physical stats suddenly draining.


    ¡°i have her. let¡¯s go.¡± the other guard quickly grabbed her other wrist, and she could feel even more of her physical stats drain away. then, she was walked out of the inn, her body struggling even to stay upright between her captors as her strength plummeted, her limbs like heavy lead and her stomach churning with anxiety.

 Chapter 17

    chapter 17


    alice stared at the walls of the cell they had put her in ¨C her memory of being dragged through the town was hazy and disjointed, save that the cell she was put into was much smaller than what she might have expected back on earth. furthermore, the cell door had some kind of mechanism that allowed for a prisoner¡¯s arms to be forced outside of the cell, where two guards were continuously touching her wrist, keeping her body and physical stats weak.


    she waited in the uneasy silence brought by fear, trying to avoid thinking about what might happen. she didn¡¯t even know what she had done, and the idea of something horrible happening to her because of it was terrifying. had she violated some law she had no knowledge of? she hadn¡¯t done anything that she hadn¡¯t seen other people doing, though ¨C unless the people here could somehow sense her thoughts towards the system and thought them blasphemous? was there some taboo or social custom she had violated without knowing?


    she waited for an unknown length of time, falling into a fitful and uncomfortable sleep once before awakening, until finally, some complicated mechanism was unlocked and the door swung open. two new guards relieved the old ones, and grabbed her wrists before dragging her forward. in short order she was moved to a much larger, much more ornate square hall, where she could see several people sitting in chairs of varying heights.


    on one side of the room were five tall chairs, four of which were occupied by a variety of people. in the center of the room there was a raised stone platform, with a single wooden chair in the center. to each side of the room were benches, all constructed out of wood but clearly of a much higher quality than the wooden constructions alice had seen in the rest of the town. there was also one medium-height wooden box off to the side. finally, in front of the wooden benches and behind the dais in the center were five boxes, all occupied by guards holding up wooden sticks for some reason.


    on one of the taller chairs sat a woman wearing a rich blue dress with silver trim, as well as a prominently displayed badge with an insignia of a pile of coins sitting underneath a silver sword and a silver eye. she also wore a silver bracelet with a single metal disc on it, bearing a much larger insignia of the same eye, as well as a golden ring on her finger. she had deep blue eyes and black hair, and alice felt her eyes continuously drawn towards her ¨C something she was already coming to recognize as the effects of a high [charisma] stat. she was probably in her mid twenties, and moved with an easy confidence and grace as she looked down upon the court room.


    the other woman sitting in one of the higher chairs also wore a silver bracelet with an eye on it, but her dress was much more... expensive-looking, without actually looking all that much nicer. the impression alice got from the dress was someone flaunting their wealth over their fashion sense. her dress was a deep red, and didn¡¯t go well with her blonde hair and green eyes at all, even though this woman had a noticeably higher [charisma] stat than the first woman. she also moved with confidence, but it felt less... natural to alice. the woman, absurdly enough, looked as though she was close to a teenager in age, albeit her later teens.??v€l?1n.


    apart from that, the priest she had met yesterday sat in another of the chairs, although this chair was lower than the other five ¡®high¡¯ chairs. he had several scrolls of parchment in front of him, as well as an ornate bottle of ink and a quill.


    the third high chair was filled by an impatient looking old man, his white hair looked almost like it had been electrified recently, and part of it stood up. he also wore the eye insignia bracelet, although this one was made of copper instead of silver. he wore a simple set of white pants and a shirt, creating a strange comparison color with his hair.


    the fourth high chair was empty.


    the fifth high chair was filled with a man who was on the thinner side, and wore a single gold ring on his fingers, and then a golden necklace with a pair of scales on it. he wore rich burgundy clothes, and looked to be in his early forties.


    apart from that, there were other people on some benches on one side of the room. with some surprise, alice noticed the merchant she had sold a book to yesterday, as well as ... were those the guards who she had spoken with on her way into the town? apart from that, there was a harassed-looking teenage girl with dark circles under her eyes, as well as a few other people alice couldn¡¯t identify.


    the woman in the blue and silver dress cleared her throat, before she began speaking.


    ¡°we are here to formally discuss the potential crimes of one ¡®alice,¡¯ specifically investigating the potential murder of {enchanter} eric lehmann. is this acknowledged by the court?¡±


    ¡°acknowledged,¡± chorused the other three people sitting in the higher chairs.


    murder? what? what the hell is going on? i haven¡¯t killed anyone!


    the priest began rapidly scribbling down notes on a sheet of parchment, the warmth in his eyes that had been present yesterday replaced with a chilly stare.


    ¡°i am illa weissarus, representing the first estate. by royal charter, and virtue of my acknowledged merits, i represent the first estate of the crown in this judgement.¡± the woman in silver and blue spoke, her voice clearly chiming through the room as the [priest] copied her words.


    ¡°i am ellen vallis. as there are no landed nobles in cyra, i represent the second estate of landed nobles by proxy, due to my heritage and current standing in the vallis house.¡± the woman in the red dress spoke next.


    ¡°as there are no immortals nor representatives thereof present in cyra, and as this is a court proceeding, the third estate, being the estate of [immortals], are considered to have forfeited their vote in this judgement.¡± the priest spoke up, even as he rapidly recorded his own words.


    ¡°i am marc heizel. due to my standing and authority among the merchants, by popular vote, in cyra i am the current representative of the fourth estate, the people.¡± the pudgy man spoke next.


    ¡°i am eric heis. by popular vote among my peers present in cyra and being the highest level mage not representing another estate, i represent the fifth estate, the mages.¡± the final man who was wearing a copper eye on a bracelet spoke.


    ¡°the five estates have either acknowledged their right to pass judgement on this matter or abstained in their right to vote, the court is now considered to be in session.¡± the priest spoke calmly. immediately, the guards holding wooden sticks turned to stare at her, and she recognized the sensation of a lie-detecting perk.


    [priest of the church of the system] friedham has offered to officiate a contract between alice and illa weissarus. do you accept?


    you are obligated to:


    you may not lie for the next six hours. any knowing falsehood, omission of truth, or failure to report information after a query from a member of the court will be considered immediate violation of the contract. attempting to flee from the court of five estates will also be considered a violation of the contract.


    the other party is obligated to:


    you will be given a fair and just trial at the court of five estates. failure to properly maintain a fair and legal ruling will be considered a violation of the contract. if you are injured before conclusion of the trial, it will be considered a failure to uphold the contract. your rights as a citizen of both cyra and illvaria will be maintained, and failure to ensure this will be considered a violation of the contract.


    penalties for breaking the contract:


    -62 [charisma], -30 [dexterity], and -19 [strength] for 29 days and 3 hours


    yes


    no


    out of nowhere, a system message she had never seen before appeared right in front of her.alice stared at the notification, and illa impatiently drummed her fingers.


    ¡°well?¡±


    alice swallowed, and quickly accepted the contract with a nod.


    ¡°very well. we shall begin with the accusations, as well as obtaining a record of the events that transpired for submission to the crown¡¯s records. you stand accused of the murder of eric lehmannn, father of one living daughter, [enchanter], and [smith]. the reason you stand accused of this is due to the number of crime-related perks that have been used to scan you and shown you to be both evidence of a crime, and that you are involved in a crime in some way, as well as the fact that you sold a book which has been identified as having once belonged to eric lehmann two day ago.¡± said illa, as she stared at alice with a cold expression.


    ¡°i call the first witness to the stand. merchant anton, you may begin your testimony.¡±


    the merchant walked up to a raised platform in the center of the room, then looked at alice. today, there was no warmth in his gaze. instead, there was... uncertainty? and irritation. some of the guards shifted to looking at him, and all of them raised their wooden sticks into the air.


    ¡°no, lady vallis.¡± vallis frowned a bit at that, but after a moment, nodded and sat back down.


    ¡°i call the suspect up to the stand. young alice, would you care to explain how this book came to be in your possession?¡±


    alice swallowed, the cold knot of fear in her stomach surging as the guards finally released her, allowing her to walk to the raised dais in the center of the room. she looked up at the five raised chairs.


    ¡°ever since a few months ago, -¡°


    ¡°please start by stating your full name and highest level class, for the purposes of record-keeping.¡±


    ¡°i am alice verianna, level 37 [survivor]. i have been living out in the wilderness somewhat away from cyra. one day, near the beginning of winter, while i was fishing, a book floated downstream. i wasn¡¯t sure what it was, but after i picked it up, i saw a corpse float downstream right afterwards. it looked really battered, and its heart was missing. after seeing it, i panicked, so i ran back to the cave i was living in at the time and hid.¡±


    illa frowned, and gave the girl on the benches a small, sad glance. ¡°it isn¡¯t confirmed to be him, but...¡±


    ¡°it¡¯s fine. i... i already expected it. he didn¡¯t come back for the entire winter, after all. papa always said that he would do his best for me, but-¡± the girl sniffled a bit, made a few incoherent noises, and retreated to the edges of the court room. the old, wizened man who was previously sitting in his seat moved over to the girl for a moment, and she gave him a hug before she started sobbing. he gently patted her back for a bit, as an awkward silence descended upon the room. at the same time, alice felt a great deal of the hostility in the room decrease significantly.


    ¡°did you ever see the person in question alive? did you participate in injuring, killing, or plotting to kill them?¡±


    ¡°no ¨C i never harmed the owner of the book. i had no knowledge of their existence before i found their corpse ¨C in fact, i didn¡¯t even know where the town was before i found the corpse.¡±


    ¡°hmm. in that case, you shouldn¡¯t have triggered most of the perks activated ¨C they indicate that you are part of a massive crime. do you know why these perks are activating?¡±


    ¡°i honestly have no idea at all.¡± alice let some of her fear and desperation bleed into her voice. she hadn¡¯t the foggiest idea what was going on, and she was terrified.


    ¡°are you involved in any crimes which are currently ongoing?¡±


    ¡°not to the best of my knowledge.¡± she didn¡¯t know the local laws, after all.


    ¡°are you planning to commit any crimes in the future?¡±


    ¡°no.¡±


    ¡°odd.¡± illa absently tapped her pinky against her cheek in what was probably some sort of tic. alice felt a great deal more of the hostility in the room begin to dissipate.


    ¡°very well. read your status screen out loud to the court, child. if you have some sort of [criminal] class it may shed more light on your future intentions.¡± illa¡¯s gaze suddenly turned very sharp. "rest assured that if you have already atoned for your crimes and been punished, the court will not treat you unfairly. however, if you are planning something..." for a brief moment, her gaze became cold and threatening.


    ¡°all of it?¡± alice started to panic. if they learned she was a mage, it might not be long before criminals or bandits learned as well. she didn¡¯t want to get killed as part of a war she had no part in.


    ¡°yes, all of it, child.¡±


    alice couldn¡¯t find a way out. she could still feel several different lie-detecting skills targeted at her, and the contract was still in effect. she could feel the weight of the need to tell the truth settled in her core, somehow able to detect what she thought of as a lie or a lie by omission.


    slowly, hoping that a miracle would somehow save her, alice began reading out her status screen. she started with the attributes, none of which elicited any particular response... until she tried to skip the [magic] stat and felt the contract begin to tighten. immediately, alice went back and read back her [magic] stat.


    ¡°magic?¡± one of the guards actually looked concerned for a moment, and illa and the other members of the court spent a few moments looking confused. then, illa shook her head. ¡°no one is above the law, even a mage. lady alice, continue.¡±


    shaking, alice read out her [survivor] class next. there were no responses to the class at all, nor any of its perks. alice read [scholar] next, which seemed to actually get a slight nod from the wizened man representing the mages. then, she read out [explorer of magic], which finally got a frown from the [priest] recording the court proceedings. illa seemed to pick up on it, and turned towards the man.


    ¡°is there a problem, priest friedhem?¡±


    ¡°i have never heard of that class before.¡±


    illa turned towards alice. ¡°what are the requirements and perks for [explorer of magic?]¡±


    alice read out all of the perks she had for the class, before finally coming to the requirements. she didn¡¯t have a backlog of system notifications, or any way to check older notifications, but fortunately or unfortunately, she still remembered the requirements clearly, due to {enhanced memory} boosting her memory.


    ¡°the requirements for [explorer of magic] are to survive mana poisoning... and to have the {outworlder} achievement.¡±


    ¡°{outworlder}? illa seemed stumped for a moment, turning back towards the [priest.] ¡°what is {outworlder}?¡±


    ¡°i haven¡¯t the foggiest idea ¨C the church records have excellent records for most classes, achievements, and skills, so not having any of them recorded is very odd.¡±


    illa turned back towards alice immediately. ¡°child, read out your {achievements}.¡±


    ¡°i have {monstrous encounter}, {monster slayer i}, {baptized by broken mana}, {survivor of winter} and {outworlder}.¡±


    ¡°so few? what are outworlder¡¯s requirements and effects? and why did you use broken mana instead of regular mana for your baptism? the effects of the achievement for broken mana are barely better than the effects for the regular {baptized by mana} achievement, so there shouldn¡¯t be any need to take the extra risk, is there?¡± illa¡¯s gaze was turning more and more odd.


    ¡°regarding broken mana, i didn¡¯t have a choice in the matter ¨C i stumbled across the area and was under the effects of mana poisoning before i could leave. as for {outworlder}...¡± alice read out the effects of the achievement, and then read out the description and requirements for the perk.


    suddenly, hostility exploded from the entire room. ¡°she has violated the dimensional taboo! she must be of the society of starry eyes! kill her immediately!¡± lady vallis hissed, her face twisting with anger and fear. in an instant, several wooden planks in the few meters around lady vallis tore out of the floor, before the tips sharpened into spearheads and fired themselves at alice.


    "calm down!" snapped illa.

 Chapter 18

    chapter 18


    ¡°calm down!¡± snapped illa. a wave of... pressure crashed over, and the crude spears fell out of midair, immediately slamming back into the ground. it took a moment for alice to figure out what she was feeling ¨C it was mana, and for once {sixth sense} was actually doing its job, letting her vaguely feel the mana illa released.


    ¡°she does not seem anything like one of the society of starry eyes, or we would have already had a much bigger problem. furthermore, she trips nowhere near the number of perks a member of the society would have. besides, if she is recently baptized, as the mana density in her body indicates, there is no way she could have been involved in something on the level of dimensional manipulation. and lady vallis -¡± illa turned towards her, and alice could actually feel the woman¡¯s glare, even though it wasn¡¯t directed towards her. ¡°you attempted to attack someone whose safety i have guaranteed until the end of the trial. if i had been a second slower, i would have violated a system-enforced contract.¡± her voice dropped dangerously low, and alice could feel her hair begin to stand up. some instinct, perhaps from her levels in [survivor], was telling her that illa was very dangerous.


    ¡°if you try to forcibly break my contract with lady alice with me as the endangered party again, i will drive you from this town, regardless of the consequences. you may be the only valid noble representative in this town, but you tried to force a break in a [priest of the system] enforced contract with me on the other end. i am familiar with your trauma. i am also aware of the fact that the penalty for breaking this contract is quite minor, and will only last 29 days. i don¡¯t care. i am still very displeased. we will settle this later.¡±


    the woman¡¯s expression shifted, sliding from fear and hostility towards just fear for a moment, before it slid back towards a more normal expression. alice could tell that the woman was still restraining the urge to glare at her, but the hostility {sense hostility} detected in the room decreased significantly.


    ¡°explain to me in detail what happened.¡± said illa, turned back towards alice. ¡°start from the right before you arrived here ¨C i want to know what happened.¡±


    ¡°i am... i was a student in my home dimension. i did my homework, chatted remotely with some of my friends for a while, and then i went to sleep for the night after eating dinner. my parents were upstairs in our house. then, i woke up in the middle of the wilderness with no clue where i was or how i got there. there was a huge area of broken mana around me, so i contracted broken mana poisoning within a few days, and i luckily survived my baptism. after that, i survived on my own for a while, before i eventually managed to find my way here. i don¡¯t know where i am at all, or how i got here.¡±


    illa glanced towards the people in the back of the room holding up sticks.


    ¡°no lies at all, lady illa. it seems unlikely that she would be able to foil five different perks and the {trade contract} unless her build is specifically geared towards doing so, which seems unlikely. her stats just don¡¯t add up to what they would need to be for a high-level criminal, as far as i can tell.¡±


    illa turned back towards alice.


    ¡°so you were taken from your home then? ah, but the {outworlder} perk should indicate a much farther journey...¡± illa frowned for a moment. ¡°where is your home?¡±


    ¡°planet earth. my home is a planet we called earth.¡±


    ¡°i have never heard of it before. did you have any contact with the society of starry eyes?¡±


    ¡°no. i was simply at home one day, and then i was here. to the best of my knowledge, there was no interaction with a human being in between these steps.¡±


    ¡°did the mages at your home have any potential ability to move you here, either on purpose or by mistake?¡±


    ¡°at home, there were either zero mages, or all of the mages in the world were somehow hidden from the public eye. i don¡¯t know which is true, but i think it¡¯s highly unlikely i am here as a result of someone from home moving me. after all, at home, as far as i know there was no mana at all either.¡±


    for a moment, illa seemed like she was trying to chew a particularly hard piece of gristle between her teeth. then, she shook her head and turned to the [priest of the system.] he shook his head. ¡°a world without mana at all? that¡¯s impossible, i think, but perhaps i am mistaken.¡± the priest shrugged. ¡°either way, i have never heard of the achievement she mentioned, and while i can send a query to one of the churches farther north, i suspect i would get the same result. it is also, by far, the worst rarity ten perk i have ever heard of ¨C most rarity ten perks give something along the lines of doubling multiple stats, maybe doubling or tripling levelling speed for several different kinds of classes, and then doing a bunch of extra useful things like making you immune to temperatures dozens of times beyond the usual temperature. for it to do so little is... odd. i am certain i would have remembered it for that reason alone if i had ever seen it mentioned before. the mention of ¡®increased support from the system¡¯ is also unusual.¡±


    ¡°in that case, perhaps one of the members of the society tried to do something with dimensional magic and succeeded?¡±


    ¡°they could be hiding farther south, but the monsters living there should have hunted down anyone living in that area. for the entire society to survive there seems... unlikely. perhaps they set up a ritual there and had some other members kill off the surrounding monsters? but how could they have set up a huge ritual in the middle of the wilderness? and why would alice have escaped them if that were the case?¡± the priest shook his head. ¡°no matter how i try to think about it, it doesn¡¯t make any sense. if i may be a tad presumptuous and make a suggestion, i think we should send an expedition to investigate the site later, to see if we can learn anything.¡±


    illa simply tapped her finger against her chin for a moment, thinking. ¡°i agree. we will discuss the details later.¡±


    finally, illa turned towards the other four occupied seats.


    ¡°first, i would like to make a vote on guilt for the murder of a mage. all of those in favor of moving to a vote?¡±


    the other three assented.


    ¡°on the charges of murdering the mage eric lehmann?¡±


    ¡°not guilty.¡± nobody, not even the noble representative who seemed to have a problem with her, disagreed with this verdict.


    ¡°by a vote of four to zero, with one abstaining, alice verianna is cleared of the charge of murdering the mage eric lehmann.¡±


    at the same time, she finally let go of a belief she hadn¡¯t even realized she had been carrying this entire time. she had been... arrogant. in many ways. she had assumed that this world was illogical and that she would soon be back home, where things made sense. thus, she had subconsciously rejected many components of her new reality, believing them to be similar to a dream ¨C she would wake up from them sooner or later, so there was no need to look at the deeper principles of reality and where she might be wrong. she was, after all, someone who had come from another world ¨C the knowledge she had built up from ten years of mandatory education must count for something, right?


    wrong. she was, in many ways, crippled in this society ¨C she had no understanding of the system, was several years of hard work and grinding behind most people, had a much weaker physique and only average or slightly above average mental stats, and no connections at all. she had understanding of physics and science, at least to some extent ¨C but in the end, she hadn¡¯t even finished high school. she knew a few things, but nowhere near enough to begin seriously studying this world and the laws that worked in it. she knew that mana had to seriously change the way she perceived reality, but she had thought herself above this world, in some ways. there was no need to form close relationships, even if people were friendly, because she would leave them behind soon. no need to study up on some things, because she would be home soon. no need to really accept that she was wrong about the fundamental nature of reality, because once she got back home she could just keep following her original plans for her life, thinking about the system and mana and their implications once she was safe and back among those she cared about.


    she had been wrong from the very beginning. in her time in the wilderness, she had only gained 7 levels in [scholar] and had never questioned why. she had assumed it was due to the lack of books and things to research ¨C even though most days, she had thought at least a bit about the implications of the system. survivor had reached level 12 in less than a week. why had it taken her so long to get levels in [scholar] then?


    obviously, it was because something was wrong with her thinking and the way she approached problems from the very beginning. if she believed that her home world was correct about everything, she would be throwing away the reality she could see in front of her eyes. reality was that which did not go away when you stopped believing in it. similarly, it was obvious that earth had several things fundamentally incorrect about the nature of reality, due to the fact that mana clearly existed. she wasn''t planning to throw away her beliefs about reality entirely, of course - the thousands of years of studying the nature of reality at home still held plenty of value, and there were things she could learn from it. however, this world knew a lot more about magic and mana, and since she was able to view magic unfold right before her eyes, it was obvious that she needed to try to find a way to understand it as well. assuming she had an advantage in knowledge was wrong ¨C in fact, she might be farther away from understanding the truth about the world than an average child in this world. so, she had to think of herself as a learner who had room to grow and think.


    she closed her eyes, and, finally, cast aside the notion that she was special somehow. it seemed like she had just been brought here as a fluke from some mages practicing illegal magic. that was it. no grand quest to save the world, no demon king to defeat. no grand purpose behind her arrival here. nothing but some assholes messing up her life by a fluke. she had no purpose in being brought here ¨C it was just a huge accident.


    she thought back to when she had survived her mana baptism. suddenly, it seemed like a giant metaphor for her entire existence in this dimension so far ¨C she had nearly died less than two days after she arrived here, and survived as a result of a lucky fluke. apparently, the odds of survival for mana baptism was four percent ¨C and lower if one was exposed to broken mana. she had survived, not because of some hidden talent or virtue, but by sheer dumb luck. when she was bumbling around in the wilderness, she hadn¡¯t relied on her great problem solving skills or someone helping her ¨C she had gotten lucky and just barely managed to find what she needed before she died. if mana didn¡¯t cause her body temperature to rise, if [survivor] hadn¡¯t helped her solve her heat problems, she would have died in the frost of winter. {foraging} saved her from starvation in the nick of time. she had failed to start a fire over and over again before she finally got lucky and managed to get one started. the only reason she had lived this far was a series of lucky coincidences and random chance.


    she had made blunder after blunder, and been bailed out by coincidence.


    if she really wanted to survive on this world, she had to grow ¨C not just in her status screen, but as a person. she had made many, many bad decisions in the four months she had been here. now that she was trying to think clearly about it, she could see that. a status screen was important, but it wasn¡¯t just some gimmick of this world that she could exploit before leaving and forgetting about it ¨C it was a component of this world she needed to accept and seriously look at. and even the system wouldn¡¯t save her from making stupid decisions if she didn¡¯t help herself first. thus far, she had barely scraped out an existence in this world, surviving on the edge of catastrophe. she couldn¡¯t go home, so instead, she should start working towards having a life here without regrets. instead of just surviving here, she should start living here.


    you have unlocked the class scientist as a result of throwing away a belief you have held for a long time, having an [intelligence] stat above 100, and having an interest in exploring the world around you from a logical perspective. would you like to make this class a primary class?


    yes


    no


    through training, you have increased an attribute!


    willpower +6, intelligence +2


    alice hesitated a moment. then, instead of immediately accepting or rejecting the class, she decided to consult with the [priest of the system] first. blind assumptions about what the best choice was when she had little evidence would get her nowhere productive. and making a decision when she barely knew what she was doing was just absurd ¨C it was better to ask someone who actually knew what the hell they were doing. she would still make her own decisions, but there was certainly value in getting input from someone who studied classes for a living - and, if she wasn''t mistaken, that was what [priests of the system] were, at least in some sense. asking about what people usually did for their ''build'' and learning from that was something she should have done yesterday, honestly. there was no reason to make a decision immediately, after all, and consulting someone who was older and had more information was just common sense. it was something she would have done back on earth in a heartbeat, so even if it was a foreign world, why would she hesitate?


    still, the knowledge that she was never going home weighed her heart down like a ton of bricks.


    alice looked around, blinking tears out of her eyes and looking at the world with new eyes ¨C and realized that everyone was staring at her. why were they ¨C had illa asked her a question?


    ¡°i ¨C i¡¯m sorry, could you repeat that?¡±


    ¡°do you find the conditions acceptable? you must lead us to the site of broken mana so that we may purify and investigate it, and have an [organic mage] look you over to make sure you aren¡¯t carrying any contagious diseases. apart from that, you are under no legal obligations. is this acceptable to you?¡±


    alice closed her eyes, thinking for a moment. she didn¡¯t really mind having an [organic mage] look over her ¨C in fact, it might help ensure that she didn¡¯t get killed by some sort of weird mutated version of the common cold from earth that somehow turned into a superplague after touching mana. she had become a mage after touching mana, so in a sense, this was actually a huge benefit to her.


    as for helping a mage expedition find the place where she had arrived, this was also in line with her goals. she wanted to know what had happened in detail, and to make absolutely sure that her parents hadn¡¯t somehow been brought here. she didn¡¯t have the ability or knowledge to make heads or tails of the area, but being there while a bunch of powerful, knowledgeable people sorted through the area was exactly what she needed. in fact, since she wouldn¡¯t have to pay the people for their time, it was much better than anything she could put together herself.


    ¡°yes. thank y ¨C i thank the court for its mercy.¡±


    ¡°very well. finally, we must discuss secrecy regarding this court session ¨C priest, would you mind forming contracts to avoid people discussing {outworlder}? if the society learns of this, while unlikely, it might lead to some of those damn lunatics sneaking through my town to access whatever information they think they can extract from young lady alice. if i had known there would be a violation of the damn dimensional taboo, i would have gotten a higher level [priest of the system] so that i could make some damn group contracts.¡± illa broke off into irritated muttering.


    ¡°i do not have enough contracts for the week ¨C the reset is in three days, so perhaps instead we could use some form of people watching each other instead? if we have each person responsible for keeping track of another person, that might be a way to get around the two-person limit for each contract, with an assumption that one person spilling information regarding the fact that a living example of something from another dimension exists is grounds for violating the contract. once the next rollover begins, i can finish setting up contracts, and if the first set expires in 10 days, i can set up a new round for the first set of contracted right afterwards. if the penalty is changed to reducing [intelligence], the dissuasion effect could- ... we could also....¡±


    illa and the priest moved closer together, discussing things for several minutes. eventually, of the twenty or so people in the room, seven glanced at the air in front of them. they scanned it for a few minutes, before they gritted their teeth and muttered something. meanwhile, alice pondered upon her insights, trying to think of any instances where she may have made errors in her judgement and needed to reflect on her actions. in the midst of this, after some more words and statements were passed around the court, illa eventually made some references to illvarian law that alice couldn¡¯t understand, seeming to reference secrecy statutes.


    ¡°with that, the court is dismissed. ah, and young lady, if you are willing to, come speak with me outside. i have an offer you may be interested in. although, even if you aren¡¯t willing to discuss it, you still need to see me for the [organic mage] checkup. i don¡¯t know what diseases are common in your world, but dealing with those is critical to ensuring the safety of the town. in this, at least, i must insist.¡±


    the other three people in the room got up and left, lady vallis shooting illa an angry glare, the merchant seeming totally uninterested now that the court was over, and the old mage giving her a curious glance before he shuffled out.

 Chapter 19

    chapter 19


    alice took a few moments in the court room to simply breathe in and out. the feeling of relief that she felt when the court pronounced that she was innocent was a huge weight off of her shoulders. at the same time, the knowledge she would never be going home was like a stone in her heart. still, after taking a few minutes to cry herself out in the now-deserted court room, she got up and tried to focus on the bright side of things.


    she had walked into this courtroom with the fear that she might be executed or imprisoned, and compared to that the end result was... mostly fine. she had been exposed as a mage, so she would need to survive possible mage hunters, and even if illa and the priest had stated that revealing her {outworlder} nature would be a violation of the law, nearly twenty people knew that she was an {outworlder} and word would probably eventually spread anyway, even if it might take some time. she would probably need to figure out what the society of starry eyes was, since they would possibly be coming for her in the future. it seemed that even though she wanted to avoid it, she would ultimately need to keep improving her combat proficiency.


    however, at the very least, that felt like a problem she could put off for the future ¨C for now, at least, she was safe.


    in addition, she felt like, for the first time in months, she was thinking clearly. if she couldn¡¯t return to her life on earth, she would make a new life here. she hoped that she could see her friends and parents again, someday ¨C but even if she couldn¡¯t, she wanted to live a life that her parents and friends could be proud of, if they knew of it.??v€l?1n.


    after taking some time to sort out her feelings, she walked out of the courtroom. outside of it, she found illa discussing something with the old man who had represented the mage estate, before illa turned towards alice.


    ¡°ah, there you are, lady alice. it took you a while, didn¡¯t it? i¡¯ve already sent my servant to request one of the [organic mages] come over ¨C i¡¯ll pay for it, since it represents a possible threat to the town, and so it¡¯s my duty to resolve it. until then, let¡¯s talk. if mages were either nonexistent or not public knowledge in your home dimension, you must have a lot of questions, no? ask away.¡±


    ¡°that would be really useful, but....why are you helping me so much? i¡¯m grateful, but i¡¯m also confused.¡± alice had seen illa step forward to help her multiple times by now - granted, some of that seemed to just be shutting down lady vallis, but there was no such thing as free lunch.


    illa drummed her fingers against her leg for a moment, before finally shrugging.


    ¡°i don¡¯t know how negotiations and such are done on your home world, but i was an army [warmage] for a decade and a half, not a [diplomat], so please excuse my bluntness.¡± alice looked at illa, who looked, at oldest, in her early thirties. a decade and a half as a [warmage]? was this the effect of slowed aging the [priest] had mentioned?


    ¡°frankly, lady vallis and i do not see eye to eye on a lot of things ¨C she is not a bad person, per se, but she is a noble brat who has no clue what she¡¯s doing and a habit of messing things up. after the assassinations at riverbranch, the crown still hasn¡¯t made a response yet ¨C i expect it will be coming in the next week or two, and once they send reinforcements, we should be safe from any errant [spies] or [assassins]. but given the rate messengers travel between here and the capital, for now we are still waiting, which is part of why everyone is so jumpy about suspicious individuals in the town. sorry about that. anyway, vallis wants to flee back north, and she¡¯s not the only one. since vallis was basically exiled here due to her noble house¡¯s internal politics, i think she wants to use this as an excuse to return, while the rest are just scared and looking to her for a reason to flee. i don¡¯t blame them - the sigmusi empire is a threat, and with eric¡¯s death, it¡¯s obvious there are plenty of dangers if you travel beyond the walls. however, cyra is one of the few towns in the south that isn¡¯t horribly understaffed with mages ¨C even though we only have 17 here, that¡¯s almost a full one percent of our population, every one of them earned through diligence, connections, and a great deal of money. if vallis manages to take any mages back north, it would naturally be a huge waste of time and money for my husband and i, as well as detrimental to the safety of the town.


    ¡°therefore, what i propose is such ¨C you will work for me for a few months to a year, depending on circumstances. during that time, you will help out around the town, especially with construction, as well as working in one of the monster-hunting squads. if lady vallis and the others see that a young, newly-baptised mage is bearing the risk of staying in the south and working towards building up cyra anyway, it will weaken their resolve to leave quite a bit. if the other mages flee while you stay, the comparison will seriously damage their reputations ¨C lady vallis in particular is already in hot water with her house, and even if she personally doesn¡¯t care much about her reputation, if she becomes known as a weakling or a coward her family will not be pleased.


    ¡°in exchange, i will provide food and shelter for you, as well as magical education and one golden sun a month for any additional expenses. if you impress me, i¡¯m even willing to talk about paying for tuition for you if you want to go to one of the mage academies in the north, and if you pick up other useful skills like enchanting, i will increase your pay accordingly. in short, i¡¯ll give you some of the magical education that you¡¯re lacking, and in exchange, you help me with the political situation in cyra.


    ¡°you are, of course, free to refuse this offer, and i won¡¯t pursue the matter further. however, i wished to be upfront about using your talents and offer you a deal we can both benefit from. at least in most circles, that is worth something, no?¡±


    alice took a moment to think over the offer, before deciding she didn¡¯t know enough. the offer actually seemed quite reasonable, but she still wanted to check out what other potential offers there might be in the town, as well as double-check as much of illa¡¯s information as she could. she might need to gather information somewhere other than the inn, since its inhabitants had last seen her dragged off by the guard. something to think about later.


    while alice was mulling over the offer, a middle-aged man wearing a silver bracelet with an eye insignia walked up to the two of them while talking.


    ¡°is she the one you think might be sick?¡± the man asked, cutting out any potential chatter and cutting straight to the heart of the matter.


    ¡°she is. she spent a while in a broken mana zone. all sorts of weird diseases floating around in those, so i thought it was best to have her checked over before she infects the town with something. newly baptized by it, too.¡±


    ¡°baptized in a broken mana zone? why? the bonuses are barely better than the regular achievement. i understand wanting to get ahead, but youngsters are really too reckless with their lives...¡± the middle-aged man shook his head, before sighing and giving alice a closer look.


    ¡°here, let me just take a quick look...¡± the man looked at alice, waiting for something. after a moment, seeing her confusion, illa gestured towards alice¡¯s wrist. ¡°give him your wrist and concentrate on allowing his mana to interact with your body. it won¡¯t totally kill the resistance against mana all living creatures have, but [organic mages] get some perks which can still seriously reduce mana consumption if the patient consents to having foreign mana inside of them.¡±


    why was that? it only took a moment for her to find the answer. if the system actually wanted to manipulate her thoughts and memories, she didn¡¯t think she could do anything about it. the idea filled her with a sense of fear and helplessness, and she wanted to avoid that at all costs, even if it meant sacrificing any ¡®true¡¯ explanation of the system she could have found. she couldn¡¯t do anything about that directly - even now, the idea of an intelligent system quietly manipulating her thoughts and feelings filled her with a sense of fear and desperation that made her want to do anything to avoid it. for now, she pushed the train of thought away. however, she did realize that, especially in situations where she felt fear, she might leap to conclusions quickly and without information or evidence. that had been most of her time in this dimension so far, which meant she seriously needed to rethink a lot of things.


    later. it had already been a long, stressful, and tiring day. she would deal with all of this later.


    you have leveled up!


    scholar: 9


    well, she must be doing something right, at least.


    she stepped into the door, taking a moment to scan the paintings on the walls of people achieving superhuman feats, before turning to the [priest]. he was still annoyingly handsome in an incredibly distracting way, and alice felt herself grow irritated as she waited for him to finish a conversation with another person. finally, the other person left, and alice walked up to the priest.


    ¡°oh? if it isn¡¯t you again, lady alice.¡± the [priest] had a complicated expression on his face when he looked at her now ¨C it wasn¡¯t quite the same mild condescension he had displayed when he had thought she was from another church, and nor was it the warm, fatherly expression he had made when he had assumed she was an orphan. now, it was a sort of strange in-between expression ¨C a bit of pity, a bit of interest, and a bit of warmth.


    ¡°i wanted to know more about classes.¡±


    ¡°ah, that¡¯s right ¨C you had said that mages were either hidden or nonexistent in your home world, yes? in that case you must have lots of questions about classes relating to mages and mage classes. just for reference, what did combat classes look like in your home world? i can¡¯t help but admit i¡¯m very curious to know what classes would be available in a world where magic was so cleverly hidden.¡±


    ah... alice suddenly realized that she hadn¡¯t mentioned the system not existing at home. she had mentioned that magic didn¡¯t exist, but she didn¡¯t recall saying anything at all about the system. come to think of it, she also remembered the [priest] briefly mentioning that this world had a time where the system hadn¡¯t existed as well ¨C that probably meant that discussing the system¡¯s nonexistence at home might be fine. on the other hand, it also might not be ¨C she had no way to tell at all.


    for now, she defaulted towards pretending that the system had been in place ¨C even if the [priest] of this church might find it interesting, he might also take offence to her suggestion that the god he worshipped was not present in her world. she didn¡¯t know, and didn¡¯t want to find out, just in case. her safety came first, after all.


    ¡°we mostly had people specialized around various weapons at home if they did combat, as well as some people who had hobby classes for fighting in tournaments and stuff. really, combat classes weren¡¯t too popular at home.¡±


    ¡°combat classes weren¡¯t popular? how could that...ah. you said there was no mana, right? in that case, were there no monsters as well?¡±


    ¡°yes, there weren¡¯t any. how did you figure that out so quickly?¡±


    ¡°it¡¯s a well known fact that monsters can¡¯t exist without mana ¨C it¡¯s the very factor that distinguishes them from humans and regular animals. a few centuries ago, during the era of broken mana studies, there was a famous [scholar] that took a bunch of monsters and placed them in rooms which were enchanted to keep out mana. every single monster died within a day or less ¨C some of them died within minutes, in fact. all monsters both use and need mana, and anything that can survive without it is an animal, not a monster. if your world had no mana, it¡¯s natural that no monsters would survive there. it also makes sense that your world would have fewer combat classes ¨C while the monsters are a test given to humanity by the almighty system, to allow us to grow and achieve greater things, it may have chosen different tests for your world. the system recognizes all paths, after all.¡±


    ¡°huh.¡± alice was glad that, at the very least, her speculation about the system¡¯s designation of monster vs. animal was correct ¨C monsters were distinguished by mana.


    ¡°what i really wanted to know about was more about classes ¨C how do people build themselves in this dimension? is there anything i should know? my parents.... uh... didn¡¯t tell me much about classes, and the system seems to be different as well. basically, is there anything i should know in order to better build myself up? ah, actually, is there any sort of book or list of common classes and theories on builds i could look over?¡±


    ¡°hmm... you only had three classes, right? in that case, am i correct in assuming you¡¯re looking for what to fill in your last two slots with? even if you¡¯re a bit late in getting your last classes, there¡¯s nothing that can¡¯t be overcome with more hard work and effort. as for books, there is one... how about... hmm...¡±


    the priest went towards the back of the church, and emerged with a thick book. ¡°here ¨C you can look through this, as long as you don¡¯t take it out of the church. it contains a lot of information about classes, skills, levels, perks, and achievements. if you seek a more... personal connection with the system, i don¡¯t mind letting you look through it, considering how many challenges and problems you¡¯re going to face from the society of starry eyes. those misguided children are barely better than monsters, and you¡¯ll need all the help you can get. if you have any questions, you can come and ask me.¡±


    ¡°thank you.¡± alice replied with a nod, before she moved over to one of the benches at the side of the room. it was time to do some reading.

 Chapter 20

    chapter 20


    alice spent several hours looking through the book, forgetting to even find something to eat. honestly, even more than she needed to think about her potential fourth class and what she might want as her final main class, alice needed to unwind for a while. as a bookworm, spending some time reading was her preferred method of de-stressing. considering the fact that most books cost several silver crowns at least, gaining access to books of any sort was quite difficult.


    granted, the book itself wasn¡¯t terribly relaxing the way a nice fictional novel might have been. though, now that alice knew magic and other worlds were both real, she doubted she would ever look at a ¡®fantasy¡¯ novel the same way ever again. but all the same, she appreciated having a few hours of peace and quiet with a book to help unwind a bit. thankfully, after their brief conversation, the [priest] seemed to have picked up on that, giving her the space she needed to really sit down and relax for a while.


    finally, after thumbing through the book and reading some of the more interesting and bizarre requirements for some classes, making a list of some useful achievements she could earn without too much time or effort within the next few months, as well as obtaining some general background information, alice closed the book, and took a moment to reflect on the more important tidbits she had learned.


    first, it was possible to change main classes and perks from earlier levels. however, doing so required a [priest of the system] to assist you ¨C and could only be done once a year for perks, and once every five years for classes. it was technically possible to do this more often, but doing so was known to harm anyone who changed their classes too frequently, causing organ failure, internal bleeding, and a variety of other strange health problems. furthermore, the [priest] needed to be higher level than the class or perk in question, or removal was impossible. alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure she intended to make use of this, but it was something worth thinking about. she wasn¡¯t exactly sold on her {foraging} perk now that she had finally reconnected to civilization, for example.


    another thing worth noting was that most perks had multiple ¡®tiers¡¯ to them ¨C meeting higher stat and skill requirements often meant you could get a slightly better version of the same perk, although there were only a few ¡®tiers¡¯ to most perks. there were, however, some perks with no tiers, and also some perks with dozens of different versions. {barmaid¡¯s smile} had seventeen different versions listed in the book, which made trying to figure out the tiny differences between each version headache-inducing at best. apparently, the system had far more than just 5 perks available at each level, as well ¨C in most cases, there were dozens of different perks available, and then the system selected from whatever seemed to match what you wanted the best, up to a maximum of five picks per level.


    finally, secondary classes were nearly useless ¨C they suffered from an 80% experience penalty and only gave a perk every 10 levels, instead of every five ¨C and every single time you got a perk from a secondary class, it was at only half of the class¡¯s real level. in short, at level 10 you got a level 5 perk, at level 20 you got a level 10 perk, etc. all of this made secondary classes a dubious investment at best.


    alice also accepted her [scientist] class as her fourth main class. it seemed like the church had a record of most classes, and [scientist] was no exception - it had a variety of useful information-gathering and measurement-taking perks she could use down the line. apart from that, alice had scanned through the book to search for any clues about the sapience or lack thereof possessed by the system. if she wasn¡¯t sure, ask people who interacted with the system for a living, right?


    frustratingly, there was nothing. oh sure, there were references to the system changing perks around as time passed, even creating new classes and skills as new discoveries and inventions circulated through the world, which alice found fascinating. the system, apparently, was far from static, and would continuously adapt to the world around it. perks related to making steel, for example, had started out as a level 35 [blacksmith] perk ¨C and the level required to learn the perk for making steel had lowered over and over and over again as the discovery became widespread, until now, {steel-making} was available at level 10. granted, the perk had been weakened, but it was still noticeably stronger than some other perks at the same level.


    however, there were no direct references to the system ever messaging anyone, or making its intentions known, or any similar display of any intelligence driving its action. alice had come into reading the book with the idea of trying to re-challenge some of her older and possibly more flawed decisions, and at least so far had learned nothing useful from the exercise. the system creating new classes and skills could mean it was looking at what people were doing and then adapting accordingly ¨C or it could mean that the system had some sort of automated response that allowed it to adapt to changes, and classes just happened to be included in that.


    the church worshipped the system as a god, but never seemed to directly investigate the system itself. they investigated classes, perks, skills, and levels, but never the actual mechanics behind how those worked, meaning alice was still just as clueless as before about what, if anything, allowed people in this world to level up while they couldn¡¯t on earth, or why gaining levels reduced aging speed. people accepted levels and slowed aging as miracles from their god and moved on with their life, which meant that if she wanted to figure out what mechanics lay underneath it all, she was blindly groping in the dark.


    however, there was one brief mention that gave her an idea for a possible avenue to research, if or when she found enough time and materials for it ¨C a mention that all people had mana inside of them, and that all higher-level people had more mana than those who were weaker or lower level. alice had been startled by this idea at first ¨C weren¡¯t mages supposed to be the only one using mana? the statements she had overheard at the tavern, as well as the fact that mages were created via mana baptism and were incredibly rare seemed to indicate that mana was supposed to be really hard to manipulate.


    if that was the case, why was it that everyone had mana? on earth, people exercised to get stronger, and as far as alice knew this involved no mana at all. why was it that in this world, it was taken as common sense that someone with a higher [strength] attribute would also have more mana inside of their body? that was something she was eager to investigate whenever she actually got the ability to see mana. which apparently wouldn¡¯t take too long ¨C even if for some reason her [explorer of magic] class hadn¡¯t offered her any sort of {mana sight} ability, which was apparently a fairly common perk in most magic-related classes, [scholar] offered several options for observing mana at level 15. she just had to get there. unlike her wild theories and speculation so far, the idea that mana somehow increased physical ability was very testable if she could find the right approach.


    in other words, a promising avenue for research whenever she finally got her feet under her. she had noticed that people in this world were, almost without exception, stronger than their earth counterparts, often by a huge margin. the average random person on the street in this world could probably compete with an olympic champion on earth with just a mildly physically-oriented build, and apparently immortals were leagues beyond that. perhaps mana played some part in why ¡®physical stats¡¯ increased so much more quickly in this world for the inhabitants? alice wanted to see if, perhaps, there was a notable ¡®expenditure¡¯ of mana when people in this world did physical activity at superhuman levels, or perhaps see if mana played some sort of role in physical exercise here ¨C she didn¡¯t have an exact idea for how to test this yet, but she could certainly feel the roots of a future experiment forming.


    for now, however, she closed the book. as always, she had a shortage of both the ability to measure anything, and a problem with materials and funding. neither of these were problems she could solve... yet. however, she could at least investigate what her own muscles were doing, mana-wise, when she reached level 15 in [scholar], so she finally had a direction to go towards.


    her stomach rumbled, and she finally realized how long it had been since she had last eaten. she was hungry.


    the [priest] seemed to hear her stomach grumbling. he simply showed up at her side, like a phantom, before handing her some strange meal ¨C something involving bread and meat arranged in some way that vaguely resembled a calzone made with bread, but packed with a far greater variety of vegetables and spices. ravenous, she tore into it. she had no clue what ingredients she was eating, but it was delicious.


    ¡°thank you,¡± said alice, absentmindedly.


    he was silent for a moment, before clearing his throat.


    ¡°i know i didn¡¯t exactly leave the best impression, what with all of the trial nonsense, and i won¡¯t make excuses. you did trip a lot of suspicious perks, and people who trip the same category of perks without having a criminal class are often plotting something massive, but lady vallis¡¯s reaction was... extreme. she has her reasons, but even so ¨C you¡¯ve been put through a hell of a lot more than most people deserve, and for that, i¡¯m sorry.¡± another awkward pause.


    ¡°do you want to talk about anything? you seem...nostalgic. and lost.¡± the [priest] said.


    she closed her eyes, thinking. the knowledge of home was like a heavy stone in her heart, and carrying it alone was... deeply exhausting. she had plenty of facts about home to keep secret, but talking about ordinary, mundane things...that was something she craved. she felt tired and alone, and it had never been worse than today. she hesitated for a moment, before, finally, she spoke.


    ¡°my home was really different. there were no mages, so we had lots of, um, really specialized tools instead. we had a little house and i went to school to learn things. when i went to school, i got to play with the robo - with some of the specialized tools we made. my friend, maya, always went with me, and we were learning how to code - erm, how to give instructions to the tools properly. i wasn¡¯t that great at it, but i was really enjoying picking it up. i miss that, and i miss her, and...my parents.¡± alice felt her voice falter for a moment. the raw wound was there, stronger than it had ever been even though she thought had made terms with it already.


    ¡°you don¡¯t have to talk about it if you don¡¯t want to, child.¡± the [priest] reached out towards her shoulder for a moment, before he hesitated and moved his hand back.


    ¡°what¡¯s the society of starry eyes? why did that bi ¨C why did lady vallis have such an extreme reaction to the term? also, what¡¯s the tragedy of allenheim?¡±


    ¡°lady vallis is... not a bad person, but she is... impulsive. do you know ¨C of course you wouldn¡¯t, you¡¯ve been in town for only a couple days, no? in that case, you should know that the vallis family is a viscount family, and lady vallis is from one of the branches of that house. however, due to the fact that she is a mage, she is valued as a potential marriage piece for the house, so the main vallis branch adopted her ¨C you see, mages have a much higher chance of producing magically gifted offspring, which means that most noble families are eager to marry their children to other nobles who are mages wherever possible. her birth father was still partially responsible for raising her, however, and he wanted her to have a decent head on her shoulders. mages are expected to guard non-mages from harm ¨C they are the protectors of society and the shield against monsters. so her father took her to a town that had reported a sighting of some odd creatures, and several disappearances.


    ¡°the odd creatures were not monsters. the society of starry eyes is a small group of rogue mages that experiment with forbidden magic ¨C chief among these are human experimentation, although they have also experimented with less common types of illegal and taboo magic as well. such as dimensional magic, which you¡¯ve already heard of, as well as other extreme forms of research.


    ¡°apparently, two [organic mages] of the society of starry eyes captured some of the villagers who they assumed wouldn¡¯t be missed and tried to create the ¡®ideal form of humans.¡¯ the results were... disastrous for the people involved. people with too many eyes, not enough limbs, their bodies twisted and warped...¡± the [priest] shook his head. ¡°the two mages were captured by the guards and summarily executed, of course. the vallis viscounty hired [organic mages] to work with the survivors, and they¡¯re doing better now, but by all accounts the initial effects were...horrifying. and more than a few of them were children.


    ¡°a few years after the incident, an earl¡¯s son told lady vallis to her face that her viscounty was cursed, and that was why they were wasting money feeding and healing cursed monsters. the argument escalated until she beat him into the ground, right in front of his friends. the vallis family was most displeased with her unladylike behavior, as well as the fact that she struck a higher-ranking noble, so they sent her to the south to get her out of the public eye for a while.


    ¡°her history with the society of starry eyes is pretty heavily influenced by that. once she calms down, i don¡¯t think she¡¯ll do anything to harm you, but it is a delicate subject. i recommend you never bring it up when talking to her, if you do so in the future. in fact, i recommend avoiding her ¨C even if you aren¡¯t a member of the society, you¡¯re a reminder of them, and she likely sees you as a pointless, dangerous risk.¡±


    alice winced. she still didn¡¯t like the other woman, but at least her knee-jerk reaction to alice seeming to be from the society made sense, now. at the same time, alice felt a much greater level of fear towards the society of starry eyes - if they were willing to experiment on humans, she was far luckier than she had realized when she had somehow wandered away from the place they had summoned her.


    ¡°as for the tragedy of allenheim, when scholars first started theorizing about dimensions, they also theorized the possibility of moving from one place to another instantly. most nations jumped on the idea, as did many mages ¨C imagine what a world of instant transportation would look like, trade and logistics utterly transformed forever. it would be revolutionary, and any mage who solved it would surely be remembered for ages to come - or would become an immortal just from the sheer levels involved in discovering a whole new branch of magic. speculation, both scholarly and economic, was rampant, and mages started forming seeds and experimenting.


    ¡°this was cut short fairly quickly, though. a think tank of around 900 mages managed to... sort of succeed in doing dimensional magic in a country called allenheim. they formed a portal from the capital to the largest trade city in the country, in fact, with a great deal of money behind them.


    ¡°and then, several times the amount of mana they used almost instantly broke on both ends of the portal they opened. more than half of both cities went through a mana baptism within the next twelve hours, even those that ran from the city once they realized what was happening. the initial release of broken mana was simply too dense. the survival rate was only 0.8%, and less than a tenth of the original mages even survived the effects of the broken mana poisoning to go to trial. worse, a few of the people who survived the baptism began creating broken mana on their own ¨C the mana in the air around them broke spontaneously, just by brushing against their skin. some of the people who rescued the first batch of survivors frequently suffered their own broken mana baptism in turn, like a spreading plague. the kingdom collapsed - the capital city and the largest trade city being crippled overnight destroyed the economy and ruling class so thoroughly that there was no way it was coming back afterwards. of course, you don''t need to worry - the mages in town would be able to see it if you were creating broken mana, so you''re luckily not going to baptize and kill others just by being near them.


    "in any case, ever since then, countries have adopted a slightly more... cautious approach to dimensional magic. it holds great promise ¨C but if there is enough mana, mages, and time poured into it, it can also have catastrophic consequences. the most notable researchers of said magic in this era is the society of starry eyes. you can understand why lady illa is so concerned over the idea that they might have been active close to cyra.¡±


    alice shuddered. were these the people who had summoned her to this world? she was suddenly incredibly thankful that whoever had summoned her to this world hadn¡¯t made an appearance so far ¨C she didn¡¯t want to think about what would have happened to her if the society had summoned her and the summoners had lived to get whatever they wanted from her. she was also incredibly thankful that she didn¡¯t produce broken mana like the survivors of allenheim. otherwise, she doubted even the [priest] would have stepped in for her. innocent or not, someone that could kill hundreds of others just by being near them was a problem just by being in civilization.


    ¡°how likely is the society to come after me?¡±


    ¡°well, it depends. illa and i are working to make sure that nobody talks about your more... unique aspects, since the society might come after you, and by extension the town, if they know. that being said, if they were the ones who summoned you in the first place, it probably won¡¯t matter too much, since they probably already know, or will whenever they bother to figure out what happened to the group that summoned you in the first place. on top of that, even though it¡¯s illegal to share details of a criminal trial outside of court, and we¡¯re even going as far as to enforce it with {trade contracts}, it¡¯s still possible that some information might leak out, eventually. there are just too many people involved to keep it quiet forever. i recommend you keep an eye out ¨C take some combat [classes] and get some real training. it¡¯s better to be safe than sorry, just in case it comes to that.¡±


    alice nodded, quietly thinking the situation over. after a few moments, she also thought back to illa''s offer - training and some monetary compensation in exchange for some time exposed to potential danger. it might not be a bad idea to get a better idea what she might be getting into...


    ¡°what do you think of illa? i mean, overall?¡±


    ¡°she made you an offer, did she?¡± the [priest] gave a chuckle. ¡°illa is one of the strongest mages of this generation. she made a name for herself fighting the rakari nomads to the north for over a decade, and she¡¯s probably above level 75 in her [warmage] class. i know for a fact she¡¯s level 34 in [town leader] despite having the class for less than three years, and also has around 50 or 60 levels in some sort of [kinetic mage] class, 31 levels in [influential wife], and 42 levels in [teacher]. she also has a decent reputation and connections in the north, although they¡¯re a bit tenuous, and her husband is a very successful merchant. illa¡¯s lived a pretty darn colorful life, but she¡¯s one of the best potential backers in the south. and even if her personality is a bit... strong, in the three years i have worked with her i have never known her to be malicious or unfair.¡±


    alice paused, parsing the information the priest had just given her. after a moment, a thought struck her. ¡°why don¡¯t you know her levels in [warmage] and [kinetic mage], if you know all of her other classes?¡±


    ¡°it¡¯s considered impolite to ask about combat-related classes. however, most people actively boast about noncombat classes ¨C especially craftsmen. i¡¯ve seen plenty of shops where the craftsmen just directly list all of their perks somewhere so that they can drive up the prices people are willing to pay for their merchandise. by contrast, keeping your combat classes secret might save your life someday.¡± huh. good to know. come to think of it, the person who had made alice''s clothes hadn''t tried to hide the perks she was using on alice''s clothing at all - in fact, she had actively asked whether alice wanted more applied in exchange for a fee.


    ¡°thank you, priest friedham. i appreciate your time and being here for me.¡± alice stood up from her chair.


    ¡°it is no trouble, child. providing spiritual guidance is the duty of all [priests of the system], after all.¡±


    alice nearly departed from the church, before she finally remembered why she had come here in the first place. even though she had already accepted the [scientist] class, she could definitely do with some advice on her build right now.


    ¡°priest friedham, would you mind talking about my classes with me? i need some advice.¡±


    ¡°ah, you have two class slots left, yes?" one, actually, but i don''t want to bring it up. "in that case, let¡¯s talk.¡±

 Chapter 21

    chapter 21


    alice nearly departed from the church, before she finally remembered why she had come here in the first place. even though she had already accepted the [scientist] class, she could definitely do with some advice on her build right now.no?vel binz was the first platform to present this chapter.


    ¡°priest friedham, would you mind talking about my classes with me? i need some advice.¡±


    ¡°ah, you have some class slots left, yes? in that case, let¡¯s talk.¡±


    ¡°well, to start off with, how do people usually go about dealing with their classes? how do people choose what to take?¡± alice had looked through the holy book of classes, and there were literally thousands of classes someone could take. plenty of them were a lot harder to stumble into than the classes she had ended up with, requiring some directed action, but the fact remained that it felt more like she was overwhelmed with choice rather than starved for choices. how did people usually deal with this?


    ¡°what do you want to do? the system does not frown upon any specific path ¨C ultimately, what matters is that you work hard at it in order to succeed. what do you intend to focus on?¡±


    alice hesitated for a moment, before she replied. ¡°i want to learn more about magic. it didn¡¯t exist at home, and i am fascinated by it. therefore, i want to spend a lot of time and energy learning about what it is and how it works.¡± she kept quiet about her intention to explore the system as well. telling a priest to his face that you intended to study what his god was and what made it work was probably quite rude, after all.


    ¡°hmm...the majority of people start out with a student or apprentice class that they deem their ¡®core¡¯ class ¨C usually whatever profession they want to go into. [apprentice farmer], [apprentice rancher], [apprentice blacksmith], [student kinetic mage], [apprentice soldier] ¨C that sort of thing, really. they get it to 25, where all [student] classes max out, and evolve it to a tier 1 class. along the way, they grab one or two ¡®utility¡¯ classes ¨C something that might be a little outside the box, but provides them with something they find useful or that they think their particular aspirations require. for example, many mages pick up [scholar] in order to boost some of their mental abilities ¨C even though mental stats have no direct effects on magic, [intelligence] boosts how quickly you can think, which improves flexibility and speed in using magic, as well as making it easier to calculate how much mana you need to spend when you¡¯re in a pinch and need to optimize. taking a student class instead of directly getting the tier 1 class gets you an extra five perks, which is incredibly helpful once you get past level 50 and start getting options for combining perks, and people who are more ambitious go for the wider potential a student class gives.


    ¡°after that, most people grab several other classes that get experience from sources similar to the their main class ¨C for example, a soldier who is a scout in the army might grab [survivor] since they expect to be in dangerous situations and in the wilderness a great deal of the time, in addition to [hunter] or [sharpshooter]. they often focus on classes that also provide some useful stacking modifiers for their primary stats, since increasing the effect of a stat can be incredibly useful.


    ¡°you said you intend to focus on magic? honestly, there is a reason mages are valued as highly as they are in the country ¨C a mage at the same level is almost always stronger than a non-mage when it comes to combat, as well as being solely responsible for two of the three major types of enchantment. even when they aren¡¯t focused on combat, mages are still usually stronger simply due to the influence a magic seed can exert on a battle. [thermal mages] are a bit of an exception since they tend to specialize in item creation, but even then, in theory a [thermal mage] can put up a good fight against a similarly inexperienced enemy if they need to. and, of course, some [thermal mages] specialize in combat as well, although it tends to be more rare.


    ¡°i recommend you focus a bit more heavily in combat, though ¨C you need to make sure you have some combat proficiency to deal with people hunting mage cores or any attacks from the society. i would also keep the [survivor] class around, since [survivor] provides a lot of boosts to your ability to perceive danger around you and survive disastrous situations. one of the easiest ways to kill a mage if you¡¯re not a mage is a surprise attack, and [survivor] can single-handedly remove this weakness. at its heart, the [survivor] class can specialize in dozens of different directions, but you already seem to be taking it on the route of threat identification, which is exactly what i think you should be focusing on. i assume you¡¯re planning to get some of the endurance boosting perks a bit higher up in levels, as well?¡±


    alice nodded. one of the reasons she was still interested in [survivor] was that a few of the perks available at level 40 and 45 looked incredibly appealing ¨C there was one in particular that she was interested in at 40 that let her heal a large amount of damaged tissues every day, even allowing her to regenerate an organ if it was damaged. even if the perk was limited to once a day, being able to quickly heal critical damage was a huge advantage she intended to grab as soon as she could.


    the [priest] continued speaking. ¡°furthermore, sensing your environment is an excellent combination with [kinetic mage]. i have no idea what [explorer of magic] does as a class, but i would probably keep it around ¨C it seems to be a decent mage class? maybe? in any case, it¡¯s worth exploring.


    ¡°scholar pairs reasonably well with most mages because it offers a few useful perks here and there ¨C of course, frankly, the class is quite replaceable as well, and if you get a better option for an intelligence boosting class or just a more interesting option in general, i would probably trade out the class. the class is quite useful, but you already have a ¡®utility¡¯ class in [survivor] and an unknown class in [explorer of magic], so whittling down the number of classes you have outside of your ¡®core¡¯ build might be useful for you.


    ¡°is it possible to get a main class removed?¡±


    ¡°ordinarily, it would cost you a few silver crowns ¨C my perk only lets me do it twice a week, after all, and most people only swap a class out for some sort of [husband] or [wife] variant class when they get married ¨C both classes are pretty critical to cutting down on the child mortality rate. however, i don¡¯t mind if you want to switch one of your classes around. however, i recommend waiting a bit longer first ¨C see how you feel, figure out exactly what you want, and take your steps carefully. after all, you can only change a class once every five years, and so you should have a good idea what you really want before you start messing with it.¡±


    alice was fairly sure that she would end up following the priest¡¯s recommendations. she desperately wanted to keep exploring the world around her, but she also needed some real combat ability for when she was thrust into emergency situations, and a way to make money. she did feel kind of bad abandoning [scholar], but ultimately, she felt that [scientist] was a much better facet of her identity, and trying to hold on to both classes would probably be overkill. she just needed to get [scholar] to level 10 first so that she could keep her level 5 {enhanced memory} perk functioning, since the perk would deactivate if she no longer met the requirements for it and secondary classes were counted as half of their real level.


    she thanked the priest and walked out of the church, putting matters of her classes out of her mind for now. she had the information she wanted, so she would think a bit more before she finalized her decisions. for now, she needed to think about illa¡¯s offer. for that, she had a few more things she wanted to find out, and the best way to do so would be to just ask around town.


    * * *


    alice spent a few hours wandering around the open-air market, listening in on people discussing things. at first, she was nervous that she might be a recognized face in town, for having been dragged off by the guard a few days ago. however, if anything, people who noticed her gave her a wide berth, as well as respectful nods as she went on her way. it took alice a moment to realize the difference, but after a few minutes, she realized ¨C it was the insignia on her wrist. previously, she had been a nameless nobody drifting through the town, so most people had ignored her ¨C people had more important things to do than obsess over someone else¡¯s weird clothing style, and apart from the fact that alice¡¯s physical stats were a bit lower than average nothing else had stood out about her.


    however, she was now dressed in new clothes, and more importantly, she had a mage insignia on her wrist. cyra only had 17 mages in total ¨C 18 now, including her. most of them were probably recognizable simply by face, and while some people seemed a bit surprised when they saw the insignia on her wrist, people actively gave her respectful nods and moved out of her way once they saw it.


    alice was actually a bit curious now ¨C what would happen if she returned to the inn? would the owner throw her out, or respectfully bow out of her way? although she had better things to do with her time than actually testing it, it was an interesting question.


    the conversations at the market she was able to listen in on... were not very enlightening. people also seemed to actively note her presence, always remaining respectfully out of her way while she walked around, but that was actually quite detrimental to her plan to pull information about illa from the townspeople. finally, irritated after a few hours of trying to gather information with no results, alice decided to try something different. in truth, once she reflected on the matter a bit more, there was no reason to hide that she was looking for information. so, she simply walked up to one of the passerby as he tried to get out of her way. he seemed surprised for a moment, before turning to her.


    ¡°yes, lady mage?¡± the man gave her a respectful nod, despite the fact that he looked to be in his mid twenties and alice was unmistakably still a teenager. when it was a much older person actively showing her respect, alice found the whole situation to be bizarre, although she tried her best not to show it.


    ¡°i was wondering if you could tell me any more about lady illa? i¡¯m new to the town, and was wondering if anyone knew anything about the local governor.¡± alice did her best to project an air of confidence, even though she was really nervous. even if she wasn¡¯t doing anything wrong, some part of her still instinctually recoiled from actions that brought people¡¯s attention to her, even if she had been walking around the market with a mage insignia for a few hours already. however, now that alice knew how much fear could influence her actions, she was doing her best not to let it rule over her. she would get nothing but a knife in her back if she tried to cower away from everything, especially now that she knew how many different perks there were for finding people. the guards catching her so quickly after she sold the book was just one example ¨C ultimately, she needed to stop underestimating the intelligence-gathering ability of this world.


    ¡°certainly, lady mage! i know that lady illa doesn¡¯t mind outside mages too much ¨C in fact, she and her husband put forth great efforts to get mages to move south while they were setting up the town. i hear her husband and her children are still recruiting manpower and gathering materials in the capital, actually. if you¡¯re afraid of stepping on her toes, you don¡¯t need to be worried...¡±


    after that, alice went through a quick interrogation of the man, trying to verify the priest¡¯s information. as far as she could tell, there weren¡¯t any major problems with illa ¨C she was known to be hard but fair, had acquired a great deal of fame in the north as a young and powerful [warmage], retired from the army and taught in a mage academy for a couple years, and then married her childhood friend, who had founded a successful merchant organization centered around enchanting materials. three years ago she and her husband had founded cyra, in an attempt to leave behind a proper [noble] title and class for their children along with a source of income. overall, a decent person to have backing her up right now.


    and so, less than an hour later, alice found herself standing in front of illa¡¯s mansion at the center of the city.

 Chapter 22

    chapter 22


    when alice arrived at the mansion, the guard at the gate quickly waved her through. clearly, she had been told to expect alice¡¯s arrival.


    after entering the estate, she was directed to a small waiting room, and a maid made her some tea. alice absently noted that the water seemed to heat itself up and the tea tasted perfect despite having taken less than thirty seconds to steep, but quickly attributed it to a perk. less than ten minutes later, illa stepped into the room. she gave alice a cursory glance, and nodded to herself.


    alice waited a few moments to see if the other woman would say anything, but after a few moments of silence she decided to broach the topic herself. ¡°i have come to the decision that i''m interested in your deal, if you''re all right with a few conditions.¡±


    ¡°oh? what specifically do you want?¡±


    ¡°i want all of the information you have available about the system, as well as about magic. apart from that, i want materials for research. i want to conduct experiments, but that requires funding and materials.¡±


    illa frowned. ¡°allowing you to read through my personal library is entirely doable, but...¡± she paused for a moment. ¡°the funding for conducting experiments would be quite expensive. what makes you think you¡¯re worth that much coin? research equipment can sometimes run dozens of golden crowns, and unlike enchanting there¡¯s no improved visibility around town, meaning i¡¯m not guaranteed to get anything out of it. funding a private research facility would get you a lot of visibility, but it would be far more money than i¡¯m willing to spend.¡±


    ¡°if you weren¡¯t afraid of losing some of the mages in town, you wouldn¡¯t have made your offer to me in the first place, right? the more active i am around town as a mage, the more it seems like i¡¯m participating in building up the town despite the danger to me. in particular, running experiments is something that would help me level [scholar], and if i made any discoveries we could use it to publicize my presence. even if i don¡¯t manage to make any new or interesting discoveries, the simple fact that i¡¯m conducting research in the ¡®highly dangerous¡¯ south should be a good way to prove that i¡¯m unworried about getting attacked by any mage hunters, which would be a good way to help send the message you want to the other mages. the fact is that most research requires a great deal of time and a lot of equipment - if it looks like i¡¯m investing a lot of time and energy into setting up experiments that might take weeks or months to complete in cyra, that would send a strong message about how safe i feel in the town. ultimately, i think this is something that helps you as well as me.¡±


    illa tapped her fingers against the table, seemingly lost in thought. alice was beginning to wonder if it was a nervous habit of some sort. finally, illa came to a decision. ¡°i¡¯m not willing to fund your experimentation directly, and i¡¯m certainly not going to build you a full lab, since the costs are way higher than what your labor is worth right now. instead, i am willing to allow you to use any magical materials i have laying around as a foundation for your experiments. it will not quite compare to directly ordering new enchanted pieces, but i have a decent collection of minor enchanted objects on hand from my teaching days, and cyra¡¯s economy is partly built on exporting enchanting materials back north since the mana is more dense here and materials are more plentiful. it¡¯s part of the reason i was able to lure a half-decent [enchanter] to cyra in the first place. i think that should still be enough to get you started, yes?¡±


    alice thought it over for a while, before she finally nodded. if there was nothing that could be done about it, then that was that. and in truth, she didn¡¯t have any particular experiments in mind that she needed any equipment for ¨C yet. mostly because she was so lost when it came to magic that she didn¡¯t even know what she was missing in order to make an experiment. she was completely out of her depth, honestly. she just wanted to see if she could open up the option for later, since she knew she would ultimately need equipment and supplies if she wanted to experiment more with magic and the system. for now, using illa¡¯s old enchanted stuff would be good enough.


    truthfully, alice hadn¡¯t had much of an expectation for this demand being met at all ¨C while illa¡¯s direct pay couldn¡¯t be called generous by mage standards, that was only if you didn¡¯t include the fact that illa had offered to train her, something which apparently cost an exorbitant price in the north. magic training was expensive ¨C it was why most mages joined the army instead of paying for their education, and the reason illvaria invested so heavily in their magic academies. illa teaching her and possibly helping her get a recommendation to a magic academy could go a long way towards paving her way in the north, if she was interested in joining an academy later.


    now, time to work on hammering out an agreement for enchanting - which, in retrospect, perhaps she should have brought up first, since illa had directly mentioned it when she had made her offer.


    ¡°you mentioned that you would be willing to pay me extra if i learned a useful skill like enchanting, right? does that mean you¡¯re willing to pay for me to learn more about the subject?¡±


    illa gave alice a small shrug. ¡°i¡¯m willing to think about it, at least. what specifically do you have in mind?¡±


    ¡°i talked with the priest earlier and he mentioned that [enchanter] and [kinetic mage] would be good as the final classes for me to pick up. i have the {outworlder} achievement, so i¡¯m going to get levels in both far more quickly than i normally would, and that means that i¡¯m ultimately going to get decent at enchanting at least in time to make my name as an [enchanter] somewhat well-known within the town, right? that¡¯s definitely worth at least paying for whatever materials i ruin while i learn the skill, right?¡± alice gave illa a big grin, trying to convince the older woman to agree.


    illa drummed her fingers for another few moments, before she sighed. ¡°you¡¯re determined to make me bleed gold, aren¡¯t you? fine. i suppose it makes sense. the more [enchanters] we have, the better, with eric gone. i will pay up to one golden sun a month for you to learn enchanting, if you can get eric¡¯s daughter to agree to teach you.¡± alice winced. she had kind of forgotten about eric¡¯s daughter with her impending possible execution at the courtroom, and then she had been caught up in the chaos afterwards, but now that she thought about it, she had basically looted eric¡¯s corpse and brought his daughter the news of his death, hadn¡¯t she? now that she had time to process what had actually happened, she felt pretty bad about the whole thing. regardless of whether or not the girl was willing to teach her enchanting, she felt it was only right that she went over to at least apologize to the girl for her loss. unaware of alice¡¯s internal dilemma, illa continued speaking.


    ¡°cecilia - eric¡¯s daughter - is a decade and a dozen levels behind her father in terms of skill, but i only know enough about enchanting to throw together a basic consumable kinetic push crystal to knock away arrows if i¡¯m about to get skewered. i can¡¯t teach you the more complex stuff, and you will need a teacher for it. i will also reduce your pay per month from one golden sun to five silver crowns, so you will pay for half of your enchanting education and i will pay half. fair?¡±


    it was probably the best she was going to get. alice sighed, and nodded.


    ¡°all right, that¡¯s enough for me to at least get a rough estimation.¡± illa nodded. ¡°you have practically no precision at all, and no real training of any sort, but at least you learn quickly.¡± she looked directly at alice. ¡°you look kind of low on mana for now, so i¡¯ll just do one last check and we¡¯ll move on. come with me.¡± alice followed her to another room, which was more obviously set up for training.


    alice looked around, and saw a variety of equipment. a lot of it seemed to be meant for physical training, like something she¡¯d see in a gym back on earth, but there were other things she couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of, which she assumed meant that it was built for either training specific skills or enchanted. or just somehow optimal for raising attributes? she had some guesses, but no confirmation.


    ¡°push on that metal block with your magic as hard as you can. this is the last magic-related test.¡±


    alice did so, and was surprised to find that even though the block seemed to be rather small, only the size of her fist, it was incredibly dense. she struggled to push it forward, and only managed to move it a few inches before it stopped moving entirely. she heard illa mutter a few things that alice thought were numbers, and then illa turned back towards her.


    ¡°all right, you¡¯re done with the magic testing bits for now. don¡¯t use very much magic for the rest of the day - your seed looks tapped out. what was your recovery boost again? something like 15% from {baptized by broken mana} and then 10% from one of your perks? in that case, it should be... exactly 40 hours to recover to full, if i¡¯m doing my math correctly? 2% of each seed¡¯s maximum per hour at base, then .15 times 2 and .1 times 2 to get .5%, then add to the base to get the final total of 2.5% recovery per hour, then divide 100% by 2.5? anyway, when you have some more mana, i¡¯ll start running you through some precision training, and even before than you should have enough left for a little fun training exercise if everything weighs almost nothing." alice swore that illa had an evil grin, for just a moment, before the expression faded away. "you have good enough raw mana and mana conversion ratio to serve you for now - in fact, they¡¯re above average. however, your control is atrocious. while you¡¯re recovering, i¡¯ll help you with your physical training.¡±


    ¡°why physical training? aren¡¯t i supposed to learn magic?¡±


    ¡°because your physical stats aren¡¯t at 100 yet. it¡¯s not critical for mages to have high physical stats, because we tend to fight with our magic seeds, but when you¡¯re in combat, you¡¯ll be very glad that you¡¯re able to dodge and take a hit. strength is less useful, but considering how much easier it is to level stats before the second growth penalty all stats face after reaching 100, we might as well get it up to that point before we apply heavier focus to the stats that matter more. in addition, i figure you probably haven¡¯t worked under any sort of [trainer] or [teacher] class before, right? both classes and their variants boost the rate you gain attributes, levels, and skills by varying amounts, as well as providing a lot of other useful perks to boost training speed. many of them are simply more useful for higher levels than you are currently at, or require a classroom of students instead of just one, but i¡¯ll still show you the more interesting ones when you actually have the qualifications to interact with them. i will have my books on the system and other magic seeds sent over tonight, and you may look them over at your leisure.¡±


    illa thought it over for a moment, absentmindedly tapping her lip with her finger. ¡°apart from that, i will be doing some sparring with you, to get you some of the other skills you will want if you are going to have some level of combat readiness. there are several skills that most brawlers and fighters have which you will want to at least have at a low level, because some of them are quite important. i will probably wait a few days, though.¡±


    ¡°that sounds reasonable to me.¡±


    ¡°all right, let¡¯s see... for physical training.¡± illa grabbed some weights and threw them at alice. ¡°a good way to train all three of your stats at once is with weighted jogging. therefore, go put the red iron weights over there on and get to it.¡± alice put them on, and found that all of them caused her just enough strain to make it difficult to move, but not impossible. then, as she was instructed to, she began slowly jogging around the room. she was a little surprised to experience firsthand how much her [strength] and [endurance] had improved since coming to this world. now, even though she guessed they probably weighed around 10 or 20 kilograms, she could lift them easily. she started jogging. alice seriously doubted this would have been accomplishable for her back on earth - but with her system-enhanced muscles, it was surprisingly doable, even though she was quite unathletic before coming to this world.


    about half an hour into her jogging, illa threw a bean at her head. she didn¡¯t notice it until it bounced off of her forehead.


    ¡°what the heck?!¡± alice stopped and turned to illa.


    illa just chuckled. ¡°you didn¡¯t dodge it or stop it with your magic. you¡¯ve had half an hour, you should have recovered a bit of mana by now!¡±


    ¡°you threw a bean at me! why?¡±


    illa snorted. ¡°[kinetic mages] are combat specialists for a reason - a [kinetic mage] who¡¯s paying attention can stop most melee combatants dead in their tracks by applying some mana to an incoming sword or dagger, and can even push a hail of arrows off-target. stopping a bean doesn¡¯t cost much mana - you should learn to deal with surprise attacks like this if you want to keep your organs where they belong. after all, unlike an [organic mage] you don¡¯t have the benefit of being able to regrow your lungs on the fly if you need to. a [kinetic mage] that can¡¯t stop ambushes before they connect is a dead [kinetic mage]. now get back to running! i didn¡¯t say you could stop! you¡¯re only four and a half hours of training away from the [student of kinetic magic] class! now get to it!¡±


    alice gritted her teeth. she was already getting tired, but if illa was going to start throwing things at her, this promised to be a long and annoying exercise in frustration as well.


    at least her skills and attributes were levelling pretty quickly.

 Chapter 23

    chapter 23


    after two hours of grueling training, illa finally allowed alice to stop training. alice took this as permission to instantly drop dead, not even bothering to find a place to lay down before collapsing onto the floor. the waves of exhaustion that she had been suppressing for hours crashed over her instantly. her arms and legs trembled, and now that she had stopped moving them, alice didn¡¯t know if she could lift them even if she wanted to. on earth, alice was relatively certain this training program wouldn¡¯t have worked ¨C the damage done to the body over the course of just this training session would pose much greater problems to the body than any of the benefits gained through the training.


    however, on this planet they had the system, which seemed to negate these problems. lucky her.


    illa actually laughed at seeing alice sprawled on the floor, moaning in exhaustion. after watching alice and chuckling for a while, illa finally took mercy on her. alice felt her clothes tighten around her body, and then they began floating, gently lifting her into the air. then, illa moved her towards a dining table, where a meal was laid out. alice didn¡¯t really want to move at this point, but upon seeing all of the food laid out she realized that she was hungry. finally, with her limbs literally shaking every time she tried to pick something up, alice began eating her part of the meal while she took a look at her status screen.


    name: alice verianna


    age: 15


    strength: 88 (104%)


    perception: 110 (125%)


    dexterity: 85 (103%)


    intelligence: 157 (103%)


    endurance: 92 (103%)


    willpower: 132 (103%)


    charisma: 125 (102%)


    magic: 96 (101%)


    primary classes: 4/5


    survivor: 37


    explorer of magic: 27


    scholar: 9


    scientist: 1


    n/a


    secondary classes: 1


    fisherwoman: 3


    perks:


    foraging (survivor 5)


    microbe resistance (survivor 10)


    extremophile (survivor 15)


    camouflaged (survivor 20)


    sixth sense (survivor 25)


    enhanced training (survivor 30)


    sense hostility (survivor 35)


    magic proficiency (explorer of magic 5)


    enhanced regeneration (explorer of magic 10)


    combat spellcaster (explorer of magic 15)


    improved seed (explorer of magic 20)


    seeds of magic (explorer of magic 25)


    enhanced memory (scholar 5)


    skills


    basic mathmatics: 122


    alice actually chuckled a bit at illa¡¯s response. ¡°in my world, most people are able to both read and write, at least in my home country, but a lot of that is because of the school system. if reading and writing, for example, weren¡¯t common skills, wouldn¡¯t it be much harder for the nation as a whole to function? after all, being able to use the written word to communicate opens a lot of doors for a nation as a whole ¨C being able to properly pass down knowledge, create signs and databases, and understand the world around us is based on our ability to read and write, isn¡¯t it? if everyone has those skills, the nation can communicate more easily and effectively. communication is the heart of a nation, after all.¡±


    ¡°what is a ¡®giant collection of numbers and words relating to information used for statistical analysis?¡± asked illa, seeming a bit annoyed by the long phrase.


    huh? that¡¯s not what i... alice thought back to what she had said as she bit into another roasted vegetable. then, finally, she realized. ah. that¡¯s how language skills work ¨C it¡¯s translating anything i hear to whatever the closest mental equivalent i have is, and when i want to say something i just automatically use whatever the best word in the local language is. i won¡¯t even notice it if i¡¯m not paying attention. she wondered if there were any important distinctions the skill missed ¨C how did it translate colloquialisms, for instance? suddenly, she was curious.


    ¡°spidercrab,¡± said alice, listening closely to what she actually said. however, in illvarian, alice was distinctly aware that what she actually said was ¡°zorastruess,¡± which seemed to translate roughly to... many-legged scuttling annoyance? that... fits?


    alice got a level in scholar, although she pushed aside the notification. she''d look at it tomorrow when she was less tired.


    ¡°huh?¡± illa seemed baffled at alice¡¯s sudden random word thrown into the conversation, and alice realized she had totally departed from the topic. she shifted gears away from trying things out, and reminded herself that she had been explaining what a database was.


    ¡°it¡¯s a giant collection of numbers we used at home to gather information about specific ideas, as well as figure out what the general trends of things that could be expressed in numbers were. so it could be used for something like, for example, finding out if the number of mages in a population has been increasing or decreasing over a period of time, for example.¡±


    ¡°hmm...¡± illa seemed to think over it for a while. ¡°i can see the use for that, but not why it would be useful to educate the entirety of a nation. the cost that went into it must be enormous ¨C it makes far more sense to me to educate a handful of the upper class of a nation, such as mages, and then let the rest figure it out themselves.¡±


    ¡°ah, but aren¡¯t you forgetting about taxes? i don¡¯t know how the taxation system works in illvaria, but at home the government keeps track of every purchase people make and then takes a small cut, as well as a fraction of the money everyone makes as well. that also means that if everyone in the country is richer and more productive, the government also makes a larger amount of money. not to mention, people who are happy with their life and have their basic needs met are much less likely to rebel, whereas people who are impoverished, discontent, or struggling to feed themselves are more likely to rebel. therefore, education that improves the productivity of the populace is ultimately one that improves the government¡¯s tax revenue, yes?¡± alice shrugged. ¡°at least, that¡¯s what i suspect the philosophy behind it is. either way, it certainly works pretty well at home.¡±


    illa actually appeared to think about it, sinking deeply into thought. after a while, she shrugged. ¡°that actually doesn¡¯t seem like a bad idea, if your taxation system works that way. here, every person above ten is responsible for paying a certain number of coins to the crown each year, a few to the noble owning the land each year, and then there¡¯s a separate tax on property based on size, location, et cetera. but how does the government actually keep track of every transaction?¡±


    alice sighed, and began trying to explain the concept of computers and machinery to illa. it didn¡¯t help that unless alice was paying attention, her language skill would cause her to use some incredibly convoluted phrases to try to describe what she was talking about. in the end, alice wasn¡¯t really sure how much of the concept illa grasped, although she looked fascinated at the idea of carriages that ran without horses and machines that could do the work of dozens of humans if fuel was applied. alice distinctly avoided mentioning firearms ¨C she didn¡¯t know how to make gunpowder, but with the existence of [kinetic mages] she suspected it probably wasn¡¯t too difficult for the people of this world to create some sort of weaker facsimile. alice didn¡¯t want to be the one to introduce modern firearms until she had a much better idea what she was doing.


    eventually, partway through the conversation, alice¡¯s exhaustion finally caught up to her, and her eyes began drooping more and more. before she nodded off on the table, illa gestured towards a maid, who reached over to alice and helped her exit the room. finally, the maid led her to a room with a bed in it. alice wobbled over to it, collapsed, and fell asleep nearly the instant she hit the covers.


    * * *


    illa drummed her fingers, a nervous habit left over from her younger years, as she considered the question of her newest student. the world that the young teenager had spoken of was... odd. in more ways than one. a world without mana? wasn¡¯t mana essential to all life in order to survive? illa was baffled by the assumption that a world could exist where life didn¡¯t require mana to continue functioning.


    that wasn¡¯t all ¨C the machines the girl had spoken of were strange ¨C something that illa had never even considered before. bits of metal that could do the same work as a high-level person, over and over again without needing perks to do so. and the school system alice had spoken of also interested her greatly. even though illa only had [scholar] as a secondary class, it had actually leveled just from listening to alice talk about her home world for a few hours, which was rare considering how hard it was for secondary classes to gain any levels at all.


    ¡°mistress, lady alice has gone to sleep,¡± said ellia. her movement was fluid and graceful, far more than an ordinary maid¡¯s movement should have been. of course, it was only natural for a [combat maid] to have higher [dexterity] than a maid that only worried about cleaning and maintaining a house.


    ¡°thank you, ellia,¡± said illa with a small smile. ¡°what is your impression of her?¡±


    ¡°she¡¯s a bit dangerous ¨C having her by your side has a small chance of eventually attracting an attack from the society of starry eyes. even if the don¡¯t have the ability to maintain a strong presence in the north of illvaria, the south is already a messy pot on the verge of boiling over with the sigmusi colonia making problems and the lack of major organized control by the crown here. it might be better to send her out of town to die and avoid any future problems. however, as a person, she is not a bad girl, although a bit young.¡± ellia¡¯s voice contained no traces of emotion at all ¨C just the cold, emotionless calculation of cost and benefit.


    ¡°is that all of your assessment?¡±


    ¡°her training speed is faster than it should be,¡± said ellia, after a moment of hesitation. ¡°it is odd. even accounting for her {outworlder} achievement and other factors boosting her training speed, she is accumulating levels and attributes more quickly than she should. when i was watching her train, i think she got multiple points in most of her physical stats over the course of the hour ¨C her speed subtly increased multiple times, and her ability to keep moving seemed to also improve multiple times over the course of the session. that shouldn¡¯t have happened, even with {outworlder}. unless you suddenly picked up several levels in [teacher] without me knowing, at least.¡±


    illa snorted. ¡°it¡¯s all her ¨C my levels in [teacher] are exactly the same as before. there is something even more interesting about her. do you know that her body has very little mana in it? it is much lower than it should be, considering her levels and attributes. it is the only reason i am even willing to entertain the idea that her former dimension has no mana on it ¨C the quantity of mana in her body is so low that it¡¯s as if her first interaction with the substance was only a few months ago. in our world, a six-year old child with magical ability that has just unlocked the system often has more mana than she has in her body right now.¡± illa gave a rueful chuckle. ¡°although it is a little creepy when i stare at it with {mana sight}, it also causes the mana around her to get sucked towards her when she exerts herself.¡±


    ¡°while interesting, i cannot see how that actually matters, my lady. perhaps she is some slightly different species of human that can live without mana, or her body is simply trying to make up for its lack of the substance so far. after all, humans can live without the nutrients their body needs, just not well. it might not be impossible for humans to do the same when it comes to mana, since nobody besides the society has ever actually tested the theory that humans will die without mana. and compared to how interesting she is, the potential risk she represents is far greater.¡± said ellia.


    ¡°and the machinery and societal structures she spoke of don¡¯t interest you at all?¡±


    ¡°they do, but not much. i can¡¯t see us successfully implementing half of the things she talked about even in someplace as small as cyra ¨C our budget may be very high for a new town, but it isn¡¯t anywhere near what we would need to continuously fund something like universal schools.¡±


    ¡°you¡¯re correct. however, the ideas behind them are interesting, aren¡¯t they? it¡¯s expected that i¡¯ll chat with her anyway, since she¡¯s my [student] now. maybe there¡¯s an idea or two that¡¯s actually useful in there. and if not, it¡¯s not a big deal ¨C ultimately, as long as those old cowards learn that a fifteen year old girl has the courage to face what they wish to flee from, they shouldn¡¯t be so quick to leave.¡± illa gave a small chuckle at the thought.


    ¡°as my lady wishes,¡± said ellia, with a slight bow.


    ¡°ah, don¡¯t be like that. if you really think otherwise we can discuss it further. i still think of you as the friend that fought in the north with me all those years ago, after all.¡± illa¡¯s expression seemed to grow oddly wistful for a moment, as she was lost in thought. finally, she snapped out of it, refocusing on the present. ¡°do you really think it¡¯s such a bad idea to keep her around?¡±


    ¡°then i hope my lady will forgive my presumptuousness. i do not think having her around is a terrible idea ¨C it represents an opportunity to learn about another world, and she also fits the requirements for helping settle the political situation. however, this opportunity is a fair bit more dangerous than the usual ones, and i do not think we need to engage with her to keep steadily growing and advancing. while some of the mages trickling back north might be painful, it ultimately doesn¡¯t mean that the situation might fall to an unrecoverable state. if the society of starry eyes actually musters their forces together and tries to retrieve her, they might cause a great deal of trouble for the town, and represent a greater level of danger.¡±


    illa sighed. ¡°correct, but there are a lot of strange points in her presence as well. if the society summoned her, she shouldn¡¯t have escaped them if any of her summoners survived. for now, i think it¡¯s best to keep her around until we investigate the place she was summoned further. hopefully the monsters haven¡¯t eaten all of the corrupted mana in the area yet so that we can investigate further.¡±


    ¡°my lady makes a fair point.¡± ellia stopped speaking for a while, before she started speaking again. ¡°what are you planning on doing for her hidden guard? you promised the girl that you would provide her with one.¡±


    ¡°i intend to assign emanuel to her for now ¨C he¡¯s high enough level that it should be hard for him to be noticed, and he¡¯s quite competent. apart from during the expedition, of course ¨C in that case, since i¡¯ll be nearby, i doubt anyone would be foolish enough to attack us. and if there really are still [spies] and [assassins] prowling about, which i doubt, emanuel would not be able to deal with someone able to actually threaten me.¡±


    ellia seemed to think it over for a while, before she nodded. ¡°that is quite reasonable.¡± she fell silent again. finally, she spoke again. ¡°how committed are you to her education? she is consuming quite a few resources, and some of the expenses from your agreement with her seem... unnecessary. especially the bit about research materials.¡±


    ¡°it gives her good motivation to keep working hard. you should have noticed it too, right? she has a certain tendency to hide from danger, rather than face it head on. that¡¯s fine ¨C it¡¯s normal for those who haven¡¯t fought before to shrink away from it. however, it means that if we don¡¯t provide any incentive, she would try to stay hidden, regardless of how well that would actually work. if it costs me a bit more gold to keep her around, then it costs a bit more gold. besides, she levels quickly. it¡¯s good for my [teacher] class.¡± illa shrugged.


    ¡°thank you for answering my questions, my lady.¡± ellia simply stood, thinking for a while. then, she seemed to remember something. ¡°ah, your children and husband sent back some letters from the north. it looks like they¡¯re over a month old, so it¡¯ll be a bit old. still, i put it in your study since i thought you would want to look at it as soon as possible.¡±


    all of the marks of careful planning and thinking melted away from illa¡¯s face in an instant, replaced with warmth and excitement.


    ¡°is that so? excellent. the snow has really been troublesome for [messengers].¡± illa quickly hurried over to her study, shredded open the letter on the table, and quickly began reading it. even if illa¡¯s husband and sons weren¡¯t magically talented, they were the reason she was willing to invest so much time and energy into running cyra and increasing the influence of the little town in the south. since they didn¡¯t inherit her talent as a mage, illa would let her children inherit a barony instead, so that they would have a real financial position and place in noble society. as she read over the letter, a warm smile decorated her lips.


    if any of the [soldiers] who had served in the army with illa had seen the terror of the northern forts warmly smiling while reading over the letters from her family, they probably would have fallen over from shock. however, the only person in the room besides illa was ellia, a former [soldier] who watched as her old friend read over letters from her family. softly, ellia deactivated {emotionless thoughts} and grinned as she watched the scene. even if the south was a bit chaotic, it was good to be away from the northern wall with her old friend and leader.

 Chapter 24

    chapter 24


    the next morning, when alice woke up her entire body hurt. she had hoped that perhaps some effect of the system or some perk from illa would fix sore muscles. unfortunately, reality, destroyer of dreams, informed her that this wasn¡¯t the case. groaning, she flopped out of bed, her arms still twitching occasionally as she wobbled around. she took a quick look around the room, noting that it was lightly decorated and sported decent-looking wooden furniture, but nothing extensively spectacular or expensive-looking, before she stepped into the hallway. a maid was waiting outside, and when alice stepped out the maid immediately handed alice a plate of hot eggs, some sort of potato product, and a few vegetables that alice couldn¡¯t identify. alice shrugged as she grabbed a fork and started digging in.


    apart from that, she finally took a moment to look over her perks for level 10 of [scholar]. even if it was unlikely that the perk would stay active for very long before she got [enchanter] and swapped her classes around, it wasn¡¯t a bad idea to get some benefit out of it before the perk got disabled.


    accelerated thinking


    requirements: scholar level 10 or higher, intelligence 125 or greater


    slightly improves your thinking and processing speed.


    lesser reduced sleep requirement


    requirements: scholar level 10 or higher, endurance 75 or greater


    your body needs 10% less sleep every day, and your sleeping habits will be better optimized for the amount of sleep your body is able to function with.


    speed reading


    requirements: scholar level 10 or higher, intelligence 100 or greater, perception 100 or greater


    you read words in books somewhat more quickly and process the information within more quickly. cannot be applied to anything besides reading.


    alice looked over the perks for a moment, immediately excluding {speed reading} from the choices. it wasn¡¯t bad, but she had the problem of not having enough books to read right now, rather than the problem of not processing the information inside of them quickly enough. besides, the other two choices were simply more appealing to her. the other two were both tempting ¨C as far as she could guess, {accelerated thinking} would probably act as something akin to an amplifier for her [intelligence] stat, improving her ability to think quickly. it would probably also help her use her magic more effectively ¨C being able to process information quickly was vital to actually keeping her mana tendrils focused on the object she wanted to move, as well as making fewer mistakes and wasting less mana. by contrast, {lesser reduced sleep requirement} would allow her to get in some more training time. from the way the perk was worded, alice assumed her body wouldn''t just need less sleep, but would also build itself around whatever adjusted sleep schedule she had. an 10% training time every day would be incredibly useful in the long run as well - she would be able to read more books if she had access to a library, increasing her levels in the long run, as well as increasing her attributes and skills as long as she took advantage of the extra time.


    after hesitating for a while, alice grabbed {lesser reduced sleep requirement}. extra training every day would have more long-lasting use in the long run, and would also help her grind stats like [intelligence]. those improvements would last even after the [scholar] class was moved to secondary classes later on.


    ¡°when am i expected to start working on helping around town and with monster hunting?¡± asked alice in between bites of breakfast.


    ¡°lady illa has stated that you can think of the time period between now and the expedition as ¡®training time¡¯ and not worry about your obligations. however, starting when the expedition departs, you¡¯re expected to start contributing to cyra.¡± said the maid.


    so i have a little under two weeks, if illa hasn¡¯t changed her mind about the time frame for the expedition. that¡¯s probably sensible ¨C enough time for me to pick up the class i need and ensure i won¡¯t embarrass myself and her, but still making sure she gets at least two and a half months of work out of me. fair enough. for now, she intended to make the most of her ¡®training time¡¯ then.


    ¡°lady illa and i agreed that i would be allowed to look over her library of books, yes? may i ask where they are?¡±


    ¡°follow me, lady alice,¡± said the maid as she turned around. after walking through various hallways and rooms for a minute or two, alice arrived in a room that was... quite different from what she had imagined. she had been expecting a room filled with books, the way she was used to libraries looking when she had been on earth. unfortunately, because of how much more expensive paper and ink were in this dimension, illa¡¯s library only consisted of fifty books or so, arranged on a single lone bookshelf. alice would probably be able to read through this lone bookshelf in a month or so. she couldn''t help but feel a bit disappointed, but tried to brush off the feeling. considering how expensive books were here, it made sense.


    the rest of the room was filled with comfortable furniture, as well as a teapot and various flavors of tea and snacks suitable for light reading. briefly, alice wondered why illa would put water near the highly expensive and valuable books, before she remembered how easy it had been for her clothes to get some perks attached to them. come to think of it, how common were perks that made books waterproof? considering how valuable paper and ink were in this world, she was sure people took extra precautions towards making books safe. in that case, perhaps waterproof books were common here? it was an odd idea to her, but it was also quite interesting.


    alice thanked the maid, who simply gave a half-bow before leaving the room. alice turned back towards the small collection of books, and with a sigh, started scanning the titles, looking for anything relevant to her interests. the books were about a variety of scattered topics, but alice quickly found one that interested her, titled ¡°on the formation of lesser seeds.¡± she opened the book and, without another thought, started reading.


    she spent several hours thumbing through the book, learning more about the differences in magic seeds. apparently, the ¡®basic four¡¯ magic seeds were fairly standard choices for most mages because of their highly efficient mana conversion ¨C almost no broken mana produced, and since people had at least relatively okay understanding of the subjects, people often formed ¡®perfect¡¯ magic seeds with 100% initial mana conversion ratio. since mana conversion ratio directly equated to how much of one¡¯s magic stat was converted into available mana, having a subject where people usually formed 100% magic seeds and then didn¡¯t ¡®break¡¯ much mana when they used their seed was incredibly valuable.


    however, ¡®lesser¡¯ magic seeds weren¡¯t anywhere near as uncommon as alice had thought they were ¨C higher level mages often grabbed one or two ¡®lesser¡¯ magic seeds even though they wasted much more mana, specifically because they could produce a nasty surprise in a combat situation. magic seeds could also, theoretically, be literally anything. basically, the process of creating a magic seed seemed to be creating some sort of ¡®concept,¡¯ and then the seed would allow one to spend mana from inside of the seed to convert the world around you into whatever your ¡®concept¡¯ was. that concept could be anything ¨C singing, healing, kinetic energy, or even more abstract ones like ¡®justice¡¯ or ¡®hope.¡¯ however, the more abstract a seed was, and the less it conformed to the laws of physics, the worse the broken mana production would be. something like a ¡®magic seed of hope,¡¯ for example, was estimated to waste over 90% of its mana trying to create ¡®hope¡¯ in the surrounding environment, and it was often difficult to tell what the seed was actually doing besides wasting a slot for a useful magic seed.


    however, [enchanters] had much greater use for extra mana seeds of ¡®lesser¡¯ schools specifically because traditional enchanting and consumable enchanting required one to have a magic seed similar to the force one was attempting to manipulate. in other words, to create a ¡®healing stone¡¯ consumable item, one needed to have a ¡®healing¡¯ magic seed. this was vastly inferior to what an [organic mage] could do, especially when it came to reducing broken mana production. however, it had the upside of being able to work even without an intelligent mind precisely directing the magic seed, whereas an [organic mage] who didn¡¯t know what they were doing was prone to accidentally breaking important things inside of the body and harming or killing the patient. in short, [enchanters] took weird and suboptimal magic seeds to compensate for the shortcomings of magic that wasn¡¯t directed by an intelligent mind.


    it was as if the class was made specifically to synergize with [explorer of magic]. the class offered her so many magic seeds that she was sure that it would pair well with [enchanter]. assuming that lehmann¡¯s daughter was willing to help her, at least ¨C if not, there really wasn¡¯t anything she could do about it.


    finally, after hours of reading, the maid informed alice that illa was prepared for their lesson. grudgingly, alice tore herself away from her book and returned to the training room where she had suffered yesterday.


    alice suspiciously glanced at illa¡¯s hands the moment she entered the room. sure enough, there were more dry beans there...


    however, thankfully, it didn¡¯t seem like illa had the intention of throwing them at her today. yet. when illa saw alice walk into the room, she shot alice a grin that contained both a hint of mirth and a hint of warmth.


    requirements: student of kinetic magic level 5 or higher


    you gain a greater understanding and ability to remember any concepts taught to you by your teacher related to kinetic magic.


    two of the four options were just minor attribute boosts, which, while not bad, weren¡¯t particularly excellent either. {proper disciple} had at least been sort of interesting, but it just overlapped way too much with {enhanced memory}. honestly, alice didn¡¯t think that the perk was really that useful in comparison to {enhanced memory} either, since it was way more specific. she could see the appeal, but it just wasn¡¯t useful for her.


    however, {object control} felt way better than a level 5 perk had any right to be. she hadn¡¯t expected much after reading the description ¨C even though it sounded pretty useful, it was, ultimately, a level 5 perk, and alice knew that the lower level a perk was, the weaker it tended to be.


    instead, the perk gave her a minor overhaul in how she used mana ¨C it was tighter, more efficient, and cleaner in nearly every respect. a small, subtle change, but she could definitely feel the difference when she used her magic. she was probably able to avoid wasting almost 5% of the mana she normally failed to use effectively. even better, the perk gave her the ability to vaguely sense anything moving within about five meters. she couldn¡¯t detect exactly wherethe object was, or how fast it was moving, but every time something moved, she could at least get a vague sensation of where it was and how big it was. in short, even if it wouldn¡¯t let her stop an arrow with pinpoint accuracy heading towards the back of her head, she would be able to tell that one was heading towards her a fraction of a second before it hit her and try to duck or dodge. and alice didn¡¯t doubt for a second that she would get more and better ways to enhance this even further in the future ¨C during some of their training sessions, illa had demonstrated awareness of nearly the entire room at all times, regardless of where illa¡¯s eyes were pointing.


    now, alice looked at the perks for level 10 of her [student of kinetic magic] class.


    proper learning


    requirements: student of kinetic magic level 10 , intelligence 100 or greater


    increases the effect of the intelligence attribute by 5%


    disciple''s kinetic seed improvement


    requirements: student of kinetic magic level 10 or higher


    your kinetic seed''s mana conversion ratio is improved by 8%


    resistance-piercing


    requirement: student of kinetic magic level 10 or higher


    your mana becomes slightly better at piercing through the resistance all living creatures have against mana.


    range improvement


    requirement: student of kinetic magic level 10 or higher


    your ''range'' within which you may interact with mana with no penalty is increased by 1 meter.


    above average mana sight


    requirements: student of kinetic magic level 10 or higher, perception 100 or higher, magic 100 or higher, have interacted with magic for at least 15 hours.


    your eyes gain the ability to see mana around you with an above-average level of detail.


    alice scanned over the perks briefly before she grabbed {above average mana sight}. she had already started to notice that [scientist] wouldn¡¯t level up unless she actually did proper experiments. [scholar] allowed her to accept the results of other people testing things out, as long as she was properly trying to learn from the source of information. however, for [scientist] to level up, it seemed alice needed to actually experiment and test things out herself. and that meant that, to do her first experiment, she needed to actually be able to see mana. none of the other perks were anywhere close to making the cut when alice thought about how much she needed to be able to detect mana, since {sixth sense} was mostly geared towards not getting eaten by monsters and barely helped her sense mana.


    after taking the perk, she felt the brief sensation of her eyes itching, before they settled down. she looked around the room, and for the first time, she could see floating wisps of colored light. they didn¡¯t obscure her ability to see the room, but they were quite distinct. she could see two distinct colors floating around her room ¨C one was a solid grey color, sort of monotone in nature and a bit grainy. the second color was much, much sparser, and could only be seen occasionally. it was closer to a solid white color, and it was only detectable in tiny floating wisps here and there. if she had to guess, there were probably only ten or twenty little specks of the white color within the entire room, and everywhere else was simply filled with grey mana. she also noticed that she could see mana outside of the room, even through solid walls and doors, although it was a bit more grainy and difficult to see.


    alice tried reaching out a mana tendril towards one of the wisps of white light, and tried to sense it. however, her mana tendrils gave her the same amount of feedback as usual ¨C namely, the only thing she could tell was that there was no solid object there. however, she was actually able to see her mana tendril now ¨C it looked kind of like a long rope extending out from the center of her chest, and like the rest of the room, it was mostly grey in color. however, there were a few small wisps of white here and there as well. she tried pushing some mana through her tendril, and watched as the inside of the tendril guided along a pulse of mana, before it exited the other end of the rope and pushed the air directly around the tendril. however, as she watched, she noticed that not all of the mana she had sent through the tendril actually turned into kinetic energy ¨C instead, small bits and pieces of it seemed to collapse into themselves, before they also turned into little wisps of white mana.


    ah, the white color might be broken mana, she thought as she watched little chunks of her mana break off from the main flow here and there before turning into specks of white.


    then, alice began cackling as she looked at the room around her. finally, she could start her first experiment now! when she was training tomorrow, she just had to watch the flow of mana around her and inside of her body while she exercised ¨C even though it was a bit harder to see through her body, her newfound ability to see mana didn¡¯t seem to be particularly hindered by physical objects. therefore, she could actually see mana flowing through her body, especially her muscles, as she watched. in other words, she could definitely watch what happened when she did her training.


    tomorrow, she could finally start her first experiment on this world. it had been months of hard work, most of which she had spent just barely surviving, and she had grown a lot as both a person and in terms of levels. finally, she was set up to start a real experiment.??v€l?1n.

 Chapter 25

    chapter 25


    alice spent the night in nervous anticipation, before she finally got up the next day. she started out by reading through more of illa¡¯s library, as usual, but couldn¡¯t focus on the words in each book as well as she normally could.


    today, she would finally test one of her theories. she had generated dozens of them during her time in the wilderness, wondering what the system was and how it worked. finally, she had the ability to test at least a corner of how this dimension worked. a tiny start, but it was, finally, a start.


    finally, after a few hours, the usual time for alice¡¯s training session with illa was here. alice stepped into the room with far more eagerness than she usually felt at the prospect of having beans thrown at her face while she ran herself to exhaustion. even if she could see the usefulness and the necessity of it, it was far from what alice considered to be enjoyable.


    however, today was different. for once, alice was looking forward to training today. she ignored the strange look illa was giving her as she practically bounced up and down on her feet, waiting for the training to start.


    alice¡¯s theory about mana and its relationship to how muscles worked was a bit underdeveloped at the moment. it was more based on a rough assumption, rather than a well-built hypothesis. her current materials for experimenting were also all incredibly crude ¨C she only had her eyes and her body right now. however, alice wasn¡¯t looking for a great experiment right now ¨C this was mostly because she didn¡¯t have enough familiarity with mana to design a more complex experiment in the first place. nor did she have the tools needed to run a ¡®great¡¯ experiment. what she was doing now was closer to a very rough test ¨C not intended to create a specific conclusion, but just generate some observations she could do more specific tests with later on. if it were ever presented as a serious science experiment, it would probably be laughed out of the classroom. however, she also had so little information in her topic of interest to work with that, instead of an experiment that perfectly isolated variables, double-checked for any errors, and had a flawless methodology, right now she just needed some food for thought to figure out what direction she should be heading. it wasn¡¯t even quite a proper experiment, in some sense ¨C she was testing her hypothesis, but doing so in a way prone to errors. but it was also the best idea she had at the moment.


    this led to the idea behind her first experiment. the books that both the church and illa¡¯s library contained mentioned that people who had higher stats, levels, and skills all consistently had more mana than those who had lower levels, stats, and attributes. this was true regardless of whether or not somebody was a mage ¨C which struck alice as odd. illa¡¯s books confirmed this statement, taking it as common sense that, without exception, those who were stronger had more mana in their body.


    since alice had also noticed that people in this world were much stronger than those at home, and the system didn¡¯t seem to negate the need for some sort of energy to fuel the body, alice theorized that, somehow, the bodies of people in this dimension were using mana as a fuel source to make themselves stronger. specifically, alice theorized that, maybe, people were burning mana in place of fat or something when they used their seemingly superhuman strength and abilities, which somehow translated to the extraordinary feats of human strength and endurance most people considered commonplace in this world. she had no idea how that would work from a biological perspective, in practice, or even if it was correct. however, if she was wrong, it wasn¡¯t a big deal ¨C what mattered more was just getting a rough idea of whether she was looking at a branch of theory worth pursuing at all. and if she was wrong, then that was that. no big deal. just a few hours of wasted concentration, and maybe a slightly embarrassing memory of the time she thought that she had stumbled onto something incredible only to find out her entire assumption was totally wrong from the very beginning. however, it would be much better to find out now that she was wrong, instead of finding out she was wrong after investing several months of her wages and materials into an experiment.


    for her experiment, she wasn¡¯t doing anything complex. she was just going to use her {above average mana sight} to carefully observe the mana inside of her body and muscles while she exercised. what she expected to see was mana inside of her muscles continuously decreasing as she exercised, assuming her theory was correct. or, alternately, perhaps mana would continuously flow into her muscles from the air around her at a much faster than usual rate. the mana in the air already flowed into her body, as far as she had observed last night, but it usually did so at an extremely sedate and stable pace. the amount of mana she absorbed from one moment to the next didn¡¯t really change, and after staring at it both at night and this morning, she knew how quickly she absorbed mana while ¡®at rest.¡¯ she wasn¡¯t exactly sure whether this was ¡®normal¡¯ or not, and none of illa¡¯s books referenced it either, but she was at least confident in noticing if her mana absorption rate changed. and if she saw either the mana in her muscles decreasing or the rate she absorbed mana increasing, she would know that she might be onto something. if neither happened, she was probably wrong, and should scrap the idea and search for another angle to start investigating the system.


    and so, alice started her weighted jogging. as usual, illa would occasionally randomly throw a bean at her, and alice would do her best to sense it and stop its movement before it hit her. however, she paid very, very close attention to the mana in the air around her.


    as far as she could tell, her initial hypothesis... seemed to be correct? the mana in the air around her was continuously drifting into her, much, much more quickly than it had when she was resting or reading this morning. it was still small enough that she wouldn¡¯t have noticed it if she wasn¡¯t paying attention, but she could definitely tell that her ¡®mana absorption rate¡¯ was increasing while she was exercising. in addition, if she slowed down her jog, or took a break, the mana absorption would immediately slow down. in short, the amount of mana she was absorbing from the air around her was always directly related to how much she was exerting herself.


    she was about to pat herself on the back for making a good first hypothesis, thinking that she was onto something, when something totally out of her expectations happened that immediately threw her hypothesis out the window.


    through training, you have increased an attribute!


    endurance+1


    the moment before she gained an attribute point, the mana in the air around her grew much denser. then, suddenly, all of the mana in the air around her swarmed towards her, like a group of piranhas that had smelled fresh blood. in an instant, mana was suddenly invading her body much more quickly than it had been mere moments ago. the amounts of mana involved were still tiny - if she hadn¡¯t been paying such close attention, she wouldn¡¯t have noticed anything at all. however, since she was watching the entire thing as closely as she could, she knew that the mana swarming into her had happened exactly the moment before she had picked up an attribute point.


    the excess mana that had invaded her body swirled inside of her muscles and bones, quickly assimilating itself into her body. she could barely make out what was going on once the mana was actually inside of her body ¨C the only thing that she could tell for sure was that whatever was happening, it was complicated. way, way beyond anything alice could process, even with double or triple her [intelligence] stat. it was like watching somebody perform calculus when you barely understood basic algebra ¨C the only thing she was sure of was that it was a poor idea to drink and derive. similarly, the mana was swirling around, assimilating itself, and interacting with her body in ways that she simply couldn¡¯t understand.


    right on time, alice felt the typical small improvement in her abilities from gaining an attribute point. it was subtle, but she could feel her body become the slightest bit sturdier, her stamina just the slightest bit better. just like usual.


    and, most importantly, the mana in her body was, ever so slightly, more dense than it had originally been. especially in the spots where the mana swarm had targeted ¨C her bones and muscles.


    what did i just see? alice tried to stop her imagination from running wild ¨C however, it was impossible for her to not start feeling wild anticipation build up after seeing the way the mana had behaved. she had been expecting to either be totally correct or totally incorrect when it came to her theory ¨C after all, being wrong wouldn¡¯t have been too strange here, and she had already mentally prepared herself to start over completely and design a new observation test.


    instead, it looked like she had been somewhere in the ballpark of the right answer, but totally wrong in several aspects of her original hypothesis. or, at least, she might have been. alice gritted her teeth, and continued jogging ¨C it was possible the mana surge had just been some sort of anomaly. she should at least double check, and see if she saw the same thing happening when she gained her next attribute point.


    however, at the same time, alice began to quietly wonder what her observation meant. her first theory was probably wrong, or at least only partially correct. however, there was another way to explain what she was observing, and also accounted for her new observations. what if mana wasn¡¯t being used as some sort of fuel source, as she had first imagined? what if, instead, mana was somehow being used to build up muscles or something like that instead? or was it being used to replace muscle fibers? she was having a bit of a hard time visualizing that, because she couldn¡¯t understand how mana, which seemed to mostly act like a gas, would map to physical matter, but it would explain what she was looking at.


    +1 primary class slot(s), +40% class experience for all research-related classes, +10% effect of intelligence, +15% effect of perception. your ability to see mana is significantly enhanced.


    you have leveled up!


    scientist: 1 -> 9


    scholar: 13 -> 15


    explorer of magic: 29 -> 31


    huh? alice looked at the string of notifications. the levels in scientist were, more or less, what she had been expecting. if anything, she thought the system was being quite generous, since it was giving her eight levels for a half-baked low-quality experiment on how mana and muscles interact. the number of levels she gained in [scholar] seemed a bit low, probably because the class was more geared towards books and knowledge than experimentation and knowledge. the attribute increases also made sense, since she was doing research and had focused a lot on her observational skills to do so. however, what the heck was {seeker of truth}?


    it implied that she had seen... something a bit different than just a random guess at the truth. or, rather, that most people didn¡¯t realize something that she had seen in her experimentation. alice had already started to work out how many of the mechanics behind levelling and attribute growth went ¨C the system didn¡¯t necessarily reward correct actions. instead, it rewarded critical thinking and planning, regardless of how correct or incorrect a statement was. if she did an experiment that proved that the system was intelligent, even if the system wasn¡¯t intelligent it would still give her levels in [scholar]. it was like her math teacher ¨C it would reward her work, giving her plenty of points even if she got the final answer wrong as long as the steps leading up to that answer were kinda reasonable-ish.


    however, the {seeker of truth} achievement implied something very different. it probably meant that she had, at some point, stumbled across something correct.


    alice had started out with the theory that people in this world used mana as some sort of fuel source in place of the regular energy supplied by the human body, and had nearly decided she was correct before she luckily gained an attribute point and realized her theory was definitely missing something. most people in this world accepted the current theory that was promoted by [scholars], which claimed that mana was, instead, something similar to air ¨C human bodies needed it in order to survive, and so humans naturally ¡®breathed¡¯ it in every second.


    the theory alice had ended up with at the end was that maybe mana was somehow reshaping the body as it passed through it. was the system implying this theory was correct, or was there something else to it?


    alice shook her head. for now, she would do her best to be careful. even in this experiment, she had nearly messed up, and only succeeded anyway as a result of pure luck. she didn¡¯t want to keep stumbling by on pure luck. she couldn¡¯t improve too much right now ¨C her methodology for her experiment had been dubious, but none of illa¡¯s enchanted stuff had helped her do anything like measure mana in the air or inside of her body, and she simply didn¡¯t have the materials to do more rigorous experiments. illa did have a tool to measure broken mana, but that was hardly what she needed right now.


    however, at the very least, she could put more time and energy into removing the more obvious loopholes in her experiments ¨C as well as finding an actual control group.


    she took a look around the room, trying to get a sense for what {seeker of truth} was improving. the sensation of her mind moving too quickly for her body to keep up with increased, just like it had the first time alice¡¯s [perception] had improved. her thoughts were also clearer ¨C in fact, they were clearer than they had ever been in her life. she quickly did some math. the effect of her [intelligence] stat had just improved by ten percent, so that was about the equivalent of adding 15 points to her [intelligence] total? it was certainly noticeable, now that she was getting so many points at the same time. her ability to see the world around her and think were both much clearer. her ability to process information became faster, and everything was easier to understand. there was something else, too... she couldn¡¯t quite put her finger on it, but after gaining so many points in [intelligence], something else felt different as well. for now, since she couldn¡¯t figure out what that something was, she set it aside.


    of course, far more notable was her ability to see mana. before, she had mostly seen the world with a sort of colored ¡®film¡¯ over it. however, making out individual swirls of mana had been difficult, especially farther away. now, however, alice was seeing something else entirely ¨C her vision was much, much clearer. she could see that the broken mana in this room, for example, had two very slightly different shades of color associated with them. one of them was obviously alice¡¯s broken mana ¨C as she deflected another bean, alice could see a very small chunk of her mana, perhaps four or five percent of it, break off and form another little speck of broken mana. the other color, by simple elimination, should probably belong to illa, since she was the only other mage in this mansion.


    that led to the question of what broken mana was¨C nothing she had read or heard about indicated that there was a major difference in the broken mana produced by one person versus another, but she could clearly see that there was some sort of difference. another question to investigate, when she had more time and a better idea of what she was doing.


    alice closed her eyes, trying to adjust to the feeling of her new stats as her body tried to compensate for assumptions about how she moved and saw things that simply weren¡¯t true anymore.


    apart from that, she also had an extra primary class slot. suddenly, the knowledge that she was going to lose the [scholar] class in the next few weeks just... vanished. if she had six class slots, she didn''t need to give anything up. it was an unexpectedly liberating feeling - she had acknowledged that she needed to focus on her survival, and the {sense hostility} perk was simply too useful for her to abandon right now. however, she certainly hadn''t felt good about giving up [scholar]. now, suddenly, she didn''t have to give it up. most of the achievements she had seen that granted something like an extra class slot were rarity 9 or 10, and involved such ridiculous feats alice was absolutely confident she would die if she tried for them. however, even though she didn''t remember seeing this perk in the church''s book, she now had one final class slot. she breathed a quiet sigh of relief, before she focused again, trying to redirect her attention back to what she needed to do.


    in the next two days, she had two things to do. first, she needed to find a control group. hopefully priest friedheim didn¡¯t mind her sitting in on the lessons he conducted ¨C if so, she could probably get decent information from that. second, in two days, alice needed to visit erik¡¯s daughter and discuss enchanting with her. alice still didn¡¯t even understand the different types of enchantment, and she had no ability to start learning enchanting by herself at all.


    of course, before that, she had perks to select. one in each class, in fact.


    "if you are done staring at your system notifications, may i ask what exactly you''re doing?" asked illa, staring at alice and frowning.

 Chapter 26

    chapter 26


    "if you are done staring at your system notifications, may i ask what exactly you''re doing?" asked illa, staring at alice and frowning.


    ¡°huh?¡± alice gave illa a dumbfounded look.


    ¡°you¡¯re obviously up to something. you¡¯ve been acting strange all morning ¨C first you looked excited for training, which is something you never do. i know my training methods are a bit harsh, and you being excited about training is something i¡¯m almost tempted to say means i failed to include the proper rigor in each part of the exercise. however, even disregarding your sudden enthusiasm for weighted running and projectile awareness training, you¡¯ve stopped running twice, the mana in your body suddenly increased, and your facial expressions have been jumping all over the place. it would be strange if you weren¡¯t up to something under these circumstances.¡±


    alice winced. she hadn¡¯t thought much about her behavior from an outside perspective. however, now that she thought about it, it was kind of rude to half-ignore the person who was training you and in the room with you, and her behavior had been rather obviously off once she thought about it. she searched around for a reasonable explanation, before she settled on how she wanted to address the topic.


    ¡°ahem. ever since i got to this town, i¡¯ve been thinking that people in this world are stronger than my previous one.¡±


    ¡°stronger? do you mean physically, or in another aspect?¡±


    ¡°i mean physically stronger. the average person in my world would probably have significantly lower stats than the average teenager here, and so the difference is really noticeable for me. i was trying to figure out if mana had any sort of role in improving physical strength, since it¡¯s one of the most obvious major differences between this world and my old one. so i was trying to observe how mana moves while it¡¯s inside of my body, and see if it was somehow influencing my muscles or something.¡±


    ¡°hmm.¡± illa actually appeared thoughtful at that. ¡°what did you find?¡±


    alice hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should really just hand over her hard-earned insight into mana. however, illa had also helped her in the courtroom when lady vallis had attempted to skewer her. furthermore, she had a decent working relationship with illa overall ¨C not to mention that, right now, illa was her teacher, and might have useful insights on how to progress her experiments further. alice had a unique advantage in having an outside perspective on a variety of topics, but that wasn¡¯t always an advantage ¨C like in the case of selecting her classes. having the input of a native from this world was probably inevitably going to be something she needed eventually if she wanted to progress her experiments. and really, was there a reason to keep this hidden?


    ¡°i found out that every time i get an attribute point, there¡¯s a surge of mana that gets added to my body,¡± said alice, truthfully. ¡°my body seems to absorb mana at a somewhat consistent rate even when i¡¯m doing other things, but that bit seems to vary from activity to activity. however, right before i gain an attribute point, i can see a big surge of mana about to enter my body.¡±


    ¡°that makes sense ¨C after all, mana is needed for life to thrive and exist-¡± illa looked like she was reciting something she had heard a thousand times, a sort of unconscious reflexive urge. however, partway through the sentence, she suddenly snapped to attention, as if she had suddenly noticed something. ¡°hmm... at least, that was my understanding a week ago, but the fact of the matter is that your body far, far outperforms what it should, given my estimations for how much mana there is in your body. is mana really critical to survival? hmm... but monsters all universally die if they are isolated from mana, at least in all of the experiments performed so far...¡± illa frowned. for the first time since alice had met illa, the woman seemed... uncertain. ¡°i don¡¯t understand. even livestock have traces from mana, and get weaker if they are cut off from mana. not to mention, in the very few and rare historical cases where people were cut off from mana due to extenuating circumstances, they reported feeling weak and dizzy, similar to being cut off from oxygen. does that.... hmm...¡± illa suddenly looked as if she was deep in thought, before she turned back towards alice.


    ¡°you say that your original world had no mana at all in it, right?¡±


    ¡°to the best of my knowledge, yes.¡±


    ¡°and the amount of mana in your body increased by far too much when you observed the differences... that makes no sense, unless...¡± illa started pacing, thinking as alice lost track of her mumbling. a moment later, illa stopped, and turned back towards alice. ¡°you discovered something major and got an achievement for it?¡±


    alice twitched. this woman was disturbingly good at finding things out ¨C or her mana senses were incredibly acute. come to think of it, the surge of mana when she had gained her levels and achievement a few moments ago had dwarfed that of the mana surge when she had gained an attribute. did mana somehow influence levels and achievements as well?


    alice began by describing her theory about how mana might be used as an energy source used by the body, perhaps somehow improving people''s muscles in the process. it was more of a half-baked theory she had wanted to try looking into, so alice didn¡¯t have a great amount of detail to discuss in a lot of aspects, but she did her best to describe what she was looking for and why. illa had simply nodded along, unwilling to interrupt alice¡¯s initial explanation. once alice began describing her initial results, illa had simply said nothing, opting to keep listening. however, once alice began describing how she had sensed a rush of mana whenever she gained an attribute, illa¡¯s eyes popped open.


    ¡°wait, so you mean that whenever you get an attribute, you can tell before you get a system message?¡± illa said. ¡°i¡¯ve never heard of that... how odd. it could still make sense with the old explanation for mana being required, if we assume the body is upgrading itself and requires more ¡®nutrients,¡¯ or in this case, ¡®mana¡¯ to do so. however, that seems decidedly... odd, as far as explanations go. hmm...¡±


    ¡°that¡¯s not all ¨C i gained an achievement called {seeker of truth} when i was thinking that maybe mana was reshaping the body somehow every time you get an attribute point. from that perspective, maybe every attribute point notification is actually just a record of mana altering your body? or something along those lines? i am beginning to at least suspect that the body improves before the system notification occurs, meaning that perhaps the notification is just a... notification. not ... i mean...¡± alice struggled for a moment with describing what she was thinking. if mana upgraded the body before a system notification, that might totally flip around her assumption on cause and effect. she had previous assumed the system was granting a notification as an upgrade happened, or perhaps the notification caused the upgrade somehow. it had at least seemed logical. however, what if the system was just recording what was already happening to her body?


    or something like that. frankly, she needed far more research and investigation to conclude anything.


    illa simply frowned. then, she turned back towards alice. ¡°that is a... strange theory. i will have to think more about it. for now, tell no one of your thoughts on attributes being records of mana ¨C i will send a message to the north and ask if there have been any similar lines of scholarly research in the past couple centuries. it seems unlikely that no one else has encountered this particular phenomenon, so i¡¯ll see if i can get any results on what¡¯s happening on that front. the snow has already melted, and so the faster [messengers] are already starting to make the transit between the north and south again.¡± illa tapped her finger against her arm, seeming to be deep in thought. after a moment, she turned back towards alice. ¡°by the way, what does {seeker of truth} do? if it is combat related, feel free not to tell me, but i am curious, and it may help me tailor my training for you a bit.¡±


    alice debated whether or not she should tell illa, before she decided it wasn¡¯t a huge problem and listed the effects of the achievement. ¡°i¡¯m already using the extra class slot. i was planning on ditching [scholar] down the line because it doesn¡¯t level much from experiments, and i had another class i picked up that i¡¯m interested in. however, if i can keep [scholar] as well, it would mean i don¡¯t have to give anything up, which feels a lot better to me.¡±


    ¡°reasonable. [scholar] has a lot of nice effects, but ultimately isn¡¯t critical for a mage, or critical for conducting research. it¡¯s a class that¡¯s more in the realm of ¡®utility¡¯ than ¡®critical.¡¯ however, the fact you got a rarity 8 achievement so easily feels strange to me. hmm...¡± illa frowned. then, finally, she turned back towards alice. ¡°what do you know about achievements?¡±


    ¡°uhh... they give bonuses and you get them for.... achieving stuff?¡± truthfully, alice hadn¡¯t thought about achievements very much since she came to this world. with everything else that had been going on, it had been set on the backburner and then overtaken by more important questions.


    ¡°that is both correct and incorrect. an achievement¡¯s rarity is based on two things ¨C how many people have the achievement, and how ¡®likely¡¯ it is for the conditions to gain the achievement are. for example, {baptized by mana} is a rarity 5 achievement because somewhere around a quarter of mages have the perk, at least in illvaria. mana baptism is always an option for the desperate to lift themselves to a new life, catapulting themselves from nobody to a valued member of society. if they can survive, at least.


    ¡°{baptized by broken mana} is only rarity 6, even though it is much rarer. this is because the conditions for gaining the achievement aren¡¯t massively harder than {baptized by mana}, and that drops the rarity, despite the achievement¡¯s rarity. does that make sense?¡±


    alice nodded, and illa continued speaking.


    ¡°apart from the achievements everyone can achieve, however, there is another kind of achievements ¨C achievements created based on unique feats or events. for example, i have the {fifteen heroes of the winter siege} achievement based on a particularly massive raid from the northern nomads where i and fourteen other mages held off over two hundred nomads for three hours, using a massive amount of enchanted items and magic to help us survive the encounter. while half of us died, we held them off long enough for the army to finish cleaning up a more critical part of the raid before reinforcements arrived and won the battle. i suspect your achievement is of the latter type ¨C an achievement formed based off of unique circumstances or events that are likely to leave a mark on the world.


    ¡°the fact that you got an achievement for your little discovery that is at a rarity of 8 means you stumbled onto something a lot more interesting than just disproving a single scholarly theory, though,¡± said illa as she absently tapped her fingers. ¡°i advise you to be careful about discussing it. while it would not matter in cyra, if you intend to go north in the future, talking about theories regarding how the system and mana interact might be frowned on by the church, or [scholars] with some amount of influence. they won¡¯t do anything too bad, but it could still be irritating, at least if you intend to enter an academy. and, of course, most works that are read in public are written by [scholars], so they can affect your reputation as well.¡± illa shrugged. ¡°really, it is dependent on your future plans and how much they can be influenced by such things, but your choices are your own. still, tread cautiously.¡±


    ¡°indeed,¡± said alice as she thought it over. she was still focused on surviving now, but the expedition was coming up soon. then, she would have a period of working for illa, but... what came after? going home was either impossible, or unachievable in the short term. what did she want now?


    she didn¡¯t know. she wanted to explore the mysteries of magic and the system, but she had a hard time finding a concrete way to pursue those goals.


    three seeds


    requirements: explorer of magic level 30 or higher, perception 100 or greater, magic 100 or greater


    you may form three more magic seeds, with a maximum mana conversion ratio of 10% each.


    improved seed capacity


    requirements: explorer of magic level 30 or higher


    one magic seed of your choice gains a 35% improvement in its mana conversion ratio


    hmm. converting mana was sort of interesting. as far as alice could tell, it would basically allow her to use mana in place of food, as long as she meditated or whatever the equivalent demanded by the perk was. still, she wasn¡¯t really hurting for food right now, so it wasn¡¯t something she thought she wanted to focus on. and unfortunately, it didn¡¯t allow her to do something like absorb mana in the air to replenish her magic seed, which would have been far more useful. while the perk was fascinating, she didn¡¯t feel that it was actually that useful, in practical terms, at least right now.


    {improved seed capacity} was kind of nice, but her kinetic seed was already at 135%. considering the fact she was planning on picking up enchanting soon, she would much rather get a new magic seed, to give her more versatility in the subject. she still wasn¡¯t exactly clear on what the difference between system and non-system enchanting was, but she did know that she needed magic to do the latter. and apart from that, she needed a magic seed related to a specific ¡®subject¡¯ to make enchantments related to that subject. in which case, {three seeds} would be incredibly valuable.


    after a bit of hesitation, she decided to wait and see if cecilia was willing to teach her enchanting. if she was, alice would grab {three seeds}, since while mana conversion ratio would affect her ability to make high-quality enchantments, the effect of a seed¡¯s conversion ratio was much, much lower than it was when it came to actually doing magic in the heat of the moment. by contrast, if cecilia was not willing to help alice with enchanting, she would probably still grab {three seeds}, but she would at least think {cracked seed} over more carefully. she was particularly interested in trying to grab an organic magic seed, for example, since having a decent organic magic seed would get her some useful perks from [scientist] and [scholar] if she wanted to look at what was happening inside of people¡¯s bodies.


    she closed her perk selection screen for [explorer of magic] without making a selection yet, and then opened it for [scholar], her final class that had gained a perk level recently.


    written word


    requirements: scholar level 15 or higher


    your handwriting becomes significantly easier to read, and you will more easily find words that are likely to be easier to understand. this will make it easier for others to understand your ideas which are written down. warning: will not correct your ideas or persuade others. this makes it easier to understand what you are saying. it does not make it more persuasive or correct.


    rhetorical flourish


    requirements: scholar level 15 or higher


    your ability to construct a logical argument while debating verbally with others in an academic setting becomes slightly improved. while debating an academic topic, you gain 5% effect of [charisma]


    mana sight


    requirements: scholar level 15 or higher, any magic seed at 100% mana conversion rate or greater, magic stat 50 or higher, perception 100 or higher


    you gain the ability to see mana in the world around you. this effect is weakened for mana inside of living organisms.


    waterproof books


    requirements: scholar level 15 or higher


    any book which you have owned for at least 3 months becomes waterproof so long as you are still considered the owner.


    alice looked over the perks, and wasn¡¯t particularly impressed by any of them. {written word} was... uninspired. her handwriting was already quite neat, and she did not think the perk would offer anything particularly impressive to her. {rhetorical flourish} was... interesting? but far, far too specific ¨C she hadn¡¯t even made up her mind on whether or not she intended to share her ideas with the world around her, or go to a northern mage academy yet. it was quite possible she would, eventually ¨C but the fact that the perk was so specific and applicable to only a single field was a major demerit. especially since the perk noted her ability would only be ¡®slightly¡¯ improved.


    she was a bit surprised the class still offered her {mana sight}, considering the fact she had already acquired it from {student of kinetic magic}. she had already checked around, and having multiple perks with the same effect did absolutely nothing until after level 75, when one could start to combine perks from different classes together instead of being restricted to the same class, as one was after level 50. maybe it was still worth picking up, with the assumption it might be useful someday for perk combination purposes?


    as for {waterproof books}, alice was already quite used to keeping her books safe, considering how many of them she had back home.


    finally, after debating a bit, she went back to the perk choices that had been available at level 10 of [scholar] and grabbed {accelerated thinking}. even if the perk seemed to mostly be a way of boosting the [intelligence] stat, it was still at least somewhat useful. and more importantly, it could probably be combined with {enhanced memory} from level 5 of [scholar] to make something cool after level 50, if alice reached that level in the future.


    she felt her thoughts clarify. she could think slightly faster, have an easier time thinking. it was especially notable once she tried to solve a few math equations in her head, and felt the speed at which she went over her work and arrived at the answer increase. however, she couldn¡¯t quite put her finger on it, but it felt... less effective than boosts to her [intelligence] stat did. like there was something missing. however, she had already expected that, since the perk noted it improved some aspects of her thinking rather than just improving the effect of her [intelligence] stat. at the very least, it was still providing a slight effect, even if it was ultimately rather minor. mostly, though, she grabbed it for combining purposes down the line.


    finally finished grabbing perks for now, alice collapsed into bed, exhausted by the events of the day. she tried not to think about the next two days. tomorrow, she would check to see if others had the same surge of mana she did when she gained an attribute point. that would be fun, and might net another level or two in [scientist] if she was lucky.


    however, ultimately, alice felt her nerves clench for a different reason. soon, she would need to go and face erik¡¯s daughter. the girl whose father''s death she had all but confirmed with her presence and story, as well as whose corpse she had, at least partially, looted.


    that was a conversation alice wasn¡¯t looking forward to.

 Chapter 27

    chapter 27


    the next day, alice headed to the church, in order to sit down and verify her thoughts on mana and attributes. alice got priest friedheim¡¯s permission to sit in on his lesson with the children of the town relatively easily ¨C it seemed the man did not mind her sitting on the edge of the lesson, so long as she was not disruptive. she spent a few minutes getting permission from the kids to ask them if she was correct in playing a ¡®guessing game¡¯ about when they gained an attribute, much to friedheim¡¯s bafflement. the priest did, however, promise to use his lie ¨C detection perk to double check whenever alice was checking whether someone had gained an attribute point or not.


    she found out that, exactly the same way she had drawn in mana when she gained an attribute, so did the children in priest friedheim¡¯s classes. she had gotten permission from some of the children to ¡®guess¡¯ whether or not they had gotten an attribute level, and after a bit of practice, alice could guess with near perfect accuracy when a kid got an attribute point. she couldn¡¯t always tell which kind of attribute, especially because all of the mental stats involved mana rushing into the brain, and distinguishing which part of the brain was fairly difficult. however, alice could, at the very least, always tell when someone got some sort of system notification.


    however, it seemed that her testing method did not work just for attributes ¨C while lesser, it seemed that she would also pick up on any time someone gained a level in a skill. alice also once picked up on someone getting a level ¨C and it was accompanied by exactly the same surge of mana that accompanied a skill or attribute increasing, at least the one time that one of the children had leveled up. unlike when someone got a skill or attribute, however, the surge of mana split in two immediately, half of it moving towards the heart and the other half moving towards the brain.


    it seemed like whatever the system was doing, it was much more closely related to mana than alice had first assumed. alice was actually quite curious to know if the two were actually separate entities ¨C it seemed like the system and mana were always working together somehow, after all. yet another thing to test.


    as the lesson progressed, and alice¡¯s accuracy in ¡®guessing¡¯ each attribute and skill notification was fully displayed, priest friedheim looked very interested in what she was doing. alice managed to brush him off by giving him a similar, if somewhat abbreviated, version of the explanation she had given illa ¨C she was experimenting with whether or not mana played some role in physical or mental growth, because people on this world were stronger than her home world.


    priest friedheim still looked very interested, and alice had the feeling she would need to explain her experiment more thoroughly in the future, but for now, at least, she had a bit more time to think. or avoid the question, which was what alice was beginning to recognize she was actually doing. still, she had enough on her plate already, with magic training, the upcoming expedition, and her experiments. she would discuss mana and the system with the [priest]... eventually.


    alice thanked priest friedheim for allowing her to sit in on the kids as they learned, and then moved on. for the rest of the day, she wondered why no one else had gotten the {seeker of truth} achievement. it seemed so... easy. no one had stumbled onto this in hundreds of years? why? surely someone with basic mana sight would have noticed a surge of mana when people gained stats and levels, regardless of how much people believed that mana was some sort of oxygen-equivalent... right? and once someone had the achievement, they would obviously know there was more to the story. so why had no one stumbled onto this yet? alice might have overestimated how easy it was to stumble onto this, but even so, it seemed strange to her.


    another thing to think about.


    she went to sleep for the night troubled and confused, but with a budding sense of excitement as she thought about what else she could discover. however, even her excitement at making new discoveries couldn¡¯t dampen her dread at the thought of the upcoming meeting with cecilia, erik¡¯s daughter. tomorrow, she would have to face her.


    * * *


    alice found herself outside of a beat-down sign. it read ¡°level 39 enchanter/level 52 blacksmith. light system enchanting, all traditional enchanting, and some consumable enchanting available. the best stop for adventurers!¡±


    alice thought back to when she had first entered this town, almost a week and a half ago. at that time, she had seen this sign, hadn¡¯t she? even back then, she had thought that the sign seemed a bit run-down, but she hadn¡¯t thought about it further. however, now that she was looking at the sign and knew the story behind it, everything made more sense. if the main [enchanter] in the shop was erik, and he was dead, obviously the shop would begin to struggle financially, especially if the only person helming the shop was a girl around the same age as her.


    alice took a deep breath, trying to work up her nerves. then, she knocked on the door.


    just doing so gave her a point in willpower. it took her an extra few moments to realize that this shop was still a shop, and so there was probably no point in knocking ¨C she could have just walked in and asked to see the shop owner. instead, she was treating this shop as if it were cecilia¡¯s house instead. come to think of it, did people on this world even knock on people¡¯s houses? alice wasn¡¯t sure.


    the shop was silent for several seconds. she stood in front of the door, awkwardly shuffling. should she knock again? should she just go in? as she was hesitating, finally, the door opened.


    the girl alice remembered seeing from the trial, cecilia, stood in the doorway. she looked different from when alice had last seen her. stable. her blond hair and green eyes looked a bit brighter than they had during the trial, although she hadn¡¯t gotten that good of a look at cecilia with all of the other things happening back then. however, the taller girl seemed to at least be adjusting to her grief well.


    at least, on the surface.


    the girl¡¯s eyes were a bit more red than alice thought was normal. her face was also... focused. not in a good way. it was more like she had the eyes of someone trying to avoid thinking too much, and so they hyper-focused on whatever task was put in front of them and threw themselves into it.


    alice shuffled awkwardly, before she managed to give out a smile. it was closer to a grimace, but at least it somewhat resembled a smile.


    ¡°hey.¡±


    ¡°oh. you¡¯re the {out -}... the girl from another area.¡± the girl¡¯s speech was toneless. it wasn¡¯t angry or happy, or even sad. it was just... empty. alice took a deep breath.


    ¡°i just wanted to come and say that i was sorry. about your father, i mean. i... i would understand if you didn¡¯t want to see me, since i¡¯m the one that more or less confirmed his death, and while i didn¡¯t know it belonged to a corpse at the time, i did steal the book from his body, and i sold it because i needed the money...¡± alice trailed off, unsure where she had been intending to take the conversation.


    ¡°technically, there are four kind of enchanting ¨C it¡¯s just that the fourth kind is artifact creation, and is basically only used by immortals. i don¡¯t actually know much about that branch of enchanting, honestly, and even if i did i would have no use for it right now. but sure. you need a rundown on the two variations on magical enchanting.


    ¡°i mostly specialize in consumable enchantments. papa does - did the traditional enchantments. however, i can do both, just with different levels of proficiency.¡±


    alice winced a bit internally, as the girl¡¯s expression started to twist for a moment. then her control was back, and cecilia looked back at alice, still fiddling with the object in her hands.


    ¡°traditional enchanting is what most people are referring to when they talk about ¡®magic enchantments.¡¯ that kind of enchantment is very different from system enchantments because system enchanting is limited to buffing whoever wears an enchanted item, giving them some sort of stat or perk or skill advantage, but can¡¯t do anything to more directly affect the world. however, the upside is that they also require no fuel source.


    ¡°for traditional enchanting, an item is able to be used over and over again, but it needs a power source to keep it working. usually monster cores. however, it can do much more than just buff the wearer. like... hmm.¡± cecilia moved towards one of the crates, and began rooting around inside of the crate. after several moments of digging around, cecilia pulled out a simple ring.


    ¡°you¡¯ve got a kinetic seed, right? shoot something at me.¡±


    alice hesitated for a moment, not expecting to have the other girl suddenly demand that she attack her. she looked around, trying to find an object that she could use as a projectile.


    ¡°here. use this,¡± said cecilia, after noticing alice¡¯s problem. she chucked a small iron disc at alice. alice managed to catch it with her magic, her training with illa finally paying off as she caught it without dropping or deflecting it, and then she looked back towards cecilia. ¡°are you ready?¡±


    ¡°yeah. shoot away.¡±


    ¡°all right,¡± said alice. she flung the weighted piece of iron at cecilia, carefully aiming to the left of the girl in case something went wrong.


    a pulse of mana extended outwards from the ring, locking directly onto the piece of iron. the moment it got within three meters of cecilia, the pulse of mana locked onto it, and the piece of iron stopped dead in its tracks. curious, alice tried to apply some more force to the item, trying to push it forward. the tendril of mana that now extended outward from the ring flashed with another pulse of mana every time she tried to move it. even though alice was fighting the ring and trying to move the piece of iron around, physically, nothing was happening except alice¡¯s piece of iron was floating in midair. finally, fed up, alice tried to drag the item back towards her. the ring fought her over that as well, and she was unable to make the object move another centimeter forwards or backwards. finally, the tendril of mana from within cecilia¡¯s ring seemed to deflate, collapsing into nothing. alice gave the object a final tug, and the object was suddenly freed from its restraints. it shot back towards her, and alice barely managed to catch it with another tendril of mana before it hit her in the face.


    cecilia very slightly grinned at the sight, before she launched back into her explanation.


    ¡°as you can see, this ring was enchanted using a kinetic seed to prevent any movement that surpassed a certain speed as long as the ring still had fuel. however, it eats through energy fairly quickly.¡± said cecilia. ¡°it was one of the first things i ever enchanted. its fuel efficiency is... very bad. but you get the idea. traditional enchanting is the art of making an object take on some sort of magical property, similar to a mage actually taking action. of course, it also needs fuel to do so. generally speaking, monster cores are the fuel of choice, with most objects needing cores from a monster using magic somewhat similar to whatever the enchantment is doing. better match means better compatibility, meaning less waste. of course, anything can still theoretically work - if you don¡¯t care about keeping the enchantment in good shape, the fact that you¡¯ll eat through a huge amount of monster cores for very little fuel, you can slap a spidercrab core into just about anything and it¡¯ll work. not that most people who can actually afford enchanting would do so, of course,¡± said cecilia.


    ¡°now, by contrast, consumable enchantments are one use only. they are made with monster cores as the base, rather than just as a power source.¡± cecilia closed her eyes for a moment, and then dropped the thing in her hands. for a moment, it glowed, and then alice felt a wave of weak force expand outwards from the stone. most of it turned into a very light breeze, although alice could see a few objects also shiver in the surrounding radius, before things returned to the exact same state they had previously been in. most interestingly, the mana she was expecting to come along with the pulse of force was strangely absent - it appeared that, rather than the consumable object using mana every second it was running, there was only one second where the mana in the object flared up, and then it was completely empty. it took alice a moment to realize that the reason was because all of the mana had been converted into physical force, meaning there was no mana to observe. the object itself also crumbled away, collapsing into dust moments after it was used.


    ¡°of course, this one was also rather poorly made - the well-made ones are quite valued in mining recently, or so i hear, since they can somehow blast away chunks of rock and ore. i¡¯ve been trying to figure out how to get it right, but thus far, all of the cores i¡¯ve created seem more interested in creating a light breeze than a blast of force useful for mining. it looks like this one is just another failed experiment.¡± cecilia shrugged. ¡°anway, the upside of consumable enchanting is that you can get a lot more mana put towards a specific task at once. the ratio of mana to wasted mana tends to get worse as well, but it¡¯s still usually within manageable limits. and, of course, both are better than system enchanting in most cases.¡±


    ¡°thank you!¡± said alice, surprised by what she had seen so far.


    ¡°where do your interests lie? does either kind of enchanting... speak to you? or do you want to learn both? most [enchanters] specialize in one, but most [enchanters] have at least basic proficiency in both. up to you.¡±


    ¡°i want to learn both - both are related to magic, and i want to learn both categories if i can. however, maybe i would prefer a focus on consumable first?¡± after all, it was cecilia¡¯s specialty, and alice doubted she would be able to pick up everything the girl knew in just sixteen lessons, which was the most optimistic scenario. it probably made more sense to learn what cecilia was best at, since alice would probably need another teacher eventually.


    ¡°that¡¯s fine. in that case, i¡¯ll expect you soon,¡± said cecilia with a very small grin.


    alice wondered just how poor she was going to be when cecilia left cyra. she had known that she wasn¡¯t making much compared to a regular mage, since she was mostly being paid in education, food, and room and board. still... damn. 1 gold sun a lesson.


    still, she needed to learn enchanting, both for her research and for her income. she just needed to keep in mind that, in the future, she would be able to also make absurd amounts of money if she kept at it. all she needed to do to confirm that was a quick glance around the shop, where most items were priced in silver crowns, some were priced in golden suns, at the least and a few items cost gold crowns. if she had been doubtful of the idea that enchanters made money before, this was a pretty good sample of what a good enchanter could make. with a final, envious glance at the absurd prices in the enchanting shop, alice thanked cecilia for her time and left. she was already mostly out of mana from illa¡¯s training today, and emotionally drained as well, but she would be back tomorrow to start working on paying for her lessons. and alice needed to report what had happened back to illa, to report that cecilia was willing to help her learn enchanting.


    still, she had faced her fear of confronting cecilia. and it turned out to be... not so bad either. alice was starting to notice a trend here ¨C if she tried to actually talk about her concerns and fears with people, it usually didn¡¯t turn out too poorly, at least here in cyra. by contrast, things turned out much worse a lot of the time if she tried to hide away from danger.


    hopefully this trend would continue when the expedition started. it was only four days away, now.

 Chapter 28

    chapter 28


    that night, a thought occurred to alice.


    why were there 143 mariums of kinetic energy mana inside of her magic seed if there were only 67 mariums of mana inside of her? that... that didn¡¯t make any sense did it?


    granted, the first time she had measured the mariums instead of her body, it had been after a training session with illa, so she had been nearly empty on mana. however, she was suddenly consumed by a strange thought. what if the two didn¡¯t match up? she had spent around 6 hours reading after she had returned from cecilia¡¯s shop, fully finishing the fifth book in illa¡¯s library, and that should have been enough time to regenerate about 15% of her mana, right? surely the amount of mana inside of her body should have changed by an appropriate number of mariums, right?


    alice took another look at herself using the {precise mana measurement} perk, trying to figure out how many mariums of mana were inside of her body right now.


    it was currently 69. she had gone from nearly completely out of mana to around 15% full. she should have gained around 21 mariums of mana inside of her magic seed, but the amount of mariums in her body had only increased by 2. something was definitely wrong here. what was happening? she was measuring the amount of mariums inside of her body ¨C the perk didn¡¯t account for ¡®density¡¯ at all, and instead just measured the number of mariums in a specific, defined area or object.


    in other words, the perk wasn¡¯t just telling her that there were only 69 mariums per square meter or something inside of her body. even though she should have 21 more mariums inside of her body, and she could feel that her magic seed was far closer to ¡®full¡¯ than it had been earlier, there were only two more mariums of mana inside of her body. alice had also gained a point in willpower earlier, which should have increased the amount of mana in her body by an unknown amount as well. that meant that having over 20 mariums of mana in her mana seed might increase the amount of mana in her body by as little as zero mariums, or as much as... two.


    what?


    alice pulled her covers away from her, jerking out of bed. she put her clothes back on before quickly striding out of the room, looking for illa. she had to test something, right now.


    if illa was still awake and wasn¡¯t busy, at least. if not, alice would find another way to figure out what the heck was going on, or wait until morning. even though she wanted to know now, she would respect illa¡¯s schedule.


    the customary maid wasn¡¯t there when alice exited the room, but that was fine. alice headed towards the training room first, just because that was where she was used to seeing illa. illa was not there, because the training session for the day had already ended, but there was a maid there, repairing some of the training equipment. alice had to wonder what the heck illa¡¯s job description for ¡®maid¡¯ looked like if it involved repairing metal weights, but she brushed that thought aside for now.


    alice focused on the maid, and quickly measured the number of mariums inside of the maid¡¯s body. 419 mariums. alice tried to figure out what the woman¡¯s stats might be, but had a hard time figuring it out ¨C in the first place, alice would have needed to know what the average amount of mana each ¡®stat¡¯ gave, and how much mana each level and skill gave as well. since she didn¡¯t know those things, the information she was currently getting wasn¡¯t particularly useful. alice did note that this maid was different than the one that usually served her breakfast, but didn¡¯t spend more time thinking about it.


    ¡°excuse me, do you know where illa is?¡± asked alice, twitching in impatience.


    ¡°may i ask why you wish to see lady illa?¡± asked the maid, her voice oddly toneless and emotionless. alice took a closer look at the maid¡¯s face, and noted that it seemed to be oddly... stiff. however, even the maid¡¯s seemingly emotionless exterior didn¡¯t quite prevent the maid from looking at alice like she had lost her mind. underneath her exterior, there were still little hints of emotions here and there.


    alice... ignored her expression completely. she had more important things to focus on.


    ¡°i want to check something involving mana. i noticed an oddity in the way one of my perks measures things, and i was hoping illa would be able to explain what¡¯s going on, or might have some ideas,¡± said alice, practically bursting with impatience.


    the maid looked even more confused as she stared at alice, as if alice had suddenly grown another head. then, strangely enough, her facial expressions suddenly switched off completely, as if someone had just unplugged her emotions. ¡°follow me.¡± her voice was clipped and cold. not hostile, just... detached.


    alice didn¡¯t notice this, though. she was still far too caught up in trying to figure out what was going on. she needed to know!


    the maid led alice through several rooms in the mansion, before she arrived at a particular room. the maid softly rapped on the door twice, and then waited. alice waited as well, absently using her perk on herself over and over again to confirm what she already knew.


    the number of mariums of mana in her body was 69.


    69 again.


    still 69.


    her head was starting to hurt from using the perk over and over again, and her eyes were starting to sting. it was a strange sensation, similar to putting salt in an open wound, except for the fact that alice didn¡¯t actually have any open wounds on her body right now. finally, she stopped. if the perk was going to be a strain to use over and over again, she would need to save some uses for when she measured the number of mariums inside of illa.


    alice was practically humming in impatience when illa came out. her usually prim clothing was a bit messy, as if she had hastily thrown it on a few seconds ago. alice could still see a hint of illa¡¯s nightclothes poking out from one of the sides of illa¡¯s white and green dress.


    ¡°well? what is it? it¡¯s unusual for you to be disturbing me at this time, right? the sun has already set. i expected you to be reading in my library or something ¨C that is your usual routine, yes?¡± illa¡¯s voice was a bit bleary, but her eyes were still sharp and focused. and she looked at alice... as if she was looking at a particularly exotic creature that had just grown an extra head in front of her very eyes.


    before saying anything, alice used her perk again, this time on illa.


    823 mariums. something about the perks feedback felt more vague than usual, though ¨C alice wondered if the perk was having a hard time measuring the woman¡¯s mana precisely? however, alice didn¡¯t feel like the perk feedback was entirely wrong ¨C just a bit more ¡®off¡¯ than usual, perhaps by a few mariums.


    alice¡¯s eyes were starting to hurt more. but that wasn¡¯t the important thing! she just needed to use it a few more times anyway, so it wasn¡¯t a big deal!


    ¡°illa, how many mariums of mana do your magic seeds provide?¡±


    what if broken mana wasn¡¯t something ¡®uniform¡¯ at all? what if, instead, broken mana was just mana that had taken on some sort of ¡®pattern?¡¯ and what if her perk was just failing to take into account the ¡®broken¡¯ mana inside of a body, and only measured ¡®pure¡¯ mana or had some other specific setting?


    alice had never tried to intentionally produce broken mana instead of pure mana, but part of the amount of broken mana produced was based off of whatever mental image and understanding of whatever subject she was trying to manipulate. alice intentionally threw every single thing she understood about kinetic energy into the trash can and tried to perform a bit of magic, intentionally messing up as much as possible to produce more broken mana.


    several wisps of broken mana were dumped outside of her newly formed mana tendril. alice didn¡¯t manage to use a totally incoherent version of kinetic energy ¨C after all, it was impossible to totally ignore everything she understood about the concept. however, the broken mana pushed out the ¡®pure¡¯ mana in a very small area, and alice immediately used her perk to measure mana in that very specific patch of air...


    and came up with less than a marium of mana in the patch of air she was measuring. she tested it on a similarly sized clump of air halfway across the room, and came up with about seven mariums.


    her perk did not seem to factor in broken mana. illa stared at the massive patch of broken mana, before turning to alice and frowned. a moment later, illa stuck a mana tendril into the patch of broken mana and closed her eyes. the broken mana quickly began to evaporate, seeming to turn directly into nothing on contact with illa¡¯s mana tendril. she turned back towards alice and opened her mouth, getting ready to ask questions, but before she could, alice started asking questions.


    ¡°illa? what exactly is the current theory for what broken mana is?¡±


    illa seemed more and more confused by alice¡¯s questions, but perhaps realizing alice wasn¡¯t going to let her sleep until she knew the answer, she still answered clearly and concisely.


    ¡°until about a century ago, people referred to ¡®broken mana¡¯ as ¡®corrupted mana¡¯ instead. it was thought to be the sign of monsters and evil, since humans react so poorly to it, and it was considered cursed. a century ago, the idea that perhaps broken mana is simply the natural effect of using magic and monsters were simply better suited to deal with it than humans came about. however, nobody is really willing to put much time or money into studying the substance further. the fact that it has a chance of causing a second mana baptism in mages and requires a much lower concentration to force a baptism means that not many people are willing to study it.¡±


    that was... fair. alice could see why people wouldn¡¯t be willing to mess with the highly lethal and dangerous toxic kind of mana that was likely to kill them. it was probably similar to how people on earth might think about doing experiments with radiation, or how people might react if you asked them to walk around chernobyl with no protection for a while to see what happened. especially since, at least according to illa¡¯s library, even [organic mages] seemed stumped by the question of how to make mana baptisms safer, and had a very long history of failing to make the process anything remotely close to ¡®safe.¡¯ since there was no way to protect yourself from the dangers inherent in a mana baptism, it was natural people weren¡¯t too interested in risking one if they weren¡¯t desperate. mages who had already gained access to magic, were doing research, and had a promising future were the exact opposite of being desperate enough to do risky research that might result in a second, far more lethal baptism.


    ¡°does that mean that people don¡¯t understand broken mana very well?¡±


    ¡°that is exactly what it means. it¡¯s one of the bigger holes in modern magic. however, due to the risk inherent in the field and the occasional catastrophe involving broken mana escaping testing facilities and killing people, it¡¯s a field of study that remains chronically understaffed and underfunded. not much more to say about it, really,¡± said illa.


    ¡°i¡¯ve been thinking... what if broken mana is just mana that has adopted some sort of... identity, for lack of a better term? mana itself seems to be some sort of gas-like substance that reacts to thoughts, right? that¡¯s my current understanding of it, based on the way magic seeds work. in that case, what if broken mana is just mana that, instead of being ¡®neutral,¡¯ has adopted some sort of ¡®idea?¡¯¡±


    ¡°i¡¯m thinking... that this could wait until morning.¡± said illa, looking at alice.


    ¡°it¡¯s just that i was wondering what broken mana was for the longest time. and why dimensional magic caused some sort of strange overflow of broken mana. however, what if the idea of ¡®dimensions¡¯ or whatever dimension seeds work off of just have some sort of... way of transferring their ¡®idea¡¯ from one chunk of mana to another? in that case, it could work like some sort of virus, hopping from one patch of mana to another and ¡®infecting¡¯ large amounts of mana. it was... just a thought i had,¡± said alice.


    ¡°plausible. is that all?¡± illa looked towards alice.


    ¡°well, i kind of wanted to ask you-¡±


    ¡°lady alice. do you think that perhaps you could take a piece of charcoal and a wooden slat and then write down these questions?¡±


    ¡°erm... yes?¡±


    ¡°good. please do that. i will see you tomorrow for our training session.¡±


    alice paused for a moment. then, she turned towards illa and nodded. ¡°yes, lady illa. thank you for your time.¡±


    as alice began to return to her room, she could briefly see illa and the maid conversing out of the corner of her eyes. the maid¡¯s facial expressions returned to normal, as if someone had plugged her emotions back in.


    ¡°such a strange new student, lady illa.¡±


    ¡°my [teacher] level is going to shoot through the fucking roof just based on how fast she¡¯ll level [scholar].¡± illa paused for a moment, before she added. ¡°if i don¡¯t throw my mansion at her first.¡±


    ¡°my lady, if you throw your mansion you would need to rebuild it. again.¡±


    ¡°i have the money for it...¡± illa¡¯s voice sounded both absentminded and drowsy again, as if she was gradually drifting off.


    the rest of their conversation was lost to alice as she returned to bed for the night.


    you have leveled up!


    scholar: 15 -> 17


    scientist: 9 -> 12

 Chapter 29

    chapter 29


    alice started out the day by taking a look at her newly acquired level 10 [scientist] perk. she opened up her status screen and looked over her options.


    experimental procedure requirements: scientist level 10 or greater assists you in locating minor problems or alterations to any experimental setup you have created, as well as assists in locating any flaws in your methodology when conducting an experiment. note: ¡®assists¡¯ makes you more likely to perceive things ¨C it cannot fundamentally totally overwrite any major shortcomings, especially if you are not paying attention. sample collection requirements: scientist level 10 or greater allows you to store a limited number of items inside of a special ''item box'' separately from each other. you must be holding the object in your hand. note - it is recommended that you pay attention to the amount of resistance living objects have, as living beings will heavily resist being stored, and may break out if they are sentient. also note that time is not stopped or altered inside of the storage box - if you attempt to store something inside of the item box, it will likely suffocate or die of mana deprivation, depending on circumstances. proper observation requirements: scientist level 10 or greater, perception 100 or greater if you focus on one object or area for an extended period of time, you will gain the ability to ''zoom in'' your eyesight, allowing you to get a better view of smaller things you might ordinarily miss. can also be used to increase the distance of your vision. alice dismissed {experimental procedure} first ¨C it was the least interesting of the three. more problematically, though, was the note ¨C it assisted her, but that didn¡¯t necessarily mean that it would solve problems in her methodology. if she wasn¡¯t paying enough attention, she might still miss important problems in the way she was conducting her experiments, even under her most optimistic projection for how useful the perk might be. and in the worst case, the perk might do practically nothing ¨C the wording was just too vague, and even optimistically it didn¡¯t seem that useful. {sample collection} was interesting. it... sounded like dimensional magic, but the perk had been recorded in the church¡¯s holy book, and there weren¡¯t any noted problems with it. that might not mean anything ¨C after all, the church didn¡¯t have any problems with any perks granted by the system, as far as alice could tell. questioning your god wasn¡¯t really the most solid way to build a theological institution, after all. still, the idea she could explore something that resembled what she thought ¡®dimensional¡¯ magic would look like without consequences was fascinating, and revived a very, very tiny ember of hope that she might see home again one day.


    wait, now that she thought about it, she swore she could remember the guard at the gates when she had entered town asking if she had any perks that let her store items? even with {enhanced memory}, her ability to recall the encounter wasn¡¯t perfect, but she was pretty sure he had asked about it. in that case, it was really unlikely the perk would get her into trouble on that front. still, she should at least consider the final option.


    {proper observation} was also interesting, because it might allow her to replace microscopes or telescopes in the future. alice was seriously lacking all sorts of equipment, even with illa¡¯s old teaching supplies, and having ways to substitute perks for those missing pieces of equipment wasn¡¯t actually a bad deal. after all, equipment restricted her ability to conduct experiments, which in turn restricted her ability to level up and gain more perks. however, again, the perk was somewhat vaguely worded. what was the maximum amplification? if she could only ¡®zoom in¡¯ her vision to twice what she normally could, for example, it would be a sort of useful perk, but one that was ultimately replaceable. not to mention, scientist had plenty of ¡®boost perception somehow¡¯ perks, and this one was ultimately pretty replaceable down the line.


    alice hesitated, but ultimately, she chose {sample collection}. it was the closest thing to ¡®safe¡¯ dimensional magic she knew of, and she was highly interested in trying to figure out how it worked. furthermore, she could use it for all sorts of things ¨C storing enchanting materials, maybe storing a bit of food for if something went wrong and she needed to avoid starvation again, and a variety of other things. really, the idea behind the perk was what fascinated alice the most ¨C even if she might not be able to figure out what was going on, just trying to figure out how the heck the perk worked would probably give her a bunch of levels out of the deal. and, at least based on her understanding of the perk¡¯s wording, it might let her store items in an isolated environment, which would be seriously helpful if she needed to run any experiments in the future where materials couldn¡¯t have contact with the air or something. it was a bit of a vague premise, but alice could see a lot of potential long-term use for the perk, as well as a lot of short-term use.


    after that, alice decided it was time to use one of her newly acquired spare magic seeds. she still had plenty of time before training with illa, and her perk, {three seeds}, had given her three new magic seeds to work with. she intended to save two of them for grabbing some stuff useful for enchanting. however, she had a lot of ideas for what she could use her knowledge of physics for, and she wanted to figure out how several things worked. for example, why did thermal seeds exist? theoretically, alice remembered that heat was just supposed to be the speed at which atoms were moving. in other words, she would have assumed that kinetic seeds were entirely able to manipulate things like temperature. however, even though alice had infused all of her knowledge of physics and kinetic energy that she was able to into her kinetic magic seed, she was totally unable to manipulate ¡®small objects¡¯ with her mana. she had at first attributed this to the idea that maybe her control just wasn¡¯t good enough, but she was beginning to wonder if it would be impossible to do with her kinetic seed, even though she should be able to manipulate small objects like atoms.


    after all, this world¡¯s understanding of things below a certain size was pretty... patchy. the books in illa¡¯s library could describe in great detail exactly how internal organs worked, and look at a variety of problems in the body and give detailed instructions on how to fix them with organic magic, and even had case studies of unique perk combinations and how they played into some treatments.


    however, once the books started talking about cells, they started to get vague. this world knew that cells were there, and that they made up the physical body of humans, but didn¡¯t really know much about how they were constructed or what they were made of. they also didn¡¯t really understand the size differences between things like viruses and bacteria ¨C in this world¡¯s eyes, both were ¡®stuff smaller than a cell that causes problems when inside the body,¡¯ and didn¡¯t understand much more than that. alice was willing to bet that the system probably played a huge role in the fact people even knew that they were two different things. the perk she had picked at survivor level 10 explicitly mentioned it fought off both, and although she didn¡¯t know what the exact text of the perk was to someone from this country, she was willing to bet some perks in classes like [doctor] probably explicitly mentioned both and helped fight them off.


    still, alice figured she could probably do better by using her knowledge from earth.


    the first thing she wanted to do was make an ¡®atomic¡¯ magic seed. she thought it would be useful for figuring out why she had such a hard time manipulating the motion of atoms, and the seed would probably be useful for a variety of other things as well. for example, alice knew that different numbers of protons, neutrons, and electrons could create different substances ¨C maybe she could do some sort of crafting nonsense with it? there were probably other uses, but alice was having a hard time imagining them off the top of her head. still, she could definitely do a lot of interesting things with the ability to manipulate atoms.


    alice sat down on her bed, as the morning sunlight streamed in from her window. she was briefly broken out of her thoughts by the first bell of the day ringing throughout the town, ringing six times to let her know it was halfway between midnight and midday. she focused on the concept of atoms, of protons and neutrons and electrons. while she knew it wasn¡¯t perfect, she tried to imagine the model she had seen in her physics textbook as well ¨C she wanted to have a magic seed that could manipulate atoms. alice felt something react to her thoughts, every so slightly shifting.


    this time, she knew that she was probably feeling mana ¨C it was reacting to her ¡®idea¡¯ and trying to help her form a magic seed. she smiled before shifting her focus back to her magic seed. she pulled the mana deeper inside of her, trying to weld it together into a solid concept. the idea of atoms, of protons and neutrons welded together in a solid core by some of the strongest forces in the universe while electrons danced around them in a cloud of orbits.


    she felt the mana gathering together, solidifying as it began to pulse in tune with her body. she felt a rush of heat from just behind her heart, her mage core doing whatever it was in charge of and helping her process the mana inside of her body. she drew the mana closer together... and then it suddenly vanished. it was as if alice had been tirelessly working to create a sand castle, and then someone had simply taken a vacuum cleaner and sucked up all of the sand she had been using. from a nearly-solidified seed of mana inside of her body, there was now nothing. in fact, alice couldn¡¯t even feel any extra mana inside of her body.


    huh?


    alice¡¯s eyes snapped open and she looked at her body. the mana inside of her room looked to be a little lower in quantity than usual ¨C her mana-measuring perk informed her that there were around two hundred fewer mariums of mana in the room than there had been when she took a measurement before starting to form her seed.


    the amount of mana in her body was still 69 mariums. no change from this morning, since she had regenerated some more of the mana in her kinetic seed.


    where had the mana she was gathering gone to? where was her magic seed?


    her status screen didn¡¯t show anything unusual ¨C she still had 3 unused magic seeds which had a maximum of 10% for their mana conversion ratio.


    alice wondered if she had been dreaming about forming a magic seed and had somehow mistaken it for reality. she closed her eyes to try again. gathering mana, focusing on a concept, building an idea...


    and the mana disappeared again. alice had no clue where it went. alice had no clue what went wrong. one moment, there was a mana seed on the verge of forming, exactly the same way she had felt her first magic seed form.


    the next moment, there was a sudden void in her chest. no mana. no magic seed. the only evidence that she had been working on a magic seed at all was the lingering traces of warmth near her heart, rapidly fading as the seconds passed.


    what the heck is going on?


    alice frowned.


    she was sure that her understanding of atoms wasn¡¯t so terrible that she was unable to form a magic seed. she hadn¡¯t been expecting much, but for it to fail completely in the process of forming was... odd. unheard of, even. even people who had no understanding of a subject, when trying to form a magic seed, would usually just form a magic seed with a terrible mana conversion ratio, forming a 2% or 3% seed. however, there weren¡¯t any records of people failing to form magic seeds at all ¨C at least not in illa¡¯s library.


    since there was some sort of unknown problem with forming an atomic seed, maybe she was having a hard time forming magic seeds? at that thought, a twinge of panic started to form in alice¡¯s stomach. if she couldn¡¯t form magic seeds, it would be a massive problem for if she was trying to become an enchanter.


    she tried to think of other seeds she could create that would exploit the gaps in knowledge that seemed to be present in this world.


    another surge of mana flickered towards her, and for a moment, alice saw a system notification spring up.


    error detected!


    error: 01101111 01110110 01100101 01110010 01100110 01101100 01101111 01110111


    error detected!


    error: 01000110 01100001 01101001 01101100 01100101 01100100 00100000 01001101 01100001 01101110 01100001 00100000 01000011 01101111 01101110 01110110 01100101 01110010 01110011 01101001 01101111 01101110


    error detected!


    error: 01001111 01110101 01110100 01110111 01101111 01110010 01101100 01100100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01000100 01100101 01110100 01100101 01100011 01110100 01100101 01100100


    error detected!


    error: 01000100 01101001 01110110 01100101 01110010 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01010010 01100101 01110011 01101111 01110101 01110010 01100011 01100101 01110011


    error detected!


    error: 01100011 01100001 01101100 01100011 01110101 01101100 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111


    error detected!


    error: 01000011 01100001 01101100 01100011 01110101 01101100 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 01110011 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01110000 01101100 01100101 01110100 01100101


    error detected!


    error: 01001001 01101110 01101001 01110100 01101001 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111


    alice could see system notifications suddenly start ringing out like crazy. however, a fraction of a second after an error message would open, it would immediately close, leaving her dazed as she tried to figure out what was going on.


    a second later, alice could see several fragments of the mana in the surrounding air suddenly stop. they formed an incredibly intricate web of something¨C the color of the web varied wildly, and it all formed some sort of incredibly intricate pattern alice couldn¡¯t understand at all, like a three dimensional fractal made of colored unicorn puke. it was like somebody had taken a rainbow, thrown it into a blender, and then had used the results to create the most complex thing alice had ever seen in her life. it wasn¡¯t a web, it was an unending fractal of billions of different connections and strings of mana, pulsing in the air around her and interlocking with her body. alice had no idea what she was looking at - no, maybe it was impossible for a human mind to understand whatever this was. it was unimaginably complex - even trying to process a single corner of the thing would have required hours of time and effort.


    in response to the swirling web of madness that had suddenly appeared in the air around her, the swirling chaos inside of her body began to calm down. second by second, the madly dancing mana began to ease. the horrifying heat boiling up from behind her heart began to cool, and the sensation that she was burning alive from inside out began to ease.


    slowly, second by precious second, the pain that had started to wrack her body began to ease.


    four minutes later, the mana in her body had settled back down. the heat had also decreased, and she felt close to normal again. before she could think further, another surge of mana rushed towards her, followed by a system notification.


    error resolved!


    response code: 01010011 01110101 01110010 01110110 01101001 01110110 01100001 01101100 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100011 01101111 01110010 01100100 01100101 01100100


    for a moment, alice swore that, unlike before, the system message somehow communicated a feeling of... smugness?


    and then the system message deleted itself, completely unlike how normal system messages waited for her to dismiss it.


    alice sat down on her bed, thankfully no longer melting everything she touched. her hands shook, and she tried her best to breathe deeply and slowly. however, she couldn¡¯t quite suppress the terror that pervaded her being. she had... she had almost died.


    she had almost died, and something insane had happened afterwards. none of the books in illa¡¯s library mentioned anything like this, and illa herself hadn¡¯t mentioned anything dangerous related to forming new magic seeds.


    what the fuck was all that?

 Chapter 30

    chapter 30


    after whatever the hell had just happened, alice realized she was missing something. an incredibly critical piece of equipment that science needed, and that she had been lacking up until now. it was, indeed, what one might consider critical to [scientists] and scientists. beyond a place to scream and cry for a while when experiments took a turn for the terrifying, at least, even if this hadn¡¯t been intended to be an experiment at all.


    shakily, alice got up and looked around. her room¡¯s door was still messed up, but nothing else was broken or damaged. the horrifying heat that had leaked out of the core behind her heart... the way everything touching her hands had broken and melted like putty... all those were gone. for now.


    and, luckily or unluckily, nobody had noticed the melted and splintered chunks of door yet. alice would have to tell illa what had happened during their training session later today, but she had a few hours to decompress and figure out why she had suddenly almost burst into flames. alice shakily got up and began walking out of her room. her footsteps were unsteady, but she managed to get back to the room where illa had stored all of her old teaching equipment.


    quietly, alice looked through the piles of lesser enchanted items. a few textbooks that alice had already looked through, a variety of enchanted materials used for teaching exercises that alice couldn¡¯t do yet... and a few notebooks in illa¡¯s own handwriting, long since abandoned.


    alice grabbed one of them and flipped through the pages for a while, until she found one that was only partially up. paper was expensive, and illa hadn¡¯t given any to alice ¨C but the empty pages here were fair game, right? almost half of the book was still available, although the first half of the book was filled with lesson plans for how to improve skills once they reached the first growth reduction at level 50. alice ignored that ¨C [kinetic manipulation] was getting close to 50, but it wasn¡¯t there yet.


    alice could use charcoal in place of ink for now ¨C there was a small fireplace in her room that she could use to start a fire if needed, not that alice was particularly worried about temperature with her [vitality] as high as it was and her perks and achievements boosting her resistance to the cold. still, there were a few chunks of ash that she could use as basic writing materials, for now.


    alice had noticed that it was getting too difficult to remember everything she wanted to investigate and everything she had observed, and alice was beginning to realize that even with {enhanced memory} things were starting to slip through the cracks of her mind.


    she tried to suppress the trembling in her hands as she began writing. she needed something to focus her mind on, though. something to deal with the crippling fear until she could process it some more...


    she started out with a single page.


    observations:


    - mana surges towards people whenever they gain an attribute, skill, or level. this occurs before a system notification pops up.


    - there are a lot of plants and animals that closely resemble those from earth.


    - broken mana has a lot of different colors associated with it, and this seems to correlate to the ¡®concept¡¯ inside of a chunk of mana? (note: may need further investigation to confirm ¨C more of an untested hypothesis for now.) my perk also cannot pick up the mana inside of a broken mana seed, and also cannot record ¡®broken¡¯ mana. magic seeds may possibly store some sort of broken or partially broken mana inside of them, rather than ¡®pure¡¯ mana?


    -hunch ¨C maybe broken mana is mana with some sort of imprinted ¡®identity¡¯ in it? if so, why do some seeds produce more ¡®broken¡¯ mana than others? very odd. look into further.


    - it is a well known fact that monsters die when separated from mana for long periods of time. humans have also been observed to grow weaker and feel lightheaded when separated from mana (similar to asphyxiation? figure out how to investigate further ¨C seems odd to me).


    alice¡¯s hands started trembling for a moment, before she recorded what she had seen an hour or two ago.


    - some mana seeds cannot be formed, especially those using some of the knowledge of physics from earth. no atoms, lesser nuclear force, strong force, etc. can be formed into a seed, even though books claim any idea can be made into a magic seed. very, very dangerous to interact with ¨C do not mess with until a much clearer idea of what i¡¯m messing with is obtained. dangerous.


    after writing that down, alice noticed something.


    where had the mana gone? her perk for measuring mana in her surroundings had definitely decreased. she had eaten through a huge amount of mana in the room every time she had nearly formed a new seed, and even though it had rapidly been replaced from the mana outside of the room, it was obvious she had eaten through a pretty significant amount of mana.


    no new broken mana was created though. and as of right now, alice had created one new seed and failed to create several dozen ¨C and the total number of mariums in her body was 71. considering how many hundreds of mariums she had eaten through trying to make mana, that made no sense. it was like someone had just taken the mana and... deleted it. come to think of it, alice had also noticed a similar phenomenon when illa had removed the broken mana in the room last night.


    last night, the broken mana hadn¡¯t been ¡®replaced with mana.¡¯ it hadn¡¯t been ¡®purified back into regular mana¡¯ or something either. it was like someone had just selected all of the broken mana and hit the delete button.


    alice frowned, before she wrote down another observation.


    -mana seems to be literally getting deleted at some points. does mana... not follow the idea of conservation of energy?


    if it didn¡¯t, alice... wouldn¡¯t know how to respond to that. the idea of something not following the law of conservation of energy was simply absurd to her. on alice¡¯s earth, energy could not be created or destroyed. it simply changed forms. however, she also had no clue where all of the mana or broken mana she should have observed had gone.


    and if mana really had as little regard for conservation of energy as it seemed to...


    it would have staggering implications. if energy was being created or destroyed by mana, what did that mean? was mana just ignoring energy conservation entirely? did it obey the laws of thermodynamics? she had no clue if she was just incorrect, or missing something obvious, but she was certainly interested in testing it later.


    ¡°i apologize for waking you up ¨C i should have waited until morning,¡± said alice, after a moment of hesitation. ¡°i would also like to note that during an experiment this morning, i accidentally melted the door to my room ¨C it is... erm... liquified?¡±


    illa¡¯s expression, which had previously looked like she was considering the best way to make alice¡¯s training hell, calmed down as she regarded alice.


    ¡°you melted your door? how the hell did you manage that?¡± illa¡¯s tone held no reproach ¨C only curiosity.


    ¡°a lot of the books in your library detail the conditions for forming a magic seed, yes? i saw a lot of them saying that a magic seed can theoretically be formed from any idea, and the less they need to interfere with reality, the less broken mana they consume. in my former world, we had a lot of ideas about the fundamental nature of reality, so i tried to form some mana seeds based around those ideas... and broke everything.¡±


    ¡°broke everything? wait, what do you mean?¡± illa frowned, and gave alice a much more appraising look. ¡°like what?¡±


    ¡°erm... one of the bigger ideas at home was the idea that all of reality is actually comprised of lots of really tiny objects called atoms, and they¡¯re supposed to be much, much smaller than cells. i tried to form a magic seed based off of that idea...¡±


    ¡°and?¡± illa frowned, looking at alice. then, seeming to come to a realization, she nodded. ¡°if you formed a good magic seed based off of it, i would be willing to trade for more details on that knowledge. and you don¡¯t have to worry if you accidentally melted the door experimenting with it ¨C the wooden doors aren¡¯t that expensive, and while replacing them is a pain, a good magic seed is more than worth it. we can talk ¨C ¡°


    ¡°it failed to form.¡±


    illa frowned. ¡°wait, what? that¡¯s... that¡¯s impossible, right? even if your idea of reality is ridiculously wrong, you should form a trashy magic seed, like a seed of hope or something that basically just spews out broken mana and doesn¡¯t do anything useful. to fail to form one entirely....¡± illa frowned. ¡°i have never heard of that. i¡¯ll send another inquiry north...¡± she turned back to alice. ¡°what happened next?¡±


    alice described the process the rest of her morning had gone through ¨C the panic, the melting of the door, and, after some hesitation, the strange system messages she had seen. alice didn¡¯t know binary well enough to remember what the system messages had said, especially since she had barely seen the messages before they had disappeared, so she was only able to describe the oddity in the messages themselves ¨C the fact they had deleted themselves without alice acknowledging them, the way the mana in her body had started to spin out of control before suddenly settling down.


    however, by the end of alice¡¯s explanation, illa was giving alice an even bigger frown. for once, illa even looked anxious.


    ¡°that sounds... really familiar, but i can¡¯t quite put my finger on why. it feels like something i¡¯ve heard before...¡± illa frowned. ¡°but i can¡¯t put my finger on it. damn.¡± illa shook her head.


    ¡°i¡¯ll contact some of my acquaintances and see if anyone knows anything about why forming multiple seeds would cause problems, and speak with friedheim about the system messages. i don¡¯t... think there¡¯s anything in the contents of that experiment that would be problematic if someone else found out, and he would be the one to talk to about system messages. all right?¡± illa looked at alice, the marbles fanning out and orbiting her hand almost completely unnoticed.


    ¡°if you think it won¡¯t get me in trouble, i don¡¯t mind talking about this one. the results were... scary,¡± said alice, after thinking for a moment.


    ¡°i would recommend you keep them quiet if i thought an experiment or observation would get you in trouble. religion-wise, this is a case of you getting saved by the system, or at least that¡¯s what it sounds like, so there¡¯s no problem theologically. if anything, the church might trumpet their horn a bit before moving on with their life. and i¡¯m incentivized to protect you anyway ¨C [teachers] can get some pretty serious exp penalties if they willingly put their students in danger, or fail to protect them. it¡¯s almost like ¨C ah.¡± illa¡¯s eyes widened.


    ¡°illa?¡±


    ¡°i finally remember why your case sounds familiar.¡± said illa.


    ¡°familiar? do you mean it has happened before?¡±


    ¡°not recently. in fact, not within the past several thousand years.¡±


    alice frowned. that was... a long time, especially because she didn¡¯t know how long written records, or immortals, had been around. how reliable was information from thousands of years ago? despite alice¡¯s doubts, illa continued.


    ¡°thousands of years ago, supposedly, humanity was at the bottom of the food chain, and the system had yet to reveal itself to the human race. at that time, according to church theology, there were mages that helped the humans to survive in environments where most humans were devoured by monsters if they were found. however, the church¡¯s theology also claims that most mages died of a variety of strange problems afterwards ¨C their bodies melting, their internal organs cooking themselves... among other things. you described your body heating up unnaturally, and you melted my door, no? it sounds... similar.¡±


    alice frowned. suddenly, the church seemed far more interesting to her than it had a moment ago. she hadn¡¯t thought very much about the church¡¯s historical records before, because she was used to history being recorded in books. however, she recalled the priest mentioning something about a time before the system. maybe there was a lot of information buried in those records of the church?


    suddenly, it seemed very much worth checking out.


    illa didn¡¯t seem to have anything else to say on the matter, so alice¡¯s training session resumed. today, illa had a penchant for pegging her face with marbles. alice could somehow feel the woman¡¯s frustration in each marble...


    and thus, the rest of the training session passed with alice continuously getting beaned with marbles. illa seemed to particularly emphasize spots that wouldn¡¯t actually hurt alice while still stinging like crazy. alice could see the woman¡¯s mirthful grin after most of the session, and she could tell illa wasn¡¯t going to keep harassing her over alice¡¯s attempted late-night experimenting. still, the marbles definitely hurt way more than beans did.


    absently, she rubbed her forehead. it still stung.

 Chapter 31

    chapter 31


    after her training session with illa, alice went to the church. it was on the way to cecilia¡¯s shop, and alice wanted to see if there were any records about magic seeds, or the massive number of weird system messages she had seen yesterday. apart from that, she wanted to see if the church had any records of ¡®before the system.¡¯ it might prove invaluable as a source of investigation, if she could get some solid details on what mages had been like before and after the system ¡®revealed itself¡¯ to humanity. of course, alice would need to take any records from the church with a grain of salt ¨C if there was one thing she was familiar with, it was that history written by any organization was likely to have some... biases written into it. especially if the organization wanted to make itself look better. and every organization wanted to make itself look better.


    still, it was a place to start, at least.


    when alice stepped into the church, priest friedheim gave her a surprised look, followed by a courteous nod.


    ¡°lady alice. i was not expecting you today. what brings you here?¡± he asked.


    ¡°hello, priest friedheim. i was wondering if you have any records of times before the system?¡±


    ¡°before the system?¡± priest friedheim. ¡°there aren¡¯t any written records of times before the system that would be available in a little town like cyra, besides what¡¯s written in the holy words.¡± he gave alice a thoughtful glance. ¡°say, have you actually read the holy words of the almighty system? if you haven¡¯t, it wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea to introduce yourself to the faith. why do you ask?¡± priest friedheim asked, giving her a curious look.


    holy words of the almighty system? is that the equivalent of the bible in this world? alice wasn¡¯t familiar with the term, but based on the priest¡¯s reaction, she felt it was a reasonable guess.


    alice described the failed attempt at forming magic seeds she had gone through this morning, complete with all of the bizarre system notifications. she noticed, with interest, that friedheim¡¯s expression became more and more curious the more she spoke. after she finished speaking, he was nearly squirming in his seat.


    ¡°so you had such an experience! surely now you can see how wonderful the system is, yes? you can clearly feel its benevolence and kindness!¡± said friedheim, and alice felt a bit of an internal wince. priest friedheim was a decent enough person, but he got very... passionate about his religion. still, she couldn¡¯t really disagree ¨C if the system had been what stopped the mana in her body from melting her, she was grateful that it had stopped her from dying, at least.


    ¡°erm... yeah. i wouldn¡¯t mind taking a look at it,¡± said alice, after some thought. regardless of how religious she was, and how religious she intended to be in the future, it didn¡¯t hurt to at least familiarize herself with the local religion. furthermore, if she had to worship a god, the system honestly wasn¡¯t a bad choice ¨C she was absolutely sure it existed, and as far as she could tell, it had stopped her from dying, even if she wasn¡¯t really sure what had placed her in such a dangerous situation in the first place.


    she would think about it some more.


    priest friedheim seemed excited when alice agreed to read the holy words of the almighty system and left, before returning moments later with a heavy book. its cover was embossed a very light tinge of gold, and alice couldn¡¯t help but wonder if the actual metal was present, or if it was just some sort of perk changing the book¡¯s aesthetics. still, for now, it didn¡¯t matter.


    ¡°would you prefer to read it yourself, or have me read it out loud?¡± asked friedheim.


    ¡°i¡¯d like to read it myself ¨C i like to think while i read, after all, and i also want to grab the {bookworm} achievement at some point. i have a few other achievements i¡¯m also shooting for, but they¡¯re a bit more time consuming to grab,¡± said alice absently.


    ¡°oh? that¡¯s a good choice for you. all right. however, if you have any questions, feel free to ask me ¨C i live to help others learn of the system, after all,¡± said friedheim, and alice could feel his excitement as he practically vibrated in place.


    ¡°which part of the book should i read from ¨C that is, which part has the bits about before the system? i want to start there,¡± said alice.


    priest friedheim quickly flipped through the book before stopping at a specific point. ¡°here!¡± he said, before giving alice a friendly wink. ¡°you can start reading from here. don¡¯t forget. if you have any questions, ask me!¡± then, with a buzz of happiness, priest friedheim left her alone with the book. alice could see him watching her out of the corner of her eyes ¨C to be fair, there wasn¡¯t anyone else in the church right now, so perhaps he had nothing better to do. it was a bit uncomfortable to have someone watch her while she was reading, but alice did her best to ignore it.


    she turned back towards the pages, and began to idly skip through the text.


    before the system, humanity existed only on the fringes of the central continent. at that time, humans only lived in scattered societies, fleeing from monsters. the few communities who embraced farming were usually wiped out by monsters whenever their population reached a certain point, and mages were both far rarer and far less able to survive. oftentimes, mages would suffer as a result of their gifts, and were referred to as the cursed children of the gods. for whatever brief lifespan they had available to them, they would work to protect their communities, but would often die young from a variety of strange illnesses. cooking themselves alive whenever they reached a certain level of power, shredding their body to pieces... there are many ways that mages would die during their development period in the days before the system. luckily, in the thousands of years since then, the system has blessed humanity as well as mages and mages no longer kill themselves as a result of their blessing.


    the text continued on for several more pages in this manner, as if it wanted to highlight how miserable humans had been without their great and benevolent god watching over them and blessing them. alice was somewhat tempted to wonder how much of this was actually attributable to the system ¨C the church seemed all too willing to ascribe every aspect of humanity¡¯s advancement entirely to the benevolence of the system. still, alice was also fairly certain that she had run into a similar problem just this morning ¨C she had nearly charbroiled her internal organs as a result of her failed magic seeds. she still remembered the nightmarish feeling of heat rising up from inside of her body, as everything she touched twisted, and the knowledge that soon her body would also collapse... and the crushing relief she had felt when system messages had started spamming themselves across her line of vision, and the kaleidoscope of color had fixed the rampaging mana in her body.


    alice also found it a bit curious that the text explicitly mentioned ¡®cursed children of the gods.¡¯ did that mean humanity worshipped other gods before the system? what gods were they? where had worship of them gone?


    no, perhaps it was inevitable that worship of gods had disappeared in the wake of the system ¨C after all, the system ¡®actively blessed¡¯ humans left and right, and alice had no idea if the gods worshipped before the system were similar to the ones on earth, where it was impossible to verify their existence or actions. in that case, alice could definitely see how worship of those gods would decline to near irrelevance.


    alice turned her attention back to magic, trying to avoid letting herself get side-tracked.


    perhaps the church¡¯s insistence that the system was the true god of humanity wasn¡¯t wholly mistaken. at the very least, assuming the system messages and the massive strings of colored mana were related to each other, the system had certainly saved her from frying herself. perhaps the system did so for all mages ¨C or at least did something to that effect. even if alice didn¡¯t know exactly what had happened, she was willing to at least think about it.


    alice spent several more hours reading through various chapters in the church¡¯s book, trying to familiarize herself more with the church¡¯s ideology and religious doctrine. she learned a few interesting tidbits ¨C the church believed that ¡®laziness¡¯ was the fundamental ¡®great sin¡¯ of humans, and that the system had ¡®revealed its glory¡¯ in order to help humanity purge this fundamental flaw in human makeup. to some extent, alice could see where they were coming from ¨C the system obviously rewarded hard work above most other things, and if the system was worshipped as a god, it made sense that people interpreted hard work as king and laziness as a sin.


    apart from that, there were a few other interesting tidbits, mostly relating to immortals ¨C apparently, most immortals got to a high enough level to stop aging specifically by stacking achievements together to boost levelling speed. even hard work wouldn¡¯t be enough to bridge the gap between a ¡®hard working¡¯ person, who usually reached around level 60 or 65, and the class evolution most classes got at level 100, not to mention the extra 25 levels most people needed to fully stop aging after that. immortals, obviously, weren¡¯t just so much more efficient at working hard that they bridged the gap through sheer force of will ¨C instead, they stacked together dozens of achievements to boost their levelling speed for a few classes, and then focused a few to get them to the right level. oftentimes, immortals were stacking 1200% boosted levelling speed or more and then still busting their ass to get one of their classes to the right level, and that was still considered ¡®hard¡¯ when it came to bridging the massive gulfs between higher levels.


    finally, alice learned that, according to church theology, monsters were... apparently the physical manifestation of human laziness. and, simultaneously, they were the food that encouraged humanity to never stop growing and reaching towards greater goals, even though they were supposed to be the physical manifestations of human laziness. this... seemed to kind of contradict itself? or maybe there was some sort of explanation that made this seem less contradictory than it seemed to alice? or maybe she was just overthinking it?


    alice had a bit of a hard time figuring out what that meant in practice ¨C as far as she could tell, monsters just seemed like animals with high levels of aggression and the ability to consume mana in place of food, usually mixed with magic abilities if they weren¡¯t at the bottom of the monster food chain. even though alice was trying really hard to keep an open mind, she had serious doubts about that one, but filed it away for future reference anyway.


    all in all, it was a fruitful reading session. alice thanked priest friedheim for giving her the time to look over the holy book, returned it to him, and then went on her way.


    she had an [enchanter] to negotiate with.


    * * *


    ¡°so, what you¡¯re saying is, you want to exchange the possibility of getting an achievement with me in place of money?¡± asked cecilia, giving alice a strange look.


    ¡°yes.¡± said alice.


    the emotions from cecilia¡¯s face drained away unnaturally, in a way that alice was beginning to suspect meant people were turning on perks that let them ignore or remove their emotions, before cecilia turned back towards her.


    ¡°tell me more about the achievement in question. i suppose i can at least hear you out.¡±


    ¡°are you willing to promise not to speak of the achievement? i don¡¯t actually think it¡¯s a problem, but i also don¡¯t know what possible problems it might bring to me, so while it¡¯s not a huge secret, i don¡¯t really want to make it public knowledge either.¡±


    ¡°i, cecilia, daughter of erik and lucinia, hereby swear that i won¡¯t speak of the contents of this conversation to anyone. even though it¡¯s not an oath backed by anything, it¡¯s the best i can do unless you want to actually hire friedheim to make a {trade contract.} is that good enough?¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°i¡¯ll trust you.¡± after that, alice began by outlining the experiment that had started the whole mess ¨C her attempt to figure out whether or not mana somehow improved muscles and physical strength. cecilia looked at least moderately interested, despite her oddly stiff facial expression. however, when alice talked about the {truth seeker} perk, cecilia seemed quite a bit more interested in the subject.


    ¡°hmm...¡± cecilia frowned as she thought about it. ¡°from what i know of achievements, that shouldn¡¯t be an ordinary achievement, yes? it sounds more like a unique achievement based around specific events. the fact that the rarity is so high is also strange... how has no one ever discovered this before?¡± cecilia looked at alice, who simply shrugged.


    ¡°i have no idea. it seems like such a basic thing, so the fact no one else has stumbled onto this train of thought is really baffling to me as well.¡± said alice.


    ¡°how about this? are your attributes at one hundred yet?¡±


    alice checked her status screen, although she already knew most of the contents of it by now.


    author¡¯s note: after someone asked if i could start putting the previous level of the class every time alice gets a level, i thought it was a pretty good idea. recently, i wondered if maybe people would prefer if i started writing down alice¡¯s previous stats and skills in her status screen as well, so that it¡¯s easier to track changes. let me know what you guys think. changes are in bold, and if it¡¯s a new entry to something like the perks, i also underlined it. changes are tracked from the last time alice looked at her status screen in-story (chapter 23).


    name: alice verianna


    age: 15


    kinetic force: 22 (+4)


    spearmanship: 19


    sprinting: 15 (+1)


    dodge: 13 (+5)


    cooking: 12


    stoneworking: 11


    climbing: 9


    fishing: 9


    digging: 8


    projectile awareness : 5 (+5)


    divided attention: 4 (+4)


    stealth: 4


    basic medicine: 3


    magic seed: 2/4


    (organic seed +2 undetermined seeds max 10% conversion ratio)


    kinetic seed (135%)


    organic seed (10%)


    achievements


    outworlder (rarity: 10)


    seeker of truth (i) (rarity: 8)


    baptized by broken mana (rarity: 6)


    survivor of winter (rarity: 3)


    monstrous encounter (rarity: 1)


    monster slayer (i) (rarity: 1)


    ¡°not all of them are at 100 yet, but some of them are. why?¡±


    ¡°i want to see if i can get an achievement from observing the mana as well,¡± said cecilia. ¡°i think that would be useful for both of us, no? if there¡¯s actually any merit to me joining in your experiments, i should be able to figure it out by observing as you gain an attribute point. so i wanted to know if there was an easy way to get an attribute ¨C after all, my attributes are all at least a little above 100, before factoring in all the perks and achievements i have boosting the effect of each stat. since it¡¯s obvious i won¡¯t be getting attributes easily in the future, i wanted to know if it would be easy for you to pick up an attribute point or if we needed to find another way.¡±


    alice thought it over for a few moments, before shrugging. ¡°seems reasonable to me. it will still probably take me some time to me to pick up an attribute point without a teacher, though. i¡¯ve observed the same mana surge when it comes to both levels and skills as well ¨C perhaps just watch for any of those?¡± alice shrugged.


    ¡°if it works for skills as well, perhaps you could do something like math? since skills face their own growth penalties every 50 levels, most skills are pretty easy to level if they¡¯re below 50,¡± said cecilia absently. ¡°or calligraphy or something? i don¡¯t know ¨C what skills do you have that are worth looking into?¡±


    alice suddenly remembered the way she had suddenly gained 122 points in basic math once she hit whatever ¡®unlock conditions¡¯ were required for the {basic math} skill. what would it look like if she grabbed a bunch of other skills? alice was overcome by curiosity. whatever she found, it would certainly be interesting, right? and most people on this world wouldn¡¯t have come across similar conditions, since most people would have just levelled each skill step by step, meaning she might see something other people had never seen before.


    ¡°is there any sort of {advanced mathematics} skill?¡±


    ¡°do you not have it unlocked yet? wait, do you have {intermediate mathematics}? you need to unlock the math skills in order, so we can start with {basic mathematics} if you don¡¯t have it,¡± said cecilia.


    ¡°what do i need for {intermediate mathematics}?¡±


    ¡°here. 1 sec,¡± said cecilia, as she grabbed a plank of wood. alice watched with fascination as two tendrils of mana crawled out of cecilia¡¯s arms and began burning words into the plank of wood. a solid minute later, there was a simple mathematical problem charred on the piece of wood.


    2(x) + 3 = 7


    what is x?


    it was just a basic algebra question, the kind alice remembered learning how to do when she was a child. she immediately determined that x = 2, and a moment later, a massive surge of mana gathered in the air around her. it was smaller than the surge of mana she had gained when she had gotten the {knowledge seeker} achievement, but far larger than the surges of mana she saw from only gaining a single level or skill. she tried her best to measure the mana within one meter of her body, and got the number 137 mariums before it dropped to around 14 again a few moments later.


    through training, you have increased a skill!


    intermediate mathematics +78


    the amount of mana in her body increased by about 1 marium. the rest of the mana seemed to simply disappear into nothing.


    alice looked back at cecilia, who was frowning.


    ¡°it¡¯s so... hard to see,¡± said cecilia after a moment. ¡°i noticed a small amount of mana being pulled in from the surroundings, but whenever it got close to your body, i had a hard time tracking it ¨C kind of like a book that got wet and didn¡¯t have any {waterproofing} perks.¡± then cecilia shrugged. ¡°i did get an achievement out of it, though ¨C it¡¯s called {on the shoulders of giants}, and it¡¯s only rarity three. it has a tier symbol, though, so it can certainly be upgraded.¡± cecilia looked back towards alice. ¡°weirdest description ever ¨C it says i am able to see unhindered. and it also gives me some boosts to perception, intelligence, and a small boost to levelling speed.¡± cecilia seemed to think about it for a while longer, before she nodded.


    ¡°i¡¯m interested in seeing more of your experiments. let¡¯s talk about money.¡±


    the two spent several minutes haggling, but by the end of the conversation, alice was practically humming as she finally left cecilia¡¯s shop.


    as of now, her lesson fees were mostly waived ¨C cecilia would only charge her one golden sun for alice¡¯s first four lessons every month, rather than one golden sun every lesson. in exchange, alice would include cecilia in all of her future experiments. in other words, alice got both money, and a research assistant. cecilia noted that it would be a good idea for alice to start her lessons after the expedition ended, which alice could see the logic of ¨C it would be hard to learn anything about enchanting if she only had time for a lesson or two before she had to tromp through the wilderness for a week or two before coming back to cyra and trying to remember what she had learned.


    in all, it was a promising setup though ¨C alice managed to resolve multiple smaller problems at once. it was a good day. and tomorrow, alice wanted to see if she could at least get started on one of her experiments ¨C trying to figure out how mana was created inside of her body. she was missing over half of the supplies she needed for the experiment, but she could at least pursue a little piece of the question. did mages get mana from food, or the atmosphere? or some other way entirely? alice couldn¡¯t isolate herself from mana in her surroundings, due to lacking supplies and the fact she still hadn¡¯t done a test to make sure it was safe for her. however, she could see what happened if she messed with her food. she wouldn¡¯t change too much, since the expedition was coming up and she needed to be in good shape, but she could still test a few things.


    and alice was very curious to see what the results would be.

 Chapter 32

    chapter 32


    when she got back to the mansion, alice started out by writing down what she had discovered over the course of the day into her notebook.


    - magicians seem to have had a tendency to melt themselves to death before the system appeared.


    - possibly hints that the system helps people deal with mana? further evidence is the fact that all system interactions i have seen so far begin by drawing in mana, and the fact that mana seems to have been ¡®poisonous¡¯ to people before the system started operating. investigate further ¨C if possible, find out if there are more detailed records of people¡¯s reactions to mana before the system.


    alice didn¡¯t have proof that the system was interfering with the way mana and humans interacted yet ¨C at least, not the empirical, scientific kind of proof. still, at least as far as she could tell, the information she had so far seemed to strongly hint that the system might somehow be interfering with the way people and mana interacted with each other, making mana less lethal and devastating to humans. at least, assuming the church¡¯s outdated records about mages before the system were correct. whenever alice moved on from cyra, she would do her best to see if she could find better historical records from the era before the system, but for now, it was mostly just speculation.


    however, if alice¡¯s speculation was correct, and the system was interfering with the way humans and mana interacted, that opened up even more questions. who or what had designed the system, and why? and how? the system had possibly been with her since the moment she had set foot on this world ¨C less than two hours after she had first arrived here, she had gotten her first system notification. if the system was some sort of creature or tool or something that changed the way humans and mana interacted, how the hell had it been constructed or born which would allow it to affect literally every human being on the planet, even a human from another world that no human on this planet had ever seen? that wasn¡¯t even at the level of satellite imagery anymore ¨C this was closer to a satellite image continuously scanned by high level ai, or operating on another set of rules entirely.


    deep in her thoughts, alice frowned, before she thought over cecilia¡¯s achievement. cecilia had also reported that it was difficult to observe mana while it changed and interacted with the human body, which alice found a bit odd. then, alice wrote another few things down in her notebook.


    - (possibly) system (or something else) makes it difficult to observe the mechanics of the system? possibly mind control or manipulation?


    alice shivered as she wrote the words down, before she frowned.


    it... didn¡¯t feel like the system was doing anything of the sort. no, in the first place, if the system intended to ¡®manipulate¡¯ people somehow, what the hell was it doing handing out achievements that directly contradicted its attempts to obscure the truth? that made no sense at all.


    not to mention, alice hadn¡¯t observed any sort of problems with her mana experiments, or with her ability to observe the way mana interacted with the human body. granted, she had only done one experiment so far, so it could have been a fluke or something, but...


    that explanation didn¡¯t really feel right. if the system was actively ¡®mind controlling¡¯ people or something, why was cecilia able to properly understand alice¡¯s explanation of how she thought mana and muscles interacted? if that was supposed to be some sort of deeply held secret of the system or something, it should have been actively stopping cecilia from understanding it, right? perhaps by giving her a headache, or messing with her ability to understand the subject, or making her space out whenever alice explained her experiments. really, the possibilities were endless, and alice didn¡¯t believe for a second that the system was incapable of doing any of the above. the perks alice picked up had far more reality-defying effects than ¡®give someone a headache for a few minutes whenever they think about stuff they shouldn¡¯t. heck, alice had gone through plenty of phases where she questioned the system, its mechanics, and its purpose ¨C if the system was doing some sort of mind-control in the background, it had already had dozens of times where it should have interfered but obviously hadn¡¯t. regardless of whether it was unable to, or simply chose not to, the system was not directly interfering with people¡¯s thoughts.


    alice tried to spend more time thinking about the topic, but finally, she realized she was just going in circles, unable to figure out what all of this information meant yet. for now, she decided to stick with a more basic observation.n??v€lrapture marked the initial hosting of this chapter on n?o?v€l??n.


    - for some reason, it seems difficult for cecilia to observe the mechanics of mana and biology interacting with each other. reason unknown. system may either be part of this, or part of the reason it¡¯s possible to observe mana unobscured? unknown. system probably not doing mind ¨C control, but if the system is actively designed to obscure the mechanics of mana and human biology interacting, might have some other, ¡®dumb¡¯ solution used in place of this? alternately, there might be some ¡®byproduct¡¯ of mana interacting with biology that makes it hard to observe, and my {outworlder} perk cuts through this ¨C i still don¡¯t know exactly what the ¡®increased support from the system¡¯ bit of the perk means yet, but it helping me cut through problems in my observations would certainly make sense.


    - skills that i already learned while i lived on earth and am only officially adding to my status screen don¡¯t seem to actually change my abilities at all - i will save other skills that i imagine can probably be ¡®earned¡¯ for when i want to observe the process of gaining a ¡®skill¡¯ more closely, since they don¡¯t fundamentally affect my abilities at all. it does deprive me of a bit of skill growth, but i imagine i can also earn a lot of levels in scientist later on for observing the process more carefully, so it probably balances out.


    alice sighed as she wrote down the last of her observations, before she finally moved on to the part of the night she was looking forward to.


    alice had started wondering recently ¨C where does mana come from? more specifically, where does the mana in her body come from? she was obviously spending mana to do ¡®magic stuff¡¯ every time she invoked her magic seed to manipulate kinetic energy ¨C the amount of mana inside of her seed went down, and even though the numbers were way off, the number of mariums inside of her body did decrease by a very small amount when she spent enough mana. alice still wasn¡¯t sure what to make of the fact that using mana caused the mariums in her body to decrease, but only by a small amount, but at the very least she was sure mana was being spent somewhere.


    so where did the mana inside of her body come from? did it come from the air? food? something else entirely?


    for now, alice had five major guesses for where mages got mana from.


    alternatively, perhaps mages simply ¡®get more¡¯ out of each bite of food. humans waste a lot of the matter they ingest from every meal, and mages might simply make better use of the matter they ingest in order to gather more energy. check any studies or information on bowel movements of mages to see if less ... waste is produced (i can¡¯t believe i just wrote that) (check books, ask illa. maybe see if anyone has noticed anything unique about mage stomachs/intestines?).


    anyway, what mattered was that for the next few days, alice had already picked out the ingredients to be used in her meals. since they were all mana-rich, alice would be able to start running her second experiment. it would take days to show results, but alice thought she could probably keep the experiment running over the course of the expedition ¨C even if she would need to re-try a lot of it later on, she was prepared to redo some things a few times. what mattered the most was just figuring out if her hypotheses had any merit to them at all. granted, the mana was also slightly denser the farther south you went, and the expedition was going to be heading directly south ¨C meaning that her experiment wouldn¡¯t actually distinguish between hypothesis 1 and hypothesis


    * * *


    illa had given alice a strange look when she saw alice¡¯s food that night, but ultimately hadn¡¯t said anything on the subject. the next day, alice had gone to cecilia and informed her what alice intended to test, regarding the relationship between mana inside of food and magic inside of the body. cecilia had given her a bit of a dubious look, but had ultimately shrugged and promised she would adjust her diet as well. in a sense, cecilia would actually be a much better test for the experiment ¨C she used most of her mana every day enchanting things, and unlike alice, cecilia wasn¡¯t going to need to keep any mana reserved for a potential emergency later on. currently, due to the differing nature of their jobs, cecilia used her magic in stable and constant ¡®drains¡¯ over the course of a day, whereas alice tended to use her mana in more erratic bursts when she was training. alice couldn¡¯t help but feel amused at the fact that for her second experiment, she was going to be conducting a far more flawed version of the first test than her assistant.


    the next few days settled into a blur of training, as alice desperately tried to get her stats up to the point where she wouldn¡¯t be a hindrance in the expedition. from alice¡¯s conversation with cecilia yesterday, as well as her conversations about ¡®average¡¯ stats among the population, alice knew that she was close to an acceptable baseline of stats for her age ¨C most people had an average of around 100-110 in every stat, with an extra 20 or 30 points in their specialties. then, they stacked perks and achievements together to multiply the heck out of all of their stats.


    finally, the night before the expedition, alice got one of the achievements she had marked as ¡®useful¡¯ that she had wanted to pick up. apart from the achievement, she had picked up a few more levels in [student of kinetic magic], as well as one more level in [scholar] from reading through more of illa¡¯s library. alice was perhaps 30% of the way through illa¡¯s library so far, so she estimated she could probably still get a few more levels out of illa¡¯s books before she ran out of reading material available in cyra.


    you have leveled up!


    student of kinetic magic: 10 -> 13


    you have leveled up!


    scholar: 17 -> 18


    you have gained an achievement!


    basic-training (rarity 3)


    you have managed to get all of your stats to 100 or higher, and have proven that you are dedicated to at least not being far behind your peers.


    +5% effect of all attributes


    this achievement gave her a nice little bonus, and at the same time, showcased how biased this world could be towards mages, even when it came to things like achievements. non-mages weren¡¯t able to get their [magic] stat to 100, meaning that they could never get this achievement ¨C instead, they would be able to get a weaker version of the achievement that only offered a 3% bonus to their attributes. alice knew that most of the people on this planet had already acquired this achievement, or at least the lesser version of it.


    however, it still felt good to get this one ¨C it felt like her hard work was being acknowledged, and she was finally getting to the point where people in the same age group didn¡¯t just totally outpace her in terms of raw physical and mental abilities.


    alice allowed herself a small smile as she looked at the achievement, before she went to sleep for the night. tomorrow, the expedition would begin, and alice needed to be in her best mental state if she wanted to avoid messing up. illa had been the one organizing and preparing the expedition, so alice wasn¡¯t too familiar with most of the details ¨C however, she knew that several other mages would be there, to help deal with the broken mana, as well as several guards to use their investigation-related perks, and a few [travelling merchants] to help the supply wagons moving through the completely roadless area.


    alice couldn¡¯t help but wonder what the hell [travelling merchants] got for perks that let them move horses through heavily forested and roadless land, but it was ultimately irrelevant to her. she just needed to do her part, show her face around the expedition, and learn whatever she could. still, she couldn¡¯t help it.


    ultimately, she was nervous.

 Chapter 33

    chapter 33


    the expedition¡¯s staging area was more chaotic than alice had imagined it being ¨C even though everyone knew what they were doing and where they were supposed to be, the sheer number of people involved still surprised her. alice wandered around, since she had nothing to do, and wondered if there was some sort of task that required her assistance. most of the people around here were simply helping to load up the covered wagons, with a plethora of perks on display making the process safer, faster, and more efficient. alice noted that there was less food than she had been expecting ¨C and that, occasionally, a box of rations next to one of a few select people would simply vanish into thin air. alice wondered if she was finally getting a glimpse of what a perk that stored items looked like ¨C she still hadn¡¯t tried used her own {sample collection} yet, beyond confirming that it allowed her to store items as intended.


    all right, for the expedition, i need to keep an eye out for monster eggs ¨C i still want to test to see if monsters have any sort of ¡®mana baptism¡¯ or not, and having some spidercrab eggs might be a way to test for that. not a conclusive one, but it might still be useful for generating more experiments later. apart from that, i want to keep an eye on whatever is found near the place i arrived ¨C while most people think that the society of starry eyes summoned me here, there are also a lot of strange points about my arrival, and so it¡¯s best to see if i can find out anything. third, i want to see if i can get the second tier of the {monster slayer} achievement ¨C according to the church¡¯s records, the second tier requires 25 kills. i hunted 1-2 spidercrabs a week while i was in the wilderness, and i was there for about 105 ¨C ish days. that means, realistically, i hunted somewhere between 15 and 30 spidercrabs during my time there ¨C but obviously below 25, because i didn¡¯t get the second tier of the achievement. i think it should have been 22 or so, but i¡¯ll assume it was as low as 20, potentially. anyway, i should be pretty close to the next stage, and there are no special requirements for the strength of each monster for the first three tiers of the achievement. finally, i should keep an eye out for potential danger ¨C the sigmusi colonia¡¯s agents might be skulking about, and with how much fanfare the expedition is leaving with, i don¡¯t doubt for a second that there¡¯s some danger of them making a move. come to think of it, the expedition is taking along a good chunk of the town¡¯s mages and guards as well ¨C is the town itself vulnerable? well, illa probably has some sort of plan for that ¨C it¡¯s not my place to worry about it.


    apart from that, i want to collect more information about the source of mana from my food experiment, and see if i can introduce myself to some of the other mages on the expedition.


    alice nodded to herself, confirming her personal objectives in the expedition. after that, she started looking around, checking to see if she could spot any other people wearing the mage insignia on any jewelry. illa had told her that she was to start working on becoming a more ¡®public figure¡¯ starting with the expedition, and had given her some more specific instructions for what illa was looking for. in short, it wasn¡¯t a problem if it was known alice was learning from illa, or that she was staying in illa¡¯s mansion right now ¨C others would probably just assume illa wanted some levels in [teacher]. even if they figured out that alice was being paid to show her face around town, it actually wasn¡¯t a huge problem ¨C their reputation would be at risk regardless, as long as alice¡¯s hidden guard (who she had never seen, nor met) didn¡¯t come to light. and, obviously, it also showed that alice valued whatever illa was providing her over the potential risk of staying in the south, which still displayed alice¡¯s confidence in the idea that illa could protect her.??v€l?1n.


    since alice hadn¡¯t met the other mages in the town yet, she thought now would be a good time to introduce herself. since she was expected to start ¡®publically appearing,¡¯ making some headway now would only make her job easier in the future?


    it didn¡¯t take her too long to find another mage. a man, perhaps in his early thirties, was wearing a copper mage insignia on a bracelet. alice absently fingered her own silver mage insignia, provided by illa¡¯s maid last week to replace alice¡¯s stone insignia, and then stepped forward.


    ¡°hello!¡± she said, trying her best to suppress her nerves.


    the man turned towards her, before his eyes flicked to her wrist and then back to her face.


    ¡°oh? i don¡¯t believe i know you ¨C ah, are you the new mage in town? i had heard there was someone new who came south and got mixed up in some sort of mess involving the sigmusi hunting order. and something about erik being confirmed dead? damn shame. he was a good man. glad to see that at least you¡¯re unharmed. i¡¯m milo. nice to meet you,¡± said the man, extending his hand towards her. alice shook his hand, noting that even for an adult on this world, his grip was firm and strong. his body was also decently solidly ¨C built, much more muscular than the average man. ¡°so what brings a little lass like you on the expedition? that is what you¡¯re here for, right?¡±


    ¡°ah, i...¡± alice frowned. now that she thought about it, illa hadn¡¯t actually told her if she had some sort of ¡®backstory¡¯ she was supposed to stick to around town. obviously, saying she was an {outworlder} was right out ¨C on the slim chance the society of starry eyes didn¡¯t know about her, alice had no reason to call their attention towards her. perhaps alice wasn¡¯t supposed to rush into her first encounter like this? what if she messed up?


    no, alice needed to get used to working on her own a little. she couldn¡¯t run back to illa every time she had a question, and as long as she didn¡¯t explicitly lie, it wouldn¡¯t be too big of a problem either way. alice just needed to avoid tripping any lie-detection perks.


    ¡°i have some interest in the area we¡¯re going to be studying,¡± said alice. ¡°i want to see if i can figure out more of what it¡¯s like and what exactly caused it to form, and that means i need to go on the expedition. apart from that, hoping to grab a few achievements and levels, and it¡¯s way safer moving as a group than individually.¡±


    ¡°when i was in school, most nobles treated me... politely. they weren¡¯t subservient or anything ¨C their social status was still above mine, and i could definitely feel that in some places. still, they didn¡¯t rub my face in it, and they weren¡¯t unkind. just... distant. i wasn¡¯t a very promising mage, either, so they just didn¡¯t interact with me much.¡± milo shrugged. ¡°it wasn¡¯t bad, honestly.¡±


    ¡°huh.¡± alice frowned, thinking over milo¡¯s words. they were surprisingly logical. the nobles of this world seemed pragmatic, despite what her first impressions had led her to believe. on the other hand, there was a reason vallis was exiled to be an underling in a mage¡¯s territory, after all. perhaps she was just an outlier. ¡°thanks. that¡¯s good to know.¡±


    ¡°why do you ask? were you thinking about joining one of the academies or something?¡± asked milo as he set another crate down on one of the wagons, and the crate vanished into thin air as a [travelling merchant] extended his hand towards the crate. alice noted, with some curiosity, that the mana inside of the [travelling merchant]¡¯s body lightly stirred and changed color right as he activated the skill, before reverting back to its previous color right as the crate disappeared. she put it into the back of her mind for now ¨C another observation to add to the list. alice turned her attention back to the conversation.


    ¡°not right now ¨C i want to stay in cyra for a little longer. i was mostly curious because lady vallis is a little...¡±


    the man frowned. ¡°she doesn¡¯t seem too bad, although i admit i haven¡¯t interacted with her much. did you catch her on a bad day or something?¡±


    alice shrugged. ¡°who knows. i don¡¯t want to think about it anymore. she isn¡¯t coming on the expedition, is she?¡±


    ¡°no, she isn¡¯t ¨C claimed it would be too dangerous for her, and made a bunch of excuses. after that, she launched into a big speech about how the fact the expedition is happening at all is a sign of how incompetent illa is, because splitting our defenses like this when the sigmusi empire is active is just asking to die. a couple [orators] started arguing her down in public, and i hear she got really mad about it and started arguing with them until all of them were fined for being a public nuisance.¡± the man shrugged. ¡°none of my business. still, she doesn¡¯t seem too bright, all things considered. even the other mages that want to leave wouldn¡¯t denounce illa so publicly ¨C she¡¯s a semi-famous war hero, after all. not a good target to try to incite public outrage against.¡±


    ¡°huh. good to know,¡± said alice, as she dropped another crate of supplies into one of the wagons. she turned back towards the pile of crates, only to find that it was empty now. she turned back towards milo. ¡°does this mean we¡¯re done?¡±


    ¡°i think it does. we should be departing soon.¡± the man looked thoughtful for a moment. ¡°do you want to ride in one of the wagons with me? it can be pretty intimidating to talk to the other mages if you don¡¯t know anyone, and you haven¡¯t been too publicly available ever since your baptism. there are plenty of rumors swirling around about you, you know? if you want, i could give you an introduction to the rest of the mages tagging along for the expedition. there are a decent number of us, and plenty of us want to get to know you a little better. besides, having someone to talk to would be fun.¡±


    ¡°sure! i¡¯d love to have someone to chat with,¡± said alice, doing her best to mime enthusiasm. in truth, she honestly would have preferred to read or conduct research ¨C but both of those would be hard to do in a (presumably) bumpy wagon ride. having someone to chat with wouldn¡¯t hurt, and introducing herself to the other mages wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea ¨C since illa was paying her a huge amount of time and some money to do a job, alice would do that job.


    milo led her to one of the wagons, and the two of them hopped on board. alice looked out of one of the slits in the side of the wagon, and noted with some curiosity that several of the people who had helped to load the wagons weren¡¯t actually coming with the expedition ¨C instead, they quickly leaving the area. in total, there were seven actual wagons leaving for the expedition ¨C illa, along with her maid, were boarding one of the wagons. a few other people, some of whom were wearing armor and some of whom were wearing guard uniforms, also got into the wagons. finally, every wagon had a driver, as well as a guard riding alongside of them in the front of the wagon. as two guards squeezed into the wagon with them, alice noticed that each wagon had around 6-7 people in it. in total, there were around 40 people on the expedition, give or take a few. it was a bit larger than alice had been expecting ¨C however, illa had seemed to take the potential threat of the society of starry eyes very seriously. furthermore, illa had hinted at the massive bubble of broken mana being close to the town potentially being a problem as well. the wagons each also contained a large amount of supplies, with an extra, unknown amount stashed in a variety of storage-related perks.


    with a jolt, the carriage set into motion. milo and alice were silent, and alice watched out of the back of the covered wagon as cyra slowly began to fade into the distance and the group set forth into the wilderness.


    at last, the expedition had begun.

 Chapter 34

    chapter 34


    after several hours of waiting in the wagons, alice was bored. the mystery of exactly how and why she had appeared here was intriguing, and alice had wondered what the expedition itself would be like. she had imagined something far more interesting ¨C an exploration of a world filled with magic and monsters. events, treasure hunting... something.


    imagination, sadly, was not very close to reality. the most notable thing she had done, was see illa fly over to her carriage every few hours and confirm that the expedition was still supposed to follow the river. alice had been shocked when she had first seen it, but couldn¡¯t help but think back to her time escaping from being eaten as she had fled towards illvaria, when she had briefly propelled herself into the air. perhaps for higher level [kinetic mages] they could use their clothes as some sort of flying tool? alice couldn¡¯t help but want to level up more quickly when she thought about flying.


    apart from that, all alice had done was look outside of the covered wagon and see that, indeed, the covered wagon¡¯s wheels were somehow travelling across the rugged, hilly terrain in a way that her brain somehow completely failed to conceptualize. even if the wagon was travelling across tree roots on one side and uneven dirt on the other side, the inside of the wagon somehow still felt like it was even and flat, despite the fact that the wagon logically should have been tilted sideways whenever this happened. heck, half the time, the wagon wasn¡¯t even flat on the ground ¨C it frequently ended up at strange angles, and somehow, this wasn¡¯t reflected inside of the wagon at all. whenever alice poked her head out of the wagon, she could tell that she was looking at the ground from a weird angle, but when she was inside of the wagon, somehow, it felt almost like she was sitting in the back of a car travelling along flat roads.


    after spending a while observing this little miracle, however, the novelty of it had worn off, especially because she hadn¡¯t managed to create any interesting experiments to do. she could probably have interacted with it if she actually had any of the perks in question, or time to investigate, but sadly nobody had time to sit around for hours while alice messed with the wagons.


    ¡°bored?¡± asked milo, giving her a friendly shrug.


    ¡°yeah. isn¡¯t there anything to do?¡±


    ¡°if you had a book, i would recommend reading it, but those are expensive,¡± said milo, absently. alice winced, thinking of illa¡¯s book collection. even if she wasn¡¯t supposed to take them out of illa¡¯s mansion, maybe illa would have let her make an exception? she hadn¡¯t thought to check. ¡°maybe if you have any achievements or attributes to work on? or skills?¡±


    alice frowned, but shook her head after a moment. she had tried to observe the surroundings of the carriage using only her skills and perks, but she wasn¡¯t getting close enough to succeeding to make good progress on her levels and skills.


    eventually, alice sighed. ¡°i wonder if i could sit in the front of the carriage and try to kill some spidercrabs as we move on? it would be something, at least. i wanted to get {monster slayer} up to tier two,¡± she said absently.


    ¡°you don¡¯t have {monster slayer} at tier three yet?¡± asked milo, surprised. ¡°then it¡¯s not a terrible idea to work on it. go to the front of the carriage and see if you can hit some spidercrabs while we¡¯re moving ¨C i know the guard has been shooting them down semi-frequently whenever they get too close to the wagons. even if we move faster than them, they might spook the horses if they get too close. even if they would be easy to dispatch afterwards, don¡¯t wanna waste time,¡± he said. ¡°just don¡¯t ever go below 80% mana ¨C gotta keep some in reserve for if something actually problematic comes to attack us.¡±


    alice did as he suggested, moving to the front of the wagon and asking if she could work on her {monster slayer} achievement. the guard took one look at her mage insignia and then nodded, switching to the back of the wagon. then, alice began to work on trying to hit roaming spidercrab packs as they travelled.


    the first few hits were incredibly difficult ¨C alice wasn¡¯t used to attacking from a moving vehicle, and since the guard had left behind a cluster of arrows for her to use as ammunition, alice had to try to figure out how to keep the arrows straight when she influenced them. otherwise, she would hit the spidercrabs with the side of an arrow and it would just bounce off. alice swore as another arrow bounced off of the edge of a spidercrab, wondering why she couldn¡¯t seem to hit the spidercrabs effectively.


    ¡°try attaching a thread of your mana to the arrow and keeping it straight mid-flight,¡± said milo. alice couldn¡¯t help but jump, nearly falling off the wagon.


    ¡°where did you come from?¡± she asked, startled.


    ¡°i got bored sitting in the wagon, so i decided to come out and see what you were up to. you¡¯re struggling a lot,¡± said milo, with a hint of mirth. ¡°here, you¡¯re never going to inflict any damage if you just hit the spidercrabs with the side of the arrow, unless you back it up with overwhelming power. you need to control the arrows a bit better when you launch it, or ¡®guide¡¯ them for a few seconds. watch my mana.¡± milo quickly demonstrated what he meant, taking one of the arrows and slowly wrapping it with a tendril of mana. he controlled four mana tendrils at the same time, wrapping them around the arrow, before in a sudden flash of energy, all four of the mana tendrils injected mana into the arrow and it was suddenly sent whistling towards a spidercrab. one of the mana tendrils managed to keep up with the arrow for a fraction of a second, making a few last-minute adjustments to the arrow¡¯s flight path as alice watched.


    the immortal simply sighed, and a trace of guilt flickered through his heart as well. he gritted his teeth, and banished the feeling. he had no choice. two of his assistants seemed to catch the emotion in his eyes, however, and both gave him wan, but still comforting, smiles.


    ¡°there is no choice. after all, it¡¯s the reason the society of starry eyes was founded. for the salvation of the human race,¡± said one of the female assistants. she absently rubbed her forehead, but stopped herself as she seemed to realize what she was doing.


    ¡°for the salvation of the human race, indeed,¡± muttered the immortal quietly. still, he couldn¡¯t help but feel a sense of fatigue as he thought about the number of corpses his experiments had produced. he didn¡¯t feel happy, using his fellow humans as test subjects.


    however, if he did not do it, no one else would. since no one else understood how bad the crisis was becoming, he needed to take matters into his own hands if he wanted anyone to survive. his thoughts couldn¡¯t help but turn back towards the experiment that had changed everything.


    once, instead of a feared leader of an illegal organization, he had been an ordinary promising soon-to-be immortal. he had made great discoveries, changing the lives of the common people. he had even made the very first ¡®healing¡¯ enchanted items, finding a way to compensate for the lack of intelligence enchanted items displayed by using a low-efficiency magic seed called ¡®healing¡¯ to replace the years of hard work and understanding most [organic mages] needed. then, when he had gotten a permit to study dimensional magic and had done his first few experiments, he had realized how wrong many of his assumptions about the world had been. the system, humans, mana... everything. he didn¡¯t even have a good estimate for how long they had left ¨C it could be centuries, or days.


    such was the nature of dimensions colliding and unravelling.


    the immortal sighed.


    ¡°are there any updates on the other observation lists?¡±


    the other female assistant frowned, scanning a list of reports. her eyes seemed to move inhumanly fast, and she processed information at a ludicrous rate, taking only a few seconds to fully read and comprehend each report. finally, she sighed.


    ¡°the teams on the western continent got wiped out again. we need to increase the level requirement for making observations there ¨C the fact that there are no human civilizations present on the continent and there are so many powerful monsters makes it hard for any teams to survive, and the mana is so dense that even high level humans go through mana baptisms nearly instantly before they can even land. the central continent has seen several unusual fluctuations in mana as well, and it seems like there were two notable incidents of mana suddenly breaking within the last decade, although luckily both were in uninhabited regions. finally, there were three oddities on the southern continent, especially in mana-dense regions. we hired some [bandits] and [mercenaries] to do some searching around both areas, but the weakness of both classes makes it hard to get useful and conclusive results in a timely fashion. one of them was concentrated somewhere in illvaria, although we didn¡¯t get any particularly good idea where, and two were somewhere in the southern corellion empire. there might have also been one in the western area of the sigmusi empire, but it¡¯s much harder to get information from there, since we didn¡¯t manage to get any observation bunkers set up.¡±


    the immortal frowned, before he sighed. ¡°raise the level requirement for the teams on the western continent, but send out another batch. splurge a bit and dip into the high-grade enchanted equipment to ensure the safety of the teams ¨C there is no sense in letting them die for no purpose. as for the anomalies recorded on the central and southern continent, you mentioned already taking care of it?¡±


    ¡°yes. considering how active the sigmusi colonia is recently, it¡¯s easy to slip into the chaos, especially in the southern region of illvaria, but i used some of our information loops from the northern area as well. no hint on what exactly is going on yet, though. not enough people with good message-related perks or movement perks to keep information flowing.¡±


    ¡°the sigmusi, huh. i had nearly forgotten. very well. keep up the good work,¡± said the immortal. with a weary sigh, he got up, and the other four [assistants] stood up after a few moments. ¡°for now, the meeting is adjourned. everyone, keep up the experiments, and see if we can find anything else that might be relevant. in particular, i want you to keep a close eye on the research subjects who were cut off from mana ¨C see if their symptoms persist, and record their survival. if anything happens, let me know immediately.¡±


    ¡°yes, sir,¡± said the final male lab assistant.


    with a heavy heart, the meeting adjourned, and five silent people left the room, left alone with their thoughts. however, in the end, there was no choice.

 Chapter 34.5: Full Status Screen (Readers can Skip this if preferred)

    chapter 34.5: full status screen (readers can skip this if preferred)


    name: alice verianna


    age: 15


    strength: 101 (112%)


    perception: 114 (145%)


    dexterity: 100 (114%)


    intelligence: 158 (118%)


    endurance: 105 (111%)


    willpower: 133 (108%)


    charisma: 125 (107%)


    magic: 112 (107%)


    primary classes: 5/6


    survivor: 37


    explorer of magic: 31


    scholar: 18


    scientist: 12


    (student) of kinetic magic: 13


    secondary classes: 1


    fisherwoman: 3


    perks:


    foraging (survivor 5)


    microbe resistance (survivor 10)


    extremophile (survivor 15)


    camouflaged (survivor 20)


    sixth sense (survivor 25)


    enhanced training (survivor 30)


    sense hostility (survivor 35)


    magic proficiency (explorer of magic 5)


    enhanced regeneration (explorer of magic 10)


    combat spellcaster (explorer of magic 15)


    improved seed (explorer of magic 20)


    seeds of magic (explorer of magic 25)


    three seeds (explorer of magic 30)


    enhanced memory (scholar 5)


    lesser reduced sleep requirement (scholar 10)


    accelerated thinking (scholar level 15 (-5))


    precise mana measurement (scientist level 5)


    sample collection (scientist level 10)


    object control (student of kinetic magic 5)


    above average mana sight (student of kinetic magic 10)


    skills


    basic mathematics: 122


    english (language proficiency): 100


    illvarian (language proficiency): 94


    intermediate mathematics: 78


    kinetic manipulation: 44??v€l?1n.


    mana control: 30


    weaving: 27


    woodworking: 25


    mana precision: 26


    kinetic force: 24


    spearmanship: 19


    sprinting: 15


    dodge: 15


    cooking: 12


    stoneworking: 11


    climbing: 9


    fishing: 9


    digging: 8


    projectile awareness : 6


    divided attention: 5


    stealth: 4


    precise mana measurement


    requirements: scientist level 5 or greater, [explorer of magic] class is a primary class, perk related to seeing mana has been taken from any class


    if you concentrated on a single area for a moderate period of time, you will begin to accurately measure how much mana there is in that area, rounding to the nearest tenth of a marium.


    sample collection


    requirements: scientist level 10 or greater


    allows you to store a limited number of items inside of a special ''item box'' seperately from each other. you must be holding the object in your hand. note - it is recommended that you pay attention to the amount of resistance living objects have, as living beings will heavily resist being stored, and may break out if they are sentient. also note that time is not stopped or altered inside of the storage box - if you attempt to store something inside of the item box, it will likely suffocate or die of mana deprivation, depending on circumstances.


    object control


    requirements: student of kinetic magic level 5 or higher or higher, perception 100 or greater, intelligence 100 or greater


    enhances your ability to predict the trajectories of nonliving objects around you, as well as any objects you have interacted with via magic within the past five minutes. you also gain greater comprehension ability when it comes to moving objects using mana.


    above average mana sight


    requirements: student of kinetic magic level 10 or higher, perception 100 or higher, magic 100 or higher, have interacted with magic for at least 15 hours.


    your eyes gain the ability to see mana around you with an above-average level of detail.


    achievements


    outworlder (rarity: 10)


    you have come from another world, far from home and lost beyond the cracks of another dimension.


    +30% faster attribute growth for all stats below 120, +50% class experience for all main classes below level 50, +15% class experience for all secondary classes below level 10, strengthened immune system, strengthened mana adaption and resistance, increased support from the system.


    baptized by broken mana (rarity: 6)


    you are one of the four percent of survivors among the ungifted who have managed to survive mana poisoning. furthermore, you even baptized yourself using broken mana instead of regular mana. you must really love taking risks!


    +50% faster growth to the ¡®magic¡¯ attribute, +25% growth to the ¡®willpower¡¯ attribute, +30% experience gain for all mage and magic-related classes, +15% mana recovery, immunity to mana poisoning from broken mana


    survivor of winter (rarity: 3)


    you have managed to survive a winter away from civilization with no help from other humans. you are truly committed to survival!


    +15% class experience for the [survivor] class and any further evolutions. your body is able to handle temperature 10 degrees celsius lower than before. +15% growth to the endurance stat. during the months of winter, the effect of your endurance stat is increased by 10%.


    monster slayer (ii) rarity: 1


    you have successfully slain 25 monsters.


    increases the effect of the ¡®strength,¡¯ ¡®dexterity,¡¯ and ¡®perception¡¯ stats by 5%. improves your ability to perceive monsters in a ten meter radius.


    monstrous encounter (rarity: 1)


    given the fact that they''re everywhere, you''re bound to encounter them sooner or later, right?


    increases the effect of ''endurance'' and ''dexterity'' stats by 2%


    seeker of truth (i) (rarity: 8)


    you have gained a singular glimpse into the mechanics of the system and at least partially understood it, allowing you to understand more of the truths of mana and the world around you.


    +1 primary class slot(s), +35% class experience for all research-related classes, +10% effect of intelligence, +15% effect of perception. your ability to see mana is significantly enhanced.


    basic-training (rarity 3)


    you have managed to get all of your stats to 100 or higher, and have proven that you are dedicated to at least not being far behind your peers.


    +5% effect of all attributes


    derived modifiers (ignoring stuff that''s already including on stats, like ''increased effect of ____ stat)


    attribute growth modifiers


    + 10% all stats (enhanced training)


    + 30% all stats below 120 (outworlder)


    + 15% endurance (survivor of winter)


    + 50% magic (baptized by broken mana)


    + 25% willpower attribute (baptized by broken mana)


    levelling speed modifiers


    +50% experience for main classes below 50 (outworlder)


    +30% experience for ''magic'' related classes (baptized by broken mana)


    +15% experience for [survivor] (survivor of winter)


    +15% experience for secondary classes below 10 (outworlder)


    + 35% experience for research related classes


    + 5(ish)% levelling speed (reduced sleep requirement) (exact efficiency depends on willpower stat, since humans are prone to wasting some amount of time every day)


    special attribute effect modifiers


    +10% endurance during winter (currently inactive)


    misc. modifiers


    immunity to broken mana poisoning (baptized by broken mana)


    ability to see mana is significantly enhanced (seeker of truth i)


    strengthened immune system (outworlder, microbe resistance)


    strengthened mana adaption and resistance (outworlder)


    increased support from the system (outworlder)


    comfortable temp range increased by range of -20 celsius and +10 celsius (survivor of winter, extremophile)


    mariums stats


    total mariums:


    161.8 kinetic energy mariums (roughly - rounded to nearest tenth for author convenience)


    12 organic energy mariums (drastically reduced mana control due to low level of the seed)


    recharge rate - 2.5% per hour (base 2%, (2 x 0.15) + (2 x 0.1)) recharge from baptized by broken mana and enhaned mana regeneration

 Chapter 35

    chapter 35


    alice was awoken from her light nap with a loud bang.


    huh? alice, still groggy, turned around, trying to figure out what was going on. her head was still hazy, because she had just woken up.??v€l?1n.


    ¡°what¡¯s going on?¡± asked alice, trying to make sense of the sudden noise in the world around her. she could suddenly hear multiple people yelling, and some part of her brain was urgently screaming at her. alice tried to finish waking up, rubbing absently at her eyes, before she turned to milo.


    ¡°i don¡¯t know, but i think something bad is happening,¡± said milo, frowning. ¡°come on, let¡¯s get out of the wagon.¡±


    alice didn¡¯t need to be urged more ¨C she was already beginning to have a bad feeling about the situation. milo quickly climbed out of the back of the wagon, before taking a few more steps forward and looking around. alice gave her head a quick shake to dispel the last few remnants of muddle-headed sleepiness, before she also started getting ready to move out of the back of the wagon.


    as she was doing so, she heard a strange whistling sound. milo suddenly shot a mana tendril to the side as he turned in a certain direction, and a hint of panic surfaced in his expression as an arrow hovered a few meters away from him. alice suddenly froze. milo¡¯s expression turned pale, but he didn¡¯t seem wounded yet.


    oh, shi-


    the sound of metal clashing against metal sounded in the distance moments later. the sound of men and women cursing and yelling started coming from the direction of one of the other wagons. by this point, alice was starting to panic.


    we¡¯re being attacked. alice had heard of the sigmusi empire attacking people and the society of starry eyes hurting people, but she hadn¡¯t seen any of it firsthand. in her mind, violence between humans was still something that only dimly registered as a possibility. she had grown up in a first world country where violence was rare, after all.


    now, it seemed she would see firsthand exactly what it was like when humans tried to kill each other.


    the four guards that had been sitting in the carriage with her burst into motion, grabbing their weapons and shields. they didn¡¯t have time to grab their armor ¨C the attack had come too suddenly. quickly, they leapt out of the carriage and began scanning their surroundings, warily moving towards the wagon being attacked.


    alice¡¯s heart was beating so heavily that it felt like it might burst out of her chest, alice scrambled to get out of the carriage, nearly fumbling and falling as she tried to get down. her mana was wildly roiling about, as she desperately tried to find any places where arrows might catch her unprepared. she had only trained for two weeks under illa, and only with beans that she knew wouldn¡¯t hurt her in a controlled environment. this was different.


    this was real.


    a group of six men and two women wielding spears and swords charged out of the trees and towards alice and milo. the guards stopped moving towards the other wagon and began quickly moving in front of milo, preparing to meet the charge of the attackers.


    and, more importantly, leaving alice stranded several meters away from the rest of the group. one of the guards seemed to notice she was there, but it was too late.


    another arrow flew towards alice. luckily, alice¡¯s brain finally kicked into gear, and with a movement she had rehearsed over and over again under illa¡¯s instruction, alice shot out a mana tendril. the arrow halted the moment it got within five meters of her, and alice felt a huge amount of mana drain out of her seed.


    she had stopped it too far away. mages could only easily influence objects one meter away from them if they had no perks to extend that range, and she had gone way above her range in her panic.


    before she had time to kick herself mentally for screwing up, three of the charging attackers broke away from the charge towards milo¡¯s group and suddenly sped towards alice at speeds an olympic athlete could never hope to match. they immediately spread out to surround her. the one in the lead, a man with a scar on his face and a long spear, stabbed towards her chest while the two [swordsmen] hacked towards her.


    ¡°give me {patient¡¯s consent},¡± said the woman, and she wrapped alice in a bear hug. one of her hands seized alice¡¯s wrist, forming skin contact, and the woman lifted alice up and then sprinted towards milo¡¯s group. at the same time, alice felt a flicker of energy digging into her body that felt familiar.


    organic mage. alice immediately focused on letting the woman¡¯s energy into her, praying for a miracle to save her from her death. a moment later, she felt the massive hole in her stomach rapidly begin to close. the hole in her shoulder and the cut in her arm were left unaddressed, but the blackness eating away at the edge of her vision started to clear up.


    seconds later, the wound had stopped bleeding, and the woman roughly set alice down on the ground. then, she leapt towards the dying [guard], while the other [guards] moved to shield both her and alice.


    one of the [guards], seeing an opportunity, shuffled over and grabbed the dead [spearman]¡¯s weapon. he hefted it for a moment, and then threw it into the woods. alice watched as it swerved in midair, seemingly correcting its aim, trajectory, or both. alice saw an arrow fly out of the woods at almost the same time, speeding towards the [guard]. a mana tendril from milo stopped the arrow in its tracks, and a moment later, alice heard a gurgled scream from the woods. the remaining three attackers who had been on milo¡¯s group began to disengage, pulling back. seeing an opportunity, one of the [guards] quickly strode over to the swordsman, hefted the pommel of his sword, and slammed it into the man¡¯s head. the man went out like a light, unconscious.


    the other guards tried to kill the fleeing enemies, but whatever perk they were using to speed up let them quickly evade their pursuers and disappear back into the woods.


    ¡°how are the other wagons doing?¡± asked milo, turning to the woman.


    ¡°decent. fuckers mounted a goddam ballista in the middle of the woods and tried to kill off illa early on in the attack, but she plowed through the damn thing and then killed the people manning it. a few high level [assassins] popped out afterwards to try to kill her while she was distracted, but she dealt with them. after that, she managed to stabilize most of the other wagons ¨C this one was the last area. any dead?¡±


    the [guards] looked at the corpse of the guard who had killed one of the people attacking alice earlier. ¡°one dead, two wounded.¡±


    ¡°i¡¯m almost out of mana, so i¡¯m not healing it if it isn¡¯t life-threatening,¡± said the woman.


    ¡°her stomach okay?¡± asked milo, gesturing towards alice.


    ¡°fine for now. lethal if it isn¡¯t properly healed in the next few hours, but i at least roughly patched it up. it¡¯ll hold for now if she doesn¡¯t move too much. just need to deal with the blood loss and the bits of stomach acid mixed into her other organs, because i didn¡¯t have time to finish dealing with it,¡± said the woman.


    milo and the [guards] cautiously scanned the surroundings again, before milo nodded in relief. ¡°i think we¡¯re fine for now. go check on the other wagons again.¡±


    ¡°got it. pull back towards the center wagon ¨C illa wants to regroup, since even though we¡¯re all pretty close this attack somehow slipped the [shadow guards] on the perimeter and got the drop on us. how did they even know we were coming here?¡± the woman said, with a frown.


    ¡°beats me. we¡¯ll need to talk with illa more,¡± said milo, frowning. finally, the woman departed from the group. milo turned back towards alice, who was lying on the ground. every breath was painful, but she was alive. her leg, arm, and shoulder were all sources of incredible pain, though ¨C it felt like someone had lit half of her body on fire at this point. milo leaned over her.


    ¡°how are you holding up? here, let¡¯s get you cleaned up a little,¡± said milo.


    alice¡¯s mind turned back towards the spearman she had killed, and she felt sick to her stomach. she raised a quivering hand towards her face, and when she touched her cheek, her hand came away covered in red.


    there was still blood on her.


    finally, alice turned away from milo and vomited onto the grass. then, as a result of the pain, the fact that she had killed someone, her emotions running wild after the encounter, or some combination of the three, she passed out.

 Chapter 36

    chapter 36


    when alice woke up, the first thing she noticed was that the pain in her arm and her stomach were gone. clearly, someone had gone through the effort of fixing all of the problems with her body after the fight. the (presumably) [organic mage] that had saved her during the fight was gone, probably off running damage control elsewhere, but alice still knew that there was no way she could have healed her injuries so cleanly and so well in such a short period of time without some sort of magical assistance.


    however, her system notifications didn¡¯t make her feel much better about the fact that she had survived and that her body was patched up. there were a barrage of notifications, but alice stopped thinking almost the moment she saw the very first one.


    you have gained an achievement!


    murderer (rarity: 4)


    you have slain another human being.


    effect of strength, dexterity, and perception increased by 1%. classes with some relationship to fighting other humans gain experience 15% faster.


    alice stared at the perk for a long time, not processing the world around her. the title of the bloody perk was literally murderer. alice felt...


    she felt...


    she thought of the man¡¯s head exploding during the fight, and suppressed the urge to vomit again. after that, she took a moment to calm down.


    she finally took a look around, processing the fact that she was back in the wagon. they were moving again. milo and the surviving guards were all sitting in the wagon with her, chatting and mostly leaving her in peace. when he saw that she was up and moving around, milo gave her a friendly nod, before he turned back to conversing with the guards. alice gave him a halfhearted nod back, before she sank back into her thoughts.


    did she regret what she had done?


    alice couldn¡¯t honestly say that she did. she knew that the person she had killed had earnestly been trying to kill her. she didn¡¯t know whether they had been motivated by greed or something else, but the fact remained that she had needed to defend herself. if she was put in the same situation, she would probably do it again. the image of people streaming out of the woods and surrounding her with the intention of killing her was one that she would never forget, and no matter how she played the memory back, she couldn¡¯t find any other resolution to the conflict. the moment the attackers had come, someone was going to die.


    that didn¡¯t mean that she could wholeheartedly accept the fact that she had killed someone, though. when she thought about the fact that she had killed someone, however, more than the fact that she had done so, there was also a strangely... hollow feeling. the initial urge to vomit was still there, and an image of the man¡¯s head exploding was branded into her mind. apart from that, however, there was also an oddly hollow feeling. as if none of it was real. it was an... odd feeling. her initial flinch reaction aside, she didn¡¯t revel in the feeling of having taken another life, and she didn¡¯t feel as much horror as she thought she would, either. was something wrong with her? she remembered having read somewhere that humans were supposed to feel horrified, traumatized after killing someone. she felt the urge to throw up when she thought about the man¡¯s head exploding, but the guilt she had assumed she would feel was... dulled.


    alice closed her eyes, trying to process her emotional nothingness in a way that made sense to her. was she still in shock? she wasn¡¯t sure. was there something else in play here? she wasn¡¯t sure. alice¡¯s thoughts kept running in circles for what felt like hours, even though it was probably only a couple minutes in reality. finally, she tried her best to push forward despite her feelings, and began looking at the rest of her notifications.


    you have leveled up!


    survivor: 37 -> 38


    student of kinetic magic: 13->18


    explorer of magic: 31 -> 34


    apart from that, most of her attributes had increased quite substantially after the battle. the only one that was useful in combat but hadn¡¯t improved at all was strength, possibly because at this point alice was already long used to using magic in place of her actual physical body for most things. a variety of skills had also progressed quite nicely, especially the ones related to kinetic magic.


    after a minute or two, alice frowned. just looking over her system notifications after killing somebody felt wrong. then again, not doing so also felt wrong. more than anything else, alice just didn¡¯t know what to do right now. she really wished there was something she could know she was supposed to be doing besides stewing in her thoughts, over and over, as she played the entire battle back in her mind over and over again.


    after an unknown amount of time, illa flew herself over to the wagon. milo and the guards gave illa respectful nods and a chorus of ¡®lady illa¡¯ sounded out before they returned to their conversation.


    illa turned towards alice. perhaps noticing the harrowed and hollow look in alice¡¯s eyes, illa stopped for a moment, before she simply sat down next to alice.


    ¡°how are you doing?¡± illa asked, after a few moments of silence.


    ¡°i don¡¯t know.¡± said alice. it might not have been the best thing to say, but it was the most truthful one right now.


    ¡°my job is a lot riskier than i thought it would be, huh,¡± said alice, sighing.


    illa actually jerked her head back towards alice, surprised. ¡°you¡¯re right, actually. i might be underpaying you. i¡¯ll think about upping your compensation if you¡¯re still interested in working for me later on. we¡¯ll talk more about it once some of the tension from the battle has bled off a bit, though, okay?¡±


    alice sighed, but nodded. then she realized something. ¡°wait, if the sigmusi colonia is going as far as slipping troops across the border, is a war going to happen? i... i¡¯m not really sure if...¡±


    ¡°if you want to stay in illvaria if a war breaks out? i don¡¯t really blame you, if that¡¯s the case ¨C as someone from another planet, you probably aren¡¯t very invested in our nation¡¯s struggle. that being said, i doubt it¡¯ll go that far ¨C the sigmusi empire on the main continent can¡¯t ship huge numbers of troops or immortals to the southern continent or their neighbors will swoop in to make trouble for them while they¡¯re undefended. they¡¯re just doing this because they know they can get away with it without a war breaking out. illvaria doesn¡¯t have the military strength to contest them, after all ¨C and the shil confederacy as a whole wouldn¡¯t take this a direct threat from the sigmusi, because they know the sigmusi wouldn¡¯t take it to a full-on war right now. plenty of them are more than happy to see illvaria knocked down a peg or two, as long as the sigmusi aren¡¯t able to threaten the confederacy as a whole afterwards. so it ends up being kind of a mess of political interests, really.¡± illa frowned. ¡°i hate political interests.¡±


    alice sighed, then turned back to watching the scenery as it flashed by. the wagons continued on, seemingly in peace ¨C for now. but while many of the attackers had fallen, now that the wagons had already been attacked once, her brain wouldn¡¯t stop conjuring images of large groups of attackers lurking just out of sight, ready to pounce on the expedition the moment they let their guard down. she felt... afraid.


    she turned back towards illa, but illa had already taken to the air again, flying herself towards one of the other wagons. alice squirmed uncomfortably, before stroking the part of her stomach where she remembered an arrow punching through her. no matter how much she reassured herself that the damage was gone and she had been healed, her thoughts kept drifting towards what it felt like to get shot, and she kept wondering if it was really healed.


    she didn¡¯t think she could take her job of being the ¡®face¡¯ of illa¡¯s program in the south anywhere near as lightly as she originally had. she needed to think about a lot of things a bit more. before that, however, she needed some armor. she had been made very aware of how vulnerable simple clothes left her body, and she wanted to shore that up a bit.


    before she set out, though, she took a look at the perks she had gained from getting [student of kinetic magic] to level 18.


    railgun


    requirements: kinetic disciple level 15 or higher


    when you are manipulating only one object, you may move it with far greater force.


    sticky objects


    requirements: kinetic disciple level 15 or higher, mana precision 5 or greater


    you may spend a small amount of mana stored in your kinetic seed to temporarily make objects you are currently touching with your mana ''sticky,'' allowing them to adhere to other surfaces or each other for brief periods of time. note: this is a relatively light force, and will break apart if stronger forces pull the objects apart.


    extended skin


    requirements: kinetic disciple level 15 or higher, endurance 100 or greater, willpower 100 or greater


    for the purposes of magic controlled by others, your ''skin'' extends approximately 30 centimeters beyond your actual skin, making it far more difficult for others to initialize any magic in that region.


    folds of magic


    requirements: kinetic disciple level 15 or higher


    when you are attempting to control multiple objects at once with your mana, your control over the objects is improved by a moderate amount. it also becomes easier to focus on multiple objects at once, as well as create multiple mana tendrils at the same time.


    alice thought back to the fight that she had just been in. sticky objects was interesting, but simply wouldn¡¯t have mattered in the fight ¨C it was a neat trick, but tricks were hard to utilize when someone was stabbing you in the stomach. railgun might have helped a lot in some parts of the fight ¨C it would have allowed her to drag away the sword away from one of the attackers earlier and use it to defend herself. that would have helped a lot, but it also came with the hefty restriction of only working if she was manipulating exactly one object. most [kinetic mages] went in a totally different direction, and instead focused on being able to manipulate dozens of objects at once. alice had already started to level the skills she needed to do the same thing ¨C being able to move multiple objects at once was the easiest way to stop something like a volley of arrows, after all.


    folds of magic obviously helped plenty with that, and would have helped alice quite a bit during the fight. if she had been able to multitask more effectively, she could have stopped both the swordsman from stabbing her and the archer from shooting her, which would have left her with far fewer injuries during the fight.


    {extended skin} was an okay option for dealing with other mages, but right now alice didn¡¯t think that was her biggest problem. so she discarded the option for now ¨C there were better things available, even if it didn¡¯t seem like a bad pickup.


    after some hesitation, she grabbed {folds of magic}. she wanted the multitasking options it would help provide, and it would be effective with far less work than it would take to level up her {divided attention} skill to the point where it would be useful. and it would synergize with {divided attention} as the skill reached higher levels, so it would be helpful both immediately and long-term.


    then, with a sigh, alice turned back to the guards and milo. she should at least talk with them about what had happened during the battle, so that she could get a better idea of what she had done wrong, and what else had happened during the fight. there was a lot to unpack, especially from an emotional perspective, but alice felt that she had tried to deal with her messy emotions enough for right now. she had survival concerns to take care of.

 Chapter 37

    chapter 37


    the expedition continued on for the rest of the day with a quiet and somber mood. the guards were required to patrol the area much more frequently, and alice occasionally saw illa or one of the other high-level [kinetic mages] fly to the tops of trees and scout the surrounding area from the air, as well as one of the other mages who she didn¡¯t know. the expedition maintained a semi-alert state and frequently stopped to scan the surroundings, but didn¡¯t encounter any other ¡®deserters¡¯ or other attempts to interfere with the expedition at all. their hidden enemies were either uninterested in making another attack right now, or had given up entirely. alice wasn¡¯t sure which.


    when the expedition stopped for the night, alice was finally able to get a rough look at the rest of the expedition. there were only two people who were actually dead ¨C most of the rest were either already healed, or mostly healed, doubtless a result of the hard work of the [organic mages]. the expedition quickly set up campfires, using some sort of perk to restrain the light and smoke from stretching too far away from the group, and then quickly assigned watches to the guards and mages. alice herself was in charge of the last watch of the night, right before the group would get up and continue moving.


    the expedition¡¯s mood was still somber. two people had died, after all. though it couldn¡¯t be considered to be a huge percentage of the expedition, it couldn¡¯t be considered a tiny amount, either. alice had originally intended to get to know the other mages of the expedition a bit, but she found that she had neither the mood nor energy to deal with it that night. instead, she sat at the same campfire with milo and the guards that had been in her wagon. since their wagon was one of the two with an actual death, the mood was especially quiet ¨C apart from the occasional murmur or whisper, the group was mostly silent.


    finally, one of the guards broke the silence with a sigh.


    ¡°i just can¡¯t believe liam¡¯s gone.¡± the group didn¡¯t respond for a moment. the group simply sat in silence. then, one of the other guards raised his hand in a kind of salute alice had never seen before.


    ¡°he was a good man. he was always energetic and happy when he was in his cups, and he always brightened up a drinking session after work. you know, back when i was just starting out as a guard, he was the one who taught me [spearmanship]. said it might save my life one day.¡± the man laughed, bitterly. ¡°it did. but it didn¡¯t save his.¡± the guard also made the strange salute.


    this time, it didn¡¯t take long before one of the other two guards joined in.


    ¡°he was the one who introduced me to my missus. said his wife had a friend who was looking for someone, and she was real pretty. he and his wife set up a nice dinner for the two of us to get to know each other ¨C we sat around and talked for a few hours before i started to really like the woman. i changed my [apprentice merchant] class out for [ordinary husband] under the [priest] last year with him and his wife as two of the witnesses. he was a tough old bastard. liked helping the newbies and showing off his high level and skills.¡± the guard snorted. ¡°he only had his damn {spearmanship} at 130 or so ¨C barely better than average for his age. and his level was barely at 50. he had a few decades left in him, but was that really worth showing off? crazy bastard.¡± the guard sniffled a little, before repeating the strange salute the first guard had done.


    ¡°he¡¯s returned to the system now. he lives on in our levels and skills, and he¡¯ll continue to do so for generations to come,¡± said the final guard, the only female in the group besides alice. after a moment, she gave a solemn sigh, before following up with another repetition of the strange salute.n??v€lrapture marked the initial hosting of this chapter on n?o?v€l??n.


    ¡°for all the time i knew liam, he always tried his best to help out newcomers. he was... he would have been a good [teacher], i think. hell, he might have going for the class, or had it as a secondary class. i never knew him well, but he was a decent sort,¡± said milo. after a moment, he performed the same half-salute alice had seen the other guards do.


    the group turned towards her, and alice pondered for a moment. she didn¡¯t know exactly what was expected of her here, but she could at least guess what was needed. her voice was a bit shaky, but she spoke as well.


    ¡°he pulled me out of a bad situation when the ambush happened. i... i don¡¯t know if i would still be here if he hadn¡¯t. there was so much going on and i ... i just... i never spoke with him, but i won¡¯t forget that.¡± said alice, and she couldn¡¯t help but have her memories flash back to the fight for a brief moment, and to the feeling of impending death as she came to the realization that the attacker in front of her was going to speed up again soon. a spear, killing the attacker before an arrow killed the guard who had helped her.


    the air around the campfire fell into silence again, before the guards, as well as milo, raised imaginary glasses. ¡°to liam. may he be remembered and his skills and identity live on,¡± they said. alice followed through a moment later, even though she didn¡¯t know exactly what it meant. even so, it felt right somehow ¨C giving closure to someone who had died in the process of helping her. a form of respect for the deceased. she closed her eyes, trying to imprint this feeling into her memories ¨C the feeling of gratitude, of loss, and of farewells and change. finally, the group drifted off back to their tents for the night, save for the group in charge of the first watch of the night.


    alice laid in the tent she shared with the female guard, thinking.


    she had killed someone today. she had watched other people die in front of her. she would never forget any of that. she had already known, intellectually, that she might already be in danger. however, knowing something was far different from seeing it firsthand. monsters and humans were both cruel in this world, and ordinary people like her and the [guards] were just doing their best to get by. right now, she could barely defend herself against a few ordinary adults ¨C even if she was a mage, she had to remember that she only had a few weeks of real training, half her classes were devoted to learning and research, and her combat abilities were low. she would probably never match up to strong professionals who excelled in violence, but she needed to be able to help herself and defend herself when push came to shove.


    after a while, however, even though alice¡¯s memories were beginning to get fuzzier and fuzzier, she was no longer needed in order to point out the direction they were heading.


    that was because there were continuous streams of monsters heading towards a specific direction once they got close enough. instead of encountering a few monsters every hour before they got mowed down by one of the mages or [guards], the number of monsters began to pick up drastically. soon, they were encountering a pack of spidercrabs or a vinebear every few minutes. the monsters didn¡¯t even bother attacking the humans, seemingly more interested in heading towards a mysterious spot farther away.


    alice couldn¡¯t help but feel curious about this, mostly because it was the first time she had ever seen monsters ignore a human. she had seen them fight each other plenty, and they almost universally tried to eat her whenever they saw her, but right now they were totally uninterested in the humans in the area.


    less than ten minutes after the group began to encounter the increasingly abnormal monster behavior, the [travelling merchants] started gesturing at each other, and the wagons stopped moving. alice hopped off, absently scanning her surroundings to make sure no monsters were too close to her. the other mages were gathering around illa, so alice quickly headed over as well. illa was scanning the surrounding monsters, a pensive expression on her face as she looked at the surroundings.


    illa sighed.


    ¡°this is much worse than i thought it would be.¡± she turned towards alice, as well as the other mages. ¡°we¡¯re dealing with a very large number of monsters, and if we successfully purify a large amount of mana, it¡¯s likely that the monsters will turn towards us and attack. right now they¡¯re distracted by the more plentiful food source, but if the massive area of broken mana is dealt with, the results will probably be quite bad. not dealing with it is also bad ¨C if a few alpha monsters evolve and form a swarm, it might create a big problem for [adventurers] in the region or lead to an attack on the town. the size of this broken mana bubble must be huge.¡± illa frowned, and the other mages were also looking at the unusual monster activity with similar expressions.


    ¡°for now, let¡¯s keep everyone together and move all of the wagons closer to each other. keep a close eye on the monsters nearby ¨C if any of them start showing interest in you, notify the other wagons immediately and get ready to start fighting. apart from that, keep an eye out for any alphas ¨C the last thing we need to deal with is a real swarm, even if they probably wouldn¡¯t bother us yet. [guards] without perks that help protect against mana poisoning, grab one of the rings enchanted to protect you. stay close and stay safe. is everyone clear on what we need to do?¡± asked illa, looking at the other mages. alice, along with the other mages, nodded, and every returned back to their wagons. the group was increasingly vigilant against the surrounding monsters, but the expedition continued onwards.


    less than half an hour after that, alice finally saw the broken mana region again. and she finally realized something.


    all this time, she had been assuming that mana worked kind of like a gas. it seemed to do so, after all ¨C even though humans and other living creatures could have a mana density dozens or hundreds of times higher than the surrounding air, she had chalked that up to some biological process she didn¡¯t understand yet.


    however, the broken mana region in front of them directly threw the idea of mana working like a gas out the window.


    the broken mana region was very visible to her mana-sight perk. it looked like a giant purple wall had been constructed out of clouds and then shattered by a giant, dumping colossal chunks of clouds and debris over the area. even though the group was still quite a ways away from the broken mana region, that didn¡¯t matter ¨C the area extended dozens of meters above ground, far above what human engineering could reach before the industrial age. broken chunks of different colors of purple spun and whirled in the sky above the region, with tiny little bits and pieces occasionally being drained towards the ground. however, the amount of mana being dragged towards the ground was miniscule compared to the massive feeding ground. and, as a result of her exceedingly high perception improving her eyesight, alice could already make out the extraordinary blur inside of the area.


    just inside of the broken mana region, the monsters suddenly multiplied by dozens of times. they were feasting on the air, occasionally attacking monsters that had so much mana inside of them that they blazed like miniature stars in the sky. however, most of the monsters were simply still, absorbing the plentiful mana and ignoring both the humans and each other. the spidercrabs, vinebears, and other monsters alice couldn¡¯t identify were co-existing as they fed on the massive cloud of mana directly in front of the expedition. monsters were sometimes literally stacked in heaps a few meters high, like a junkyard made of living creatures.


    alice stared at the horrifying sight and actually felt a bit dizzy ¨C this was... this was...


    ¡°holy fuck,¡± she said, staring at the most nauseating sight she had seen since coming to this world.


    the expedition had finally reached the broken mana zone.

 Chapter 38

    chapter 38


    the mass of monsters undulated and squirmed as alice stared at it, wondering what the hell she had gotten herself into. when she had first arrived in this world, all of the plant life had been dead in the area. however, it had still been present at the very least. there had been dead trees and unnerving silence, but there had still been things to mark the landscape. furthermore, the area had been mostly deserted ¨C it had been creepy, unnerving, and silent, but it had still been possible to travel through it.


    that was gone now. at this point, while it was possible to still see the desiccated corpses of trees poking out of the landscape, the landscape was dominated by mounds of monsters. in some other areas, they formed a sort of disgusting, wriggling carpet. the area was very clearly no longer safe, or even eerily silent ¨C instead, it was a land owned entirely by monsters.


    if the expedition was going to head into that area it would be a death trap. the moment the mana in the air got thin enough that monsters started attacking other living beings again, the monsters would rip the expedition to shreds. regardless of how good at fighting illa and the other mages were, regardless of how much enchanted equipment the guards had, there was no way in hell the expedition members would be able to fight their way out of the swarms of monsters if something went wrong. right now, they could at least realistically flee if a few swarms decided to attack them. however, even if the odds of the monsters attacking them seemed low right now, alice was pretty sure that one of the most important things was to stay alive and keep the ability to deal with emergencies. granted, illa might have a trick or two up her sleeve ¨C she was a renowned war veteran who was at least level 75 in one of her mage classes, after all. still, alice doubted even illa could stand against the ocean of monsters in front of them if things went wrong.


    ¡°what the... what do we do in order to...?¡± alice heard one of the female guards in the wagon ask, her voice faltering as she stared at the giant mass of monsters. ¡°that¡¯s... a lot of monsters,¡± the woman finally said after a few breaths of time.


    ¡°do you think we¡¯re going to go into the middle of that? if we are, i... i don¡¯t know what i would do, but i am very nervous at the thought of trying.¡± said alice, turning towards milo.


    milo frowned as he stared at the squirming heaps of monsters, and the places where monsters were so densely packed they almost formed a living carpet. he turned to alice. ¡°what the... what in the world? the mana density looked pretty bad from what i was able to see, but damn. the monster quantity is just ridiculous. there are some spots where there are more monsters than there is ground! what the hell?¡± milo shook his head. ¡°damn. this is... a problem.¡±


    milo¡¯s voice faltered a bit, before finally, he looked towards illa¡¯s wagon, and then turned back to alice.


    ¡°i doubt illa is going to try to lead the expedition directly into the center of that mess. that woman has a good head on her shoulders. i think your perception is a bit better than mine, right? see if illa is saying anything or making any gestures ¨C i imagine she¡¯ll be stopping us soon.¡± said milo.


    alice turned towards the wagon illa was riding in, trying to see if the woman had any other instructions. illa was also turned to face the massive column of mana that stretched far above the ground, tapping her finger against the side of the wagon. she seemed to be deep in thought. finally, illa sighed.


    ¡°slow down the wagons! we¡¯re going to move a little bit closer so that the [guards] who have long-ranged search-oriented perks can at least try to get some information. however, there¡¯s no way in hell we¡¯re going into the middle of that mess.¡± illa¡¯s voice was exceptionally clear now, despite the distance and the sound of horses and wagons moving along.


    the [travelling merchants] who were controlling the wagons quickly slowed down the horses, and the wagons stopped speeding forward. the ride also immediately became far bumpier ¨C apparently, whatever perk let them travel over tree roots as if they were paved roads needed a certain level of speed to work. it was still a much smoother journey than it should have been, but she could definitely tell when the wagon ran over a larger tree root now.


    illa turned towards the guards in her own wagon for a moment, before she turned to the other wagons again.


    ¡°all right, those of you can get any information at all from this range, move to the front of your wagons and raise your hands so i can see you. since i know most perks have some limits on range, we¡¯ll circle around the broken mana region and continuously hit the ¡®edge¡¯ of the area with perks over and over again. it may not be particularly efficient, and we might miss some information, but we¡¯re not going into the center of that.¡±


    illa sighed, looking over the massive zone of broken mana.


    ¡°i really didn¡¯t want to see if cyra¡¯s defenses can handle a damn monster swarm, and there¡¯s definitely going to be a few alphas that pop out of that mess ¨C if there aren¡¯t any already there. however, we would need a company from the army or an equivalent number of combatants to clear this out. i can¡¯t afford to mobilize that many [guards] and mages from town to deal with that ¨C we would be leaving cyra totally undefended for days if i even tried. we¡¯ll just have to deal with any monster swarms that show up and attack the area.¡± illa muttered as she snorted. despite the fact that illa was muttering, her voice remained oddly clear, making it easy for alice to hear what the woman was saying. ¡°on the bright side, there¡¯s so much damn broken mana here that there¡¯s guaranteed to be several. with any luck they¡¯ll tear each other apart long before they start scouring the rest of the area for mana to eat.¡± illa seemed to perk up a bit at the prospect of the problem solving itself before reaching cyra, and then waved towards the [guards] in question.


    ¡°all right, this looks like about the right range. stop the wagons, but be ready to start driving again the moment we need to. make sure you have your perks ready to turn your wagons around the moment i say to move, wagon drivers! [guards], you may get off the wagons, but do not venture more than ten or twenty seconds of travel away ¨C we need to be able to leave in a hurry if the swarm decides we look like food.¡±


    the [guards] in question quickly hopped off the wagons once they came to a halt. then, along with two mages who also had some relevant perks, they began to put forth a variety of requests. alice had never thought about how oddly specific some perks were, but after one of the guards requested that the wagons sit still for five minutes under moonlight so that his {midnight search} could get the maximum effect, she started to realize just some perks were. even though people only got five options or fewer every time they reached a level that gave a perk, the system had a pool of hundreds, or even thousands, of options. it just tried to match the perks people were offered to their circumstances and what they wanted to get out of the class.


    the {midnight search} guard¡¯s request was denied ¨C the group had too much ground to cover in order to get that precise if the expedition was going to do this multiple times today. since {midnight search} was usually used to help guide someone in searching a caravan or a house for evidence, it wouldn¡¯t have been that useful anyway, according to illa, which was why she vetoed it.


    ¡°i¡¯m not that daft just yet, luddeg. but still, i think the bubble is shrinking ¨C just very, very slowly. i¡¯d need to observe the same area for a few hours to really tell, though,¡± said the female mage with a sigh. ¡°is there any chance we can stop for a few hours so i can get a more accurate read?¡±


    ¡°i suppose ¨C just keep in mind we¡¯ll need to keep moving after that.¡±


    ¡°understood.¡±


    * * *


    the expedition passed the next few hours in a silent, tense state. even though the monsters that passed by them weren¡¯t attacking them, everyone was continuously on edge, guarding against a potential attack that might break out at any moment. alice, along with many of the other [guards] and mages, had taken out a few monsters that had wandered too close for comfort, but mostly, every just sat on their wagons and waited. alice wasn¡¯t close enough to use her perk for measuring mana, and most of the other expedition members didn¡¯t have much to do. however, since they were surrounded on all sides by monsters, nobody was quite comfortable enough to relax and start chatting or otherwise distracting themselves. thus, the group sat in tense silence and watched as the female mage took measurements with her perk.


    finally, she looked back at illa and nodded.


    ¡°the mana is slowly decreasing. it¡¯s not at a very fast pace, though ¨C at this rate, i estimate it will take a few more weeks before the area i was investigating is clear of mana. not sure how that stacks up compared to the other parts of the broken mana region, but at the very least, it strongly implies there isn¡¯t an overflow currently happening.¡±


    ¡°all hail our monstrous saviors?¡±


    ¡°can it, luddeg. otherwise i¡¯m going to drag you go to the corellion empire and make you start worshipping the emperor as the creator of the system.¡±


    ¡°the horror! i¡¯m quivering in fear!¡± luddeg gave an easy grin, and the female mage gave a slight smile back.


    one of the guards chuckled softly, and alice also felt a strange sense of relief as she listened to the two mock each other. maybe it was the acknowledgement that even though everyone was nervous, the actual odds of something going wrong was pretty low right now. if it would take months for the broken mana chunk to dissolve, the odds of the horde turning on them were low.


    ¡°still, if it¡¯s only going to take a few more weeks to go away, why has it persisted for so long? i imagined we would be finding an area that was filled with a little more broken mana than usual, but this looks like...¡± jean frowned. ¡°well, it looks kind of like the old stories about allenheim, now that i think about it. it makes sense, given the fact that we¡¯re theoretically dealing with some sort of attempt at dimensional magic, but...¡±


    the female mage frowned, looking at the area more closely.


    ¡°i¡¯m not sure, actually. either the mana was very densely packed and is just getting eaten now, since it¡¯s only a few weeks into spring and the number of monsters active during winter is much lower, or... something?¡± she shrugged.


    illa stopped the two of them before they could speak any further. ¡°for now, we might be missing a piece of the puzzle if we only look at this part of the broken mana region. your perks can only reach so far in, yes?¡±


    ¡°yeah. i only managed to get a glimpse of a big chunk of the outer layer ¨C my guess is that i was looking at maybe 3% of the whole mass, and only very roughly. i¡¯m working a long distance and looking at an area covered in monsters, after all.¡± the female mage shrugged. ¡°i¡¯m trying my hardest to get good information, but it¡¯s a bit difficult under these circumstances.¡±


    ¡°i understand. we¡¯ll begin circling around the broken mana region ¨C do your best to get any further information. after all, this region can¡¯t have just come from nowhere. we need to figure out what the heck is going on, or the next one might show up in cyra.¡±


    alice saw the other [guards] and mages shudder as they considered that possibility, before the wagons began to travel around the outskirts of the broken mana region. it was promising to be a very long and tiring search process.

 Chapter 39

    chapter 39


    that night, the expedition set up camp well away from the broken mana region. even though it would force the expedition to travel to and from the area, wasting several hours out of every day, nobody wanted to be caught off-guard if a monster swarm decided they were food. maintaining a healthy distance was an important precaution.


    after camp was set up and people finished talking around campfires for a while, illa privately asked for alice to come chat with her for a while. when alice showed up, illa simply gave her a glance before turning back to a piece of paper on the ground.


    ¡°do you know how to read maps?¡± asked illa.


    alice took a look at the map, making sure that she could actually read it. she obviously knew how to read maps on earth, but there was no guarantee that people on an entirely different planet made maps in the same way. luckily, it looked fairly close to the maps she was used to. even if it was in black and white, and a bit off, all of the symbols were easy to understand and she could still tell what the map was depicting.


    ¡°yeah, i do. the map looks pretty close to the ones at home,¡± said alice.


    ¡°then look over here,¡± said illa, giving some parts of the map a glance.


    the map had been drawn and written on, carefully detailing the expedition¡¯s course, as well as the areas immediately surrounding cyra. alice couldn¡¯t help but feel more surprised the more closely she looked at the map ¨C based on her understanding of this world, it should have been fairly difficult for a map this detailed to have been available, especially for a newly settled frontier area. even though there were some parts of the map that weren¡¯t particularly detailed, especially to the south and east of cyra, the level of detail was still astonishing considering the fact that mapmakers would need to deal with monster attacks every step of the way.


    ¡°do you remember exactly what path you took to get to cyra in the first place? and do you have any impressions of the broken mana area? do you know if it¡¯s expanding or contracting?¡± even though the female mage had already estimated that the area was likely shrinking, illa wanted to make sure. illa had originally expected for the expedition to spend a great deal of time combing over the broken mana region, relying on alice¡¯s memory to lead the expedition to the spot before the expedition would break up into smaller groups and search around. after all, there was no way a small pocket of densely packed mana would exist for long, right? monsters would eat it out of existence in moments if such a thing existed.


    however, to illa¡¯s surprise, what she had instead come across an ocean of monsters and broken mana. this forced her to drastically revise her plans ¨C the expedition obviously couldn¡¯t just merrily stroll about in the area, or kill off all of the monsters in the area before searching it. the quantity of monsters was way too high for the expedition to even put a dent in the monster population, and the monsters would fight back if they were attacked.n??v€l--?1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.


    therefore, she had to rely on a completely different method to gather more information about the broken mana zone. most problematically, she had no ability to investigate the region directly. after all, sending a guard into the region would just be sending them to their death if anything went wrong. the massive monster population might not be aggressive right now, but they could be compared to a ticking time bomb. and most problematically, nobody knew how many seconds were left before it exploded.


    alice quickly nodded, looking at the map again. she took a few minutes to familiarize herself with the map, before she finally started trying retrace her journey to cyra as best as she could. most of it was just ¡®follow the river and dodge monsters,¡¯ so it wasn¡¯t too hard to show on the map. however, once alice got to the bits before she had reached the river, things started to get fuzzy. especially because, as of now, the landscape around the broken mana zone was totally unrecognizable. it was just a mass of dead trees and monsters, making it hard to distinguish any landmarks at all in the area. still, she did her best to describe most parts of her journey, as illa traced her finger along parts of the map and nodded along. then, illa turned her attention from the map back to alice.


    ¡°how about the broken mana region? that is what i¡¯m most worried about. is there anything in particular you remember about it? i know you said you went through your mana baptism here, and you also didn¡¯t have the ability to see mana yet, but are there any interesting tidbits you can remember? even if you didn¡¯t know what the mana looked like at the time, were there any other unusual things in this area at the time?¡±


    alice frowned, trying to remember. she hadn¡¯t been able to see mana when she first arrived in this world, making it impossible for her to know what the mana had looked like before she had come here.


    ¡°when i first came here, there weren¡¯t many monsters in the area. wait, there was one thing ¨C i remember running into an animal on my first day here. it seemed like it was... basically dead, actually. limbs falling off, blood everywhere ¨C i didn¡¯t stop to think much about it, especially since i learned that monsters exist here, but...¡± alice frowned. now that she thought about it, the animal she had seen on that night hadn¡¯t given her a perk for meeting a monster. and, in fact, the animal didn¡¯t behave like a monster either. it had chased her off and then went back to dying in its little corner of the world. she described her memories of the broken mana zone as well as she could, but illa frown only deepened.


    ¡°what are you seeing?¡± asked illa, heading over to them.


    alice also squinted, trying to figure out what the [guards] were looking at. this region was relatively clearer of monsters because the broken mana quantity was lower, but it was still a disgusting, squirming mass most of the way around. however, alice still couldn¡¯t see what the [guards] were referring to. for a brief moment, alice wished that she had access to the vision-related perk she had passed over from her [scientist] class, but she quickly dismissed the thought. she had collected a few interesting samples of spidercrab corpses over the course of the expedition, and regretting her choice was pointless either way.


    ¡°why the wall so... purple?¡± asked the first [guard].


    ¡°who put so much bloody dye on a wall? why is it in the middle of nowhere? why does it look it was just... chopped half? am i dreaming?¡±


    ¡°if they used so much dye, they must have been a noble or a merchant, right? there¡¯s no way a commoner household could ever afford to use purple dye like that.¡±


    ¡°my perks are claiming that it¡¯s the lost property of a commoner family though.¡±


    ¡°a commoner family using purple dye on a wall? that¡¯s ridiculous. there¡¯s no way that¡¯s correct. are there any corner cases known for when that specific perk will give incorrect readings?¡±


    ¡°none that would relate to this scenario... i think.¡± the [guard] didn¡¯t¡¯ sound convinced himself, and he turned to illa. ¡°i¡¯m seeing a wall that looks like it just got chopped in half. no sign of the other half of the wall. it¡¯s... purple. really, really purple. the kind of color you usually see from the corellion empire with a high shipping fee. but it¡¯s on a wall. i can¡¯t tell what material the wall is made out of, either. it looks completely random, too. no sign of any of whatever it was supposed to be attached to, if it was supposed to be attached to anything. i have no idea what i¡¯m looking at.¡±


    illa turned to alice, and alice frowned as well.


    ¡°alice, would you take a look with me?¡± asked illa.


    ¡°how are we going to do that?¡±


    ¡°i¡¯ll fly you over. just make sure to hang on, and don¡¯t wiggle around too much ¨C even for me, flying takes a lot of mana. i don¡¯t want to spend too much extra mana stabilizing our balance, since i already need to compensate for your weight,¡± said illa. ¡°oh, and if you see any monsters lob any aerial attacks at us, give deflecting it a go. i know you¡¯re still a bit of a novice mage, and i can probably deal with it, but it¡¯ll put some strain on me, and if we¡¯re in midair dropping us would be catastrophic.¡±


    alice nodded, and illa quickly gave alice a big hug before she took off. the two began floating. alice frowned at the sensation ¨C it was nothing like she had been expecting. illa wasn¡¯t actually moving her body in midair, probably because living flesh resisted mana. instead, it seemed like illa¡¯s clothes were simply dragging her upwards, and illa and alice happened to be carried along for the ride. alice felt as if she could fall at any minute, even though illa wasn¡¯t actually doing anything that might risk her fall. the clothes themselves also felt ridiculously sturdy right now.


    illa flew them through the air for a few minutes, and the two gradually approached the object in question. however, when alice saw the object, she felt a mixture of confusion and familiarity.


    isn¡¯t that the wall from the house down the street?

 Chapter 40

    chapter 40


    alice stared at the piece of wall. even though it was jagged, as if someone had turned it into a jigsaw puzzle piece, it was still clearly recognizable. she had grown up seeing that wall as she had played with the other children on the street. it still had the same horrible paint job, the same scars on it. even from here, she could still see the long streak in the paint where one of the boys on the street had run his bike into it and the owner had never bothered to repaint it. the wall had a fair bit of extra scarring and dirt on it from months of neglect, but that obnoxiously bright purple paint was still easy to recognize.


    however, the fact that the wall was just a jagged fragment of a wall baffled her. it stood there, sunk into the earth like a long-forgotten ruin of some ancient civilization. and it didn¡¯t make any sense at all to her. alice frowned, turning back to illa, who was still holding her as they hovered in the middle of the air.


    ¡°what is it?¡± asked illa, who had been closely looking at alice.


    ¡°it¡¯s... a wall from a house down the street. erm... from my home world.¡±


    illa gave the wall a much more careful look, before she turned back to alice. ¡°so it really is from your home. but what is it doing here?¡± illa frowned. ¡°and why is it so purple? the [guard] earlier claimed that the wall was from a commoner family, but purple is an expensive color to make, isn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°ah... at home, we have ready access to cheap ways to make colors, so things like dye are pretty accessible most ordinary households. thus, purple is a pretty normal,¡± said alice, trying to figure out how to communicate the massive difference in culture, luxuries, resources, and daily life. even though she had touched on it somewhat with her discussions with illa already, she often forgot how different things were between here and home. things like dyes being expensive weren¡¯t things that alice thought about on a regular basis, much less the idea that some colors were more expensive than others. after a moment, alice shook her head, redirecting her attention back to the wall fragment. ¡°the bigger question is what it¡¯s doing here. and why it looks like someone tried to turn it into a pentagon but gave up halfway.¡±


    illa frowned, as she stared at the wall as well. finally, she turned back to alice. ¡°when did you arrive here?¡±


    ¡°i think it was a few weeks before the start of winter, so maybe four or five months?¡± alice turned back towards the wall.


    ¡°do you think the wall has been here for four to five months as well?¡± illa asked, gesturing at the wall fragment.


    ¡°i... i have no idea. it would make the most sense to me, because it certainly looks like the wall has been through some extra wear and tear compared to when i last saw it. however, it¡¯s entirely possible it might have been pulled over a few days or weeks afterwards ¨C or it could have been pulled over yesterday and whatever process it went through while moving dimensions also screwed up the surface of the wall, which is why it looks more ragged now.¡± alice almost shrugged, before remembering that she was currently floating in midair with someone who very well might accidentally drop her if she wiggled around too much.


    ¡°i¡¯ll obviously fly the other guards and mages here one by one after this ¨C i think it¡¯s safe to try to observe this bit of information from the air, since it isn¡¯t covered in monsters. still... the presence of this chunk of wall is very odd.¡±


    the two flew closer to it, alice trying her best not to squirm out of fear of illa accidentally dropping her. alice frowned as they got closer to it, since she could see the edges more and more clearly now.


    ¡°the edges are very cleanly cut. it¡¯s like someone took a laser and sliced it in half. well, not that a laser would actually work that way, at least not in any reasonable time frame, but...¡± alice trailed off, getting more and more distracted as she looked at the chunk of wall. this was a piece of home, laying in ruins. it was hard for her to keep her thoughts entirely focused.


    ¡°i assume that ¡®really hot beam of light¡¯ has some more... specific meaning in your original language. regardless, however, the edges of the wall are indeed very cleanly cut.¡± illa kept flying the two closer to it, before they finally stopped. they were still nearly a hundred meters away, making sure they were out of leaping distance of most monsters and well away from vegetation or surprise ranged attacks. then, they looked at the wall a bit more closely. ¡°i think it¡¯s rather obvious already, but based on your statements, as well as the confusing fact that some perks are claiming this is an ordinary cheap wall despite it being extravagantly painted using one of the most expensive colors of dye, this should indeed come from your world. in that case...¡± illa frowned, looking at the wall before looking at alice. alice tried to figure out what illa meant by that... illa¡¯s look of concern made alice feel confused. then, she looked at the shape of the wall, and alice looked at the torn up and partially destroyed shape of the wall. then, her thoughts drifted back to the racoon she had seen on the first day, and she shuddered.


    for a moment, she felt an irresistible urge to run her hands along her arms and legs, just to make sure that everything was still there. the raccoon had been seriously injured, missing chunks of limbs. some of that might have come from mana poisoning creating exploding chunks of flesh inside of the creatures body. then again, it might have also been the result of... whatever had moved everything here. the wall in front of her also looked cleanly sliced along the edges, as if someone had just perfectly sliced away most of the wall and taken out a chunk of it. it suddenly became incredibly obvious to her that teleportation, or dimensional movement, was not necessarily inclined to grab a whole object whenever stuff was moved around. instead, it could be said that alice was incredibly lucky she still had all of her hands, feet, and internal organs in the same spot, instead of randomly scattered across the broken mana zone in bits and pieces. or, alternatively, she might have only had half of her body moved to this dimension ¨C if her torso and head showed up in this world and left her arms and legs behind, she would have bled out before she could do a thing here.


    on the other hand, could that really be considered luck? if whatever caused dimensional movement was just grabbing random chunks of matter and throwing them everywhere, it should have been basically impossible for her to end up the way she did. she should have either teleported here in pieces, dying instantly, or she should have ended up with various chunks of her bedroom arriving with her. the odds of being dragged here with exactly her limbs and organs intact and her pajamas, without bringing along a chunk of her bed or something, seemed incredibly low.


    she felt like she could definitely learn something from that, but she was having a hard time putting everything together. suddenly, she missed cecilia ¨C even though they hadn¡¯t really begun discussing research in earnest yet, the other girl had seemed eager to get started, not just for the sake of getting an achievement, but also due to pure curiosity. and frankly, alice needed someone to bounce ideas off of ¨C if she just worked with herself, she would keep missing things. illa didn¡¯t seem to have either the time or the interest in exploring alice¡¯s half-baked theories on magic, which made sense since she had a town to run and conflict with the sigmusi colonia to worry about. still, alice wanted someone to talk to. the entire expedition seemed to drive home the point that field research really wasn¡¯t where alice¡¯s specialty lay ¨C she much preferred quiet safety and research instead of travelling around, dodging monsters and fearing for her life.


    alice sighed, shaking her thoughts away as she refocused herself.


    ¡°i don¡¯t know if i can figure out anything else from it.¡±


    ¡°there¡¯s something even you can¡¯t figure out? damn. scary,¡± said milo.


    ¡°i¡¯m not omnipotent,¡± said illa flatly. ¡°and as far as theory goes, there are plenty of mages lower level than me that are more well versed in theory. that being said, this thing... concerns me.¡±


    the mages and [guards] began to gather around the rock, studying it to try to figure out what it was. perks didn¡¯t seem to work on the rock ¨C they universally claimed that there was nothing there, in fact. in a sense, that was even more bizarre than the fact that the rock had apparently been floating in midair far above the ground. most perks should have still picked up something, even if it was just something along the lines of ¡®unowned rock¡¯ when the [guards] tried to use {item inspection} on it. instead, it was as if they were trying to look at a clump of air.


    not expecting anything in particular, alice also used {precise mana measurement} on the rock. she got a result of zero mariums of mana. this was the same result she got when she tried to look at regions of broken mana ¨C and literally nowhere else. one of the things she was coming to realize was that, in this world, everything had mana in it. so zero mariums either meant broken mana, or something was super off.


    ¡°what the heck is it?¡± asked the female mage.


    ¡°i don¡¯t know. when we get back to town, i¡¯ll have cecilia look at it ¨C even if her level is low, she might be able to get something,¡± said illa, sighing. ¡°for now, we¡¯ll carry on. we have a lot more ground to cover before we finish circling the broken mana region. nice catch, sven. we¡¯ll see if we can figure out what the heck we¡¯re looking at once we¡¯re back in town.¡± illa tossed the rock at alice. ¡°keep a close eye on the rock ¨C if it starts doing anything weird involving mana, throw it as far as possible from the expedition and then report to me immediately. even though i¡¯m pretty sure it won¡¯t explode, and you¡¯re immune to broken mana so it¡¯ll be safer for you, better safe than sorry. if you¡¯re about to go to sleep, hand it to whichever mage is staying up to keep watch for the night. i want someone observing it at all times, just in case something goes wrong.¡±


    alice caught the rock, giving it a closer look, before she nodded. handing the rock off for the night would give her more chances to interact with the other mages in the expedition, and watching over it during the day might give her an opportunity to inspect it more closely. she had to admit, even if she was slightly concerned about the rock, she was also very curious. the fact that it had been floating in midair had to mean it was something interesting, right?


    then, out of curiosity, she tried to shove it into {sample collection}, since it would let her keep it away from her body.


    the rock fell from her hand, but nothing else happened. huh?


    alice looked at the rock again.


    the mages looked at alice, as if asking her what she was doing.


    ¡°i can¡¯t put it in my storage perk.¡±


    illa immediately gestured to one of the [travelling merchants], as well as flicking the rock towards him with her magic. ¡°give it a try.¡±


    the [travelling merchant] tried to put the rock into his storage perk. sure enough, the rock didn¡¯t disappear into thin air, the way objects usually did when they were put into a storage. instead, it simply fell out of his hand and clattered to the ground again. the rock wasn¡¯t floating anymore, but the reactions from the rock were even stranger than they had been before.


    ¡°what the heck is this thing?¡±


    ¡°a rock.¡± said sven flatly, though alice could see the corners of his mouth quirked up slightly.


    ¡°i can see that. what i want to know is what else it is.¡±


    ¡°for now, carry it by hand. keep in mind my instructions about the rock,¡± said illa, carefully handing the rock back to alice. alice noticed that the woman was no longer casually tossing it around ¨C apparently, even illa believed it merited more caution now.


    alice carefully held onto the rock, staring at it in curiosity. what are you? she wondered, giving the ordinary-looking rock a glance.

 Chapter 41

    chapter 41


    the next few days of the expedition passed with relative quiet. the group moved from place to place, taking measurements from afar and observing the broken mana zone, keeping an eye out for any other odd items or potential problems. however, nothing ¡®new¡¯ popped up after the strange rock. the broken mana zone continued to shrink, slowly but surely, and the monster population continued to grow. on day four after reaching the broken mana zone, the group finally saw something new. it was a monster alpha ¨C at least, alice assumed it was.


    it looked like a spidercrab, but the creature was almost three times the size of a regular spidercrab, which was rather unnerving. if alice had stood near it, it would have been taller than her, which was... not a great feeling. the eight spider legs had become longer, more hairy, and infinitely more disgusting, and the spidercrab was also quite a bit darker in color. unlike smaller spidercrab packs, this one seemed to command a much larger pack ¨C instead of half a dozen to a dozen spidercrabs, there were over a hundred spidercrabs that moved with the alpha. they were also far more organized than a normal spidercrab pack ¨C almost like small soldiers marching in formation as they roamed the broken mana zone and drained mana. alice couldn¡¯t help but wonder if this was what most monster alphas ended up looking like. were they all just larger, more threatening versions of their brethren? did they all command larger packs of their brethren, even the seemingly solitary monsters like vinebears? actually, what did a monster look like while they were evolving? how did evolving even work in the first place?


    suddenly, alice found herself curious to know what the actual process of a monster ¡®evolving¡¯ into an alpha looked like. on earth, the idea of a species suddenly hopping from one species to a very different version was rare. even though there were a few cases alice could think of where an organism would suddenly change radically, it was definitely uncommon ¨C actually, the only example she could think off the top of her head was when caterpillars turned into butterflies. by contrast, it seemed to be a universal trait for monsters that if they had enough mana, they could turn into an alpha monster. biologically, was it similar to the process for a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, or did it work off of totally different mechanics? if it was possible, perhaps she should take a look at the evolution process later, or see if anyone had written about it in detail. [scientist] would definitely give her options for observing that later, especially since she had an organic magic seed, even if it currently had a maximum conversion ratio of 10%. while the conversion ratio did matter when it came to the quality of perks offered, there should still be options for her. not to mention, while it was entirely a hunch on her part, she felt like it was pretty likely that her [explorer of magic] class would offer her more ways to turn her organic seed into something useful down the line.


    the spidercrab alpha seemed completely disinterested in the expedition. along with its pack, it continued to spread through the area, devouring mana as it searched for food. alice watched it, wondering if she would ever get another chance to observe one from close ¨C up without being at risk of being eaten.


    ¡°is it your first time seeing an alpha?¡± asked milo, giving alice a glance as the wagons rolled along.


    ¡°yeah. i¡¯ve heard some stories about them, and illa has mentioned their existence before. however, i¡¯ve never actually seen one in person. i was wondering what allows monsters to evolve,¡± said alice.


    ¡°what do you mean?¡±


    ¡°well, it seems odd to me. why does a monster grow bigger and stronger when it eats enough mana? the idea that it happens so naturally seems strange to me. after all, it¡¯s not like humans grow bigger if they eat enough food or something, you know? mana is basically food for monsters, so the idea that they can suddenly multiply their size seems pretty odd to me.¡±


    ¡°i mean, if a human child doesn¡¯t get enough nutrition as they¡¯re growing up, they end up being small and frail as well, don¡¯t they? and removing ¡®negative¡¯ achievements like {malnutrition} are more than slightly annoying and time consuming, at least to the best of my knowledge. nowhere near as hard as {old age}, but humans who have {malnutrition} and don¡¯t get it fixed end up smaller, weaker, and frailer, right?¡± milo shrugged. ¡°i¡¯m not saying it¡¯s a perfect analogy, but... maybe monsters have some sort of similar process, except related to mana?¡±


    ¡°are you suggesting that all monsters are malnourished normally? but humans don¡¯t suddenly recover from being malnourished in a few hours do they? wait, how long do monsters actually take to evolve?¡±


    milo scratched his head. ¡°honestly? i have no clue. there were probably some experiments done on it with spidercrabs ¨C they¡¯re a pretty weak species even after evolution, so they make perfect test subjects. i would be pretty surprised if no one has tried artificially forcing them to evolve and recording the process. since you¡¯re illa¡¯s student, maybe you could ask her? she might have some books related to the matter.¡±


    ¡°at least in her library, she doesn¡¯t have it. i¡¯ve already read through a good chunk of it.¡±??v€l?1n.


    ¡°that¡¯s unfortunate. hmm...¡± milo shrugged. ¡°i doubt anything that specific would be available in the bookstore either, since there¡¯s only one in the town and it¡¯s mostly aimed towards wealthier merchants and mages. i guess you probably can¡¯t find out immediately. well, maybe illa knows about it off the top of her head? if not, i don¡¯t know what to tell you, unfortunately.¡±


    ¡°i¡¯ll check later,¡± said alice, trying to hide her disappointment.


    ¡°hmm... if you¡¯ve got coin, i think the bookstore has some sort of ordering service for books. no clue how that works though.¡±


    ¡°i¡¯ll at least take a look,¡± said alice. she didn¡¯t hold high hopes though ¨C even if illa upped her pay the way she had said she might after they got back from the expedition, books in this world were expensive. she doubted she could afford it, especially if she needed to pay some sort of extra shipping fee from a more populated town or something.


    no matter how i look at it, the idea of suddenly radically changing after eating enough food seems pretty interesting, at least. in fact, it... alice suddenly felt like she was missing something. mana? food?


    as the wagons travelled back the way the group had come, alice kept messing with the strange rock. of course, she only did so when milo was paying attention, ready to deal with any emergencies that cropped up. sometimes, illa also flew over to the wagon alice and milo were travelling in, to watch the rock and prod at it as well. the end result was... nothing. apart from the odd properties it displayed when it had first been found, it showed no visual signs of being anything at all besides an ordinary rock. alice didn¡¯t have any perks that let her investigate or interact with objects, so she couldn¡¯t see the great ¡®nothing¡¯ other people got when they interacted with the rock. in fact, alice was almost tempted to ask if the group was mistaken somehow ¨C the stone seemed to incredibly ordinary that it would have been easy for her to overlook, if not for the way the group found it.


    hours and days passed as the group headed back towards cyra. unlike the journey to the broken mana zone, the group didn¡¯t come across any other humans. alice, personally, was quite thankful for that. she didn¡¯t need any other fights to teach her how ridiculously outclassed she was when fighting people outside of her age group, not to mention in a three on one encounter. even if she had managed to live against apparently trained soldiers with only a few weeks of training under illa, alice had discovered that she really hated situations where her life was on the line.


    she spent the nights the group camped getting to know the other mages in the group. even though she wouldn¡¯t really call any of them friends, besides perhaps milo, she didn¡¯t meet anybody that she hated, either. most of them were either vaguely interested in ¡®illa¡¯s student,¡¯ or didn¡¯t care much about her presence. even those that were disinterested in her weren¡¯t overtly rude about it ¨C they simply thought they had other things they would rather do besides chat with a teenager, even if she was a newly baptized mage as well.


    finally, the group arrived back at cyra. the [guards] at the gates seemed relieved to see the expedition return with few casualties.


    ¡°lady illa, it is good to see that you returned.¡±


    ¡°indeed. did anyone come to make trouble while i was gone?¡±


    ¡°a few sigmusi bastards walked into the ambush. a few high-level [assassins], along with maybe twenty or thirty [deserters]. they even had a damn mage.¡±


    illa frowned. ¡°they¡¯re not even trying to pretend that the soldiers are actually deserters anymore, are they? good grief. i rather hope the king brings this blatant provocation to the table the next time the five big nations of the shil confederacy hold council. were there any fatalities?¡±


    ¡°no, there weren¡¯t. we were very lucky,¡± the [guard] said, grinning slightly. ¡°we are rather lucky, since-¡°


    ¡°ah, illa darling! it has been quite a while! how have you been?¡±


    alice turned to see the new speaker, and came across the most beautiful girl she had ever laid eyes on. the [guard] seemed slightly surprised when he was interrupted, but alice had a hard time focusing on him.


    the girl¡¯s voice was musical, as if every single word was sang instead of spoken. her eyes were golden, rather than any of the normal eye colors she had seen so far in this world. her skin literally glowed, even under the sunlight, making alice wonder whether the woman had somehow installed flashlights under her skin. her hair was blonde, nearly matching the color of her eyes. somehow, the fact that the two colors almost matched but were subtly different drew out the beauty of each color, complementing each other and exemplifying the radiance the woman ¨C no, the girl seemed to give off with every movement and every word. she was, indeed, the most perfect example of the word ¡®beautiful¡¯ alice had ever seen. her age was hard to discern ¨C at first glance, she seemed to be in her late teens or early twenties. however, her bearing was old, speaking of decades passed and experience far beyond what her external appearance suggested. despite looking like a young girl or young woman, she seemed strangely old.


    still, she was exceptionally beautiful. in the way that the sun was beautiful, or the moonlight of a full moon drew one¡¯s eyes towards it.


    and although that was what drew alice¡¯s eyes towards the woman at first, alice quickly noticed several strange features about the woman besides her inhuman beauty. every single shadow within fifty meters of the girl seemed to slightly squirm at every one of her movements. she also had, by far, the most mana alice had ever seen. the density of mana inside of the girl¡¯s body was dozens of times higher than it had been in the broken mana zone. almost out of habit, alice tried to use {precise mana measurement} on her, to see how much mana was inside of the woman¡¯s body. the perk failed to activate, giving alice a brief stinging sensation before the woman glanced at her. for a brief moment, the woman seemed amused, the corners of her lips quirking upwards before her expression returned to the grin she wore while facing illa. still, alice couldn¡¯t help but look at the mana in the woman¡¯s skin, her eyes, her... entire body. it was as if her body wasn¡¯t just storing some mana here and there ¨C it was as if the woman¡¯s body was almost entirely made out of mana, and it just happened to be shaped to look like a regular human being on the outside.


    illa¡¯s face contorted with shock. a moment later, she controlled it as she looked at the woman who looked at least a decade younger than her.


    and then illa bowed her head a full thirty degrees, the first time alice had seen the woman bow to another person.


    ¡°illa, servant of the crown, greets allira, immortal of song and shadow.¡±

 Chapter 42

    chapter 42


    ¡°illa, servant of the crown, greets allira, immortal of song and shadow,¡± illa said, her voice falling upon the area surrounding the town¡¯s entrance gate. it was a strange sight for alice, to see illa bowing her head and greeting someone outside of her own city.


    ¡°it has been a while, hasn¡¯t it? how have you been, little illa? are you surprised to see me?¡± the beautiful woman gave illa a smile, and for a moment, it was like all of the light in the world shone upon her face, highlighting her features. however, even though alice could tell that the woman was beautiful, the way the shadows around the girl jumped made the entire scene give alice an uneasy feeling, even if it was largely suppressed.


    ¡°indeed. i was not expecting honored immortal to come ¨C i was thinking troops would be coming. and much... later,¡± said illa. there was a hint of familiarity in her eyes as she looked at allira. alice could tell that it was not there first meeting, though alice found it difficult to concentrate on the conversation. the woman was so distractingly beautiful ¨C alice had no clue what her charisma stat was, but it made everyone else¡¯s charisma seem like nothing. the raw distraction of her presence was nearly overwhelming. alice closed her eyes, finding it easier to dodge the distraction of the woman¡¯s presence for a while.


    after she closed her eyes, the distraction of the woman¡¯s presence was gone.


    alice felt a sense of nervousness as she started to parse through what was happening in front of her. this was an immortal ¨C someone who had stopped aging due to having a high enough level. they were also the basis for one of alice¡¯s guesses, which was that mana somehow slowed down the aging process. during the expedition, she had even further wondered what exactly mana was, since it seemed to cause all sorts of strange effects on animals that came in contact with it. however, the immortal in front of her seemed like far more than that ¨C she almost seemed as if she was mana. was... mana?


    during the time in the broken mana zone, the group had seen what seemed to be a living clump of mana, hadn¡¯t they? it had been a monster even illa was wary of ¨C the group had made a huge detour around it. alice hadn¡¯t been able to see the creature with her ¡®normal¡¯ vision either ¨C it had been visible with only her mana vision. even though allira was still very clearly human, despite her mildly inhuman features, alice couldn¡¯t help but feel that there was also a similarity between allira and the strange monster the expedition had seen from afar. were immortals just... clumps of mana, then? wait, could mana even have a solid form? alice had gotten very used to seeing mana act mostly as a gas, even though it seemed to behave strangely when it came to density and spreading out in some cases. however, if allira ¨C no, if immortal in general were something closer to solidified clumps of mana, that would be a good way to test the properties of mana, and...


    and to test it, alice would need to have an immortal willing to cooperate with her studies. there was no way that would work out. alice sighed in disappointment at the thought. well, if i become an immortal i can at least run tests on myself. just need to overcome a nearly impossible hurdle first. though, the benefit of never dying of age is certainly appealing...


    ¡°quiet, aren¡¯t you?¡± asked the woman. alice still had her eyes closed, but she could still feel the immortal looking at her, the woman¡¯s very presence radiated outwards, demanding to be acknowledged.


    ¡°my apologies your ¨C uh... immortal...ship?¡±


    ¡°the correct address is usually to refer to me by ¡®honored immortal,¡¯ sometimes followed by my title ¨C in this case, the immortal of song and shadow. though people who know me are permitted to refer to me as allira, or alli. the current king just calls me alli, usually.¡±


    alice also couldn¡¯t help but notice that allira referred to the king, not with the greatly respectful tone she had expected, but with a more neutral, bland tone. and she used the term ¡®the current king¡¯ instead of something along the lines of ¡®his majesty.¡¯ however, after a moment of thought, she realized she was speaking with someone who was literally unaging ¨C depending on how old allira was, kings might seem to be more or less like the weather ¨C give it enough time, and it would change again. the woman was also surprisingly relaxed. even though her status and personal power were probably hard for alice to even imagine, she didn¡¯t seem to particularly care.


    ¡°so, illa and you are acquainted, honored immortal?¡±


    ¡°a decade ago, illa was considered to be one of the people most likely to join our little community of immortals, so i spent some time getting to know her. unfortunately, she chose to get married and found a town instead, so it¡¯s unlikely that will happen now. or, at least, it will be significantly harder, since what matters the most when it comes to slowing down aging is the highest level among your classes. it¡¯s more important to have one level 30 class than 3 level 25 classes, at least when it comes to aging purposes. all of the achievements illa have, as far as i¡¯m aware, boost her magic-related classes.¡±


    alice opened her eyes for a moment and looked at illa, wondering if she would be angry at allira discussing her odds of dying of old age so frankly. however, illa simply seemed to acknowledge the statement with a mundane shrug, as if the person allira was talking about wasn¡¯t her at all, but someone else. alice felt her eyes getting inevitably dragged back towards allira, so she closed her eyes again.


    through training, you have increased an attribute!


    willpower +1


    it had been a while since alice had last gained a stat so simply. to see a point in willpower just from closer her eyes felt ridiculous, and also put allira¡¯s very existence in a greater context. alice tried not to frown, before she redirected her attention back towards things she had more control over. gathering information from someone who was likely at least decades older than her and had more knowledge of the world had to be an opportunity as well, right? if allira was willing to talk, at least.


    would asking lots of questions was considered disrespectful? but the woman didn¡¯t seem to mind, and alice was suddenly burning with curiosity. maybe the woman wouldn¡¯t mind alice trying to investigate a little about immortals in general?


    ¡°it got a bit tricky. we were ambushed by people who were probably from the sigmusi colonia along the way. luckily, illa managed to drive off the main force, and in my section, we survived.¡± unbidden, the feeling of an arrow piercing through her stomach surfaced in alice¡¯s memories. ¡°barely.¡± she suppressed a shudder.


    ¡°oof.¡± cecilia winced. ¡°so what are you here for? i haven¡¯t heard news about the expedition returning, so you guys must have just gotten back. i have the results for the mana and food experiment, but i don¡¯t think it¡¯s that urgent. are you here for something else?¡±


    ¡°yeah.¡± alice pulled the strange rock out and held it out towards cecilia. ¡°we found a strange rock floating in midair while we were there, but nobody¡¯s perks can turn up anything about it. if it weren¡¯t for the fact that it was floating in midair, we wouldn¡¯t have thought much of it, but the fact nothing we try can turn up any information on it is bizarre.¡± cecilia frowned, before she took out a pair of cloth gloves and put them over her hands. they lit up with mana, before cecilia finally grabbed the rock.


    ¡°hmm...¡± cecilia began squinting at the rock, and her expression began changing. alice quickly realized she was using perks, and stepped back. cecilia¡¯s face, however, slowly began to show more and more signs of confusion.


    ¡°nothing. it¡¯s like i¡¯m trying to look at a piece of thin air. no mana. no potential as an enchanting material. it¡¯s just... nothing. but there¡¯s clearly something there!¡±


    cecilia frowned. ¡°hold on a second. let me try...¡± she disappeared into the back room of the shop. after a few minutes, she reappeared with several strange-looking tools, as well as a long, thin wire. alice could detect a great deal of mana coming from the wire, showing that it was actually some sort of enchanted tool. the other tools also emitted mana.


    ¡°this is a mana reader. it should be able to detect if the object in question has any mana, as well as doing some basic investigation. it¡¯ll light up to let us know how much mana is contained inside of it, and it¡¯s better than my perks for detecting things that might somehow retain mana inside of them.¡± said cecilia, placing it over the rock. ¡°after all, mages don¡¯t actually see mana perfectly, even with perks. instead, what we usually see is whatever mana ¡®leaks¡¯ out of something. there might be some sort of material that doesn¡¯t leak anything at all, and if that¡¯s the case, this should be able to detect it...¡±


    the object did nothing. the rock simply laid on the table, unmoving.


    ¡°nothing?¡± cecilia frowned. maybe i¡¯ll try taking away a smaller piece of it. if there¡¯s something inside of the rock that¡¯s changing the way it reacts to external observation, maybe that would somehow explain what the object is? if that¡¯s the case, it would be good to rub or remove the outer shell of the object, so that we can get a better look at whatever is actually causing the problem here.¡± cecilia grabbed the wire, and began winding it around her fingers. she also stabilized the rock¡¯s position with a few clamps, ensuring that it wouldn¡¯t move around. finally, cecilia brushed her hands along the bracelets on her wrists, which began to light up with mana. before long, a thin coat of mana spread across cecilia¡¯s skin. several tendrils of mana also began to spread along the surface of the table, as well as the area directly surrounding the table.


    ¡°as an [enchanter], you need to careful with unknown objects. always make sure you have a few rings protecting you from potential harm. i¡¯ll go into more detail about safety when i actually start teaching you, but remember that you always need to keep your safety equipment up, especially if you¡¯re about to start a more destructive process with an unknown material. most equipment to measure and analyze things are relatively harmless. however, it¡¯s always good to be careful. this table has some other safety precautions,¡± said cecilia, almost absentmindedly.


    cecilia took the wire and wound it around two of her fingers, almost as if it were floss. then, she slowly began pressing it against the top corner of the rock. she very, very carefully began to slice away a very small fragment of the rock. the wire didn¡¯t successfully sink into the rock at all ¨C it was as if cecilia was trying to cut a block of pure steel. cecilia grabbed several monster cores and touched the wire, and alice saw most of the mana inside of those cores suddenly began to drain out of them and into the wire. the wire began to glow more brightly in her mana-vision, and the monster cores became dimmer and dimmer. then cecilia tried again. this time, the wire managed to, just barely, nick the tip of the rock.


    the moment the tip of the rock was nicked away, alice saw something completely different. it was like she was looking at a circuit board ¨C however, instead of being made of metals and wires, this was a circuit board formed purely of mana. it was staggeringly complex ¨C it wasn¡¯t on par with the fractal alice had seen when she had nearly overloaded herself with mana a few weeks ago, but it was still a world of difference compared to even the most complicated enchanted items alice had seen so far. and unlike the system¡¯s mana intervention fractal, which had been so staggeringly complex that alice was sure no human could possibly create it, this one felt like it could certainly be man-made. it was filled with straight lines, nodes of mana, and a whirlpool of colors that mixed and blended together.


    several of the nodes of mana shifted to a variety of different colors. then, seconds later, the rock collapsed completely. it didn¡¯t explode, or pop, or emit light that was visible. instead, it was like all of the mana inside of the rock simply disappeared the moment it detected that it was being observed. then, the entire rock collapsed into a pile of gravel, as if it were a dandelion met with a hurricane.


    alice stared at the rock, stunned, while cecilia also stared at the pile of rubble. what?


    however, as alice stared at the pile of seemingly ordinary rock detritus, she felt a sneaking suspicion in her mind.


    as far as she knew, there was no such thing as a naturally-occurring enchantment in this world. sure, there were plenty of unusual phenomena that could occur wherever mana was. however, the circuit board of lights and mana hadn¡¯t looked like it could be, in any way, shape, or form, naturally-occurring. it had looked detailed. structured. intended.


    and despite all of that, nobody¡¯s perks had picked up anything when they were used on the object.


    someone had created a strange object for unknown reasons, and it had somehow ended up in the broken mana zone. and that someone hadn¡¯t liked their object being observed, adding in some sort of self-destruct mechanism into it. and, most importantly of all, somehow that object had fooled the system.

 Chapter 43

    chapter 43


    cecilia dropped the wire, staring at the pile of rubble. she turned to alice, and for panic surfaced in her eyes.


    ¡°it... it broke? what? but there was no problem ¨C i checked it with my perks and there was no ¨C¡° suddenly, the panic in cecilia¡¯s eyes faded completely, replaced by an oddly emotionless and mechanical expression. alice started to wonder how widespread emotion-modifying perks actually were ¨C using them for long periods of time couldn¡¯t be healthy, right? seeing cecilia¡¯s panicked expression suddenly turn into mechanical indifference just felt off. before alice could think further, cecilia continued speaking.


    ¡°that should not have been possible,¡± said cecilia. ¡°my perks indicated that this procedure wouldn¡¯t be harmful. i tripled checked it to make sure that it wouldn¡¯t be a problem. none of my other perks came up with any information at all. i wasn¡¯t sure if there was actually an interesting item or material inside of the rock, or if it was just some sort of fluke, but it shouldn¡¯t have been able to destroy itself like that,¡± cecilia said. even though alice could tell cecilia had turned off her emotions, the other girl was still emphasizing words and hissing out some of them. the fact that alice could still tell what the other girl¡¯s emotions were despite the emotion-smothering perk being active meant the perk was failing. that, more than anything else, was a sign of how rattled the girl was ¨C her face was transitioning back and forth between panic and abnormal calm over and over again. ¡°my perks... my perks said it would be all right. even if i¡¯m not as high level as my father was...¡± cecilia sighed. ¡°i just...i don¡¯t understand. it was a request from illa, too, and it broke. but my perks...¡±


    alice was starting to notice a pattern in how people dealt with information in this world. even while she was on the expedition, the first response the expedition had when encountering strange situations was to throw more perks at it. most of the time, that was fine ¨C even if no one understood why they were getting information from the system, or how to do it manually, it worked in most cases without a huge issue. but what about a scenario like this, where perks failed? perks were a readily available tool that could be used by practically anyone, as long as they had the right classes and met the requirements. that meant that people here were very reliant on their perks.


    alice shook her thoughts away, before she hesitated. the last thing she hadn¡¯t told other people in this world yet was about her home world¡¯s religions. after all, she still didn¡¯t know how people in this world felt about religious differences. then, she closed her eyes, took a calming breath, and opened her eyes again. if she kept trying to hide for fear of what might happen, it would be hard to progress forward. that wasn¡¯t to say she was going to blindly shout out all of her secrets and information to the world without regard for the consequences ¨C but if she wanted to trust people, and if she wanted other people to trust her, someone needed to take the first step. so far, cecilia was a bit odd ¨C but alice felt that she could trust the girl.


    ¡°what perks did you use to look at the rock?¡±


    ¡°i ¨C there was one to appraise the material, which failed. then there was one to detect enchantments, which gave me nothing ¨C¡° cecilia shook her head. ¡°that was obviously wrong ¨C the inside of that rock didn¡¯t look natural at all. there are plenty of weird phenomena that have come out of clusters of mana before - but that wasn¡¯t ¡®natural¡¯ at all. it was highly structured and specific. if it wasn¡¯t made by human hands, i¡¯ll make [enchanter] a secondary class and go farm for the rest of my life, since this world clearly has no need for human enchanting at all. but... my perks said otherwise. they didn¡¯t claim anything was there at all. when i tried to check to see if there was a problem with my intended next action, i got nothing. i don¡¯t understand.¡± cecilia just sat there, staring at the pile of rubble with a lost expression.


    ¡°well, if it was immune to perks and man ¨C made... have you ever thought that someone fooled the system?¡± asked alice, finally broaching the topic she had been trying to lead up to while looking at cecilia¡¯s eyes. ¡°if something is manmade, and exhibits strange properties that contradict your understanding of what should happen when you interact with it, it¡¯s at least plausible that someone created that contradictory property intentionally, right? in this case, immunity to whatever governs the system¡¯s perks.¡±


    ¡°that¡¯s impossible. the system is god,¡± said cecilia. it was an immediate response ¨C there was no hesitation, no thought put into the answer. it was as if someone had asked another person what color the sky was, and they had simply responded that the sky was blue. then, cecilia frowned. ¡°wait, but...¡± cecilia turned back to the pile of rubble sitting on her enchanting table. a moment later, whatever perk cecilia was using to deal with her emotions seemed to be deactivated ¨C her face suddenly regained the traces of emotion it had lost. however, in addition to panic and nervousness, cecilia also looked intrigued. alice smiled, faintly ¨C the most important aspect of exploring the world around you was curiosity. without that, it was nearly impossible to move forward. with that, other aspects of how to explore the world around you could be trained. even if alice was only an ordinary science nerd that had just started high school, even she knew that the one of the biggest driving forces behind human advancement was curiosity.


    ¡°alice, you¡¯re raising the question of whether the system is actually a god, right? or at least, you¡¯re trying to go down a road of thinking that implies that. you don¡¯t seem to react to the idea of the system not being god the same way most people would, either. do you have some sort of reason for this?¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°i do. is there some way to ensure we aren¡¯t being monitored here?¡±


    ¡°i have a perk that isolates sound and makes it harder to read lips. it isn¡¯t perfect, and it¡¯s pretty common and easy to pick up, so there are also plenty of ways to get around it. it¡¯s much worse than perks that classes like [town leaders] get. however, it would still require a specialized class or achievement, so it¡¯s much better than nothing,¡± said cecilia. even though alice was paying attention to the girl, as well as the air around her, she didn¡¯t notice anything. however, judging from cecilia¡¯s satisfied expression, the perk must be working now.


    ¡°i¡¯ll tell you the truth, because you agreed to research with me, and because i¡¯m going to be learning from you, and because i think you¡¯re someone i can trust,¡± said alice. she took another deep breath ¨C somehow, even though she felt resolved to tell cecilia more about her home world, it was hard to make the words come out. she hadn¡¯t spoken a word of it, because even though people here seemed relatively friendly, she had no clue how people would react to a direct challenge to their faith. still, cecilia had already seen something shocking and seemed to be coping with it.


    ¡°on my home world, there was no system at all.¡±


    ¡°so, where do we start? rather, what have you done so far? in retrospect, the experiment you told me about makes a lot more sense, and i can also see why you were working so hard to figure out how skills and attributes interact with mana. why were you trying so hard to figure out what powers mana, though? i can see why it would be interesting, but i can¡¯t see how it directly relates to exploring how the system works.¡±


    ¡°it¡¯s because i was trying to set up some of the background information i thought i would need in future experiments ¨C specifically, i wanted to know how to cut myself off from mana to check whether or not it¡¯s really impossible to survive without it. that sets up a lot of other experiments i wanted to do in the future, but many of them require me to mess with mana concentration ¨C and if i can¡¯t survive in an environment without mana anymore, i need to know that now. after all, in my home world, there was no mana, so it¡¯s unlikely that people really can¡¯t survive without mana ¨C or, well, that was my original thought, at least,¡± said alice.


    ¡°however, i saw the immortal of song and shadow a few hours ago ¨C she looked like she was made out of mana. which makes me wonder ¨C is the amount of mana inside of a person what makes it problematic for people in this world to be cut off from mana? my original theory was that mana was somehow enhancing people¡¯s muscles, but at this point, i¡¯m starting to wonder if mana outright replaces muscles somehow. since i have less mana inside of my body than a regular person, i can still safely check... i hope. i also think this area of study hasn¡¯t been that heavily explored ¨C after all, there are still rigorous safety requirements for experiments, and nobody here is able to just perform experiments likely to harm participants without worrying about the consequences. as a result, the number of experiments i¡¯ve heard of that actively check how people react to having mana cut off from them is very low ¨C if there are any at all. most of what i¡¯ve heard of comes from circumstances that make people think that being cut off from mana is probably lethal. i won¡¯t put another human into a risky experiment ¨C i¡¯m not a member of the society of starry eyes, after all. but i can see what happens if i cut myself off from mana, right?¡±


    cecilia frowned, before finally, she slowly nodded. ¡°that¡¯s where i come in, i take it?¡±


    ¡°yeah. i think it¡¯s probably safe, but i really need someone to hit the safety switch if it turns out to be dangerous for me. and, of course, someone else to observe what¡¯s happening would also be a massive help to gathering data. and i only have a vague idea how to make a ¡®mana-proof¡¯ room, and i¡¯m pretty sure an enchanter could make that way easier, right?¡±


    ¡°yeah, making a mana-proof room is definitely possible with the right seeds. in that case... to cut yourself off from mana, you would need enchantments to block mana from moving around. mana can move through solid objects, so just using walls or something wouldn¡¯t do it. apart from that, you would need some way to drain the mana in the room. say, do you have any magic seed slots left?¡±


    ¡°two. i also have an [organic seed] that i don¡¯t really know how to use, and also has very little mana inside of it. i haven¡¯t messed with it too much yet.¡±


    ¡°it sounds like you really need to get a seed devoted to interacting with pure mana ¨C as well as a good grasp of how to make enchantments. i don¡¯t have any seed slots left ¨C and it¡¯ll be several levels before i¡¯m likely to get another one. since there¡¯s no way to change a seed once it¡¯s created, that means you¡¯re going to be the one building the equipment for this mana-isolating room.¡±


    ¡°pure mana, huh... yeah, that makes a lot of sense, actually. if i want to interact with mana, a way to literally interact with it would be critical. i also still need to learn how to clean up broken mana, and that might give me some ideas on how mana works. illa still hasn¡¯t gotten around to that, yet... hmm.¡±


    cecilia looked at the nearly empty store for a while, before turning back to alice.


    ¡°since we¡¯re doing this together, i¡¯ll waive the lesson fees entirely ¨C whatever i get out of this is likely going to be worth a bunch of levels in most of my classes, after all. do you want to work on getting [enchanter]? we should still have some time before illa chews me out for destroying the rock.¡± cecilia¡¯s eyes twitched slightly at the mention of illa and the destroyed rock.


    ¡°i... i don¡¯t think she would be too upset. or at least, i hope not ¨C it looks like the rock was made to destroy itself and was built by someone much higher level than you. if you talk about it and explain the details, she might be disappointed, but i don¡¯t think illa is someone unreasonable enough to get mad at you for failing a task you likely had no possibility of succeeding in.¡±


    ¡°i hope so.¡± cecilia sounded depressed when she said that, before she finally turned back to alice. ¡°i¡¯ll think about it in a few hours. illa will probably come by to check on us sooner or later, and she almost certainly has other details to sort out since the expedition just ended. for now, i¡¯ll explain the basic principles of enchanting.¡±


    ¡°all right, sounds good,¡± said alice, eagerly. she had been waiting for this. her first real lesson in enchanting was going to be critical for a lot of her future experiments, and a part of her was just excited at the idea of creating real enchanted items. her first lesson in enchanting had begun.

 Chapter 44

    chapter 44


    ¡°let¡¯s see... if i recall correctly, you wanted to focus on consumable enchanting, but learn both types of enchanting, right?¡± asked cecilia, looking at alice. her twitchy and nervous expression slowly faded as the topic of enchanting came up, and alice could see that the girl was truly passionate about the subject.


    ¡°yeah, that¡¯s what i thought made the most sense ¨C you said you mostly specialize in consumable enchanting, and so i figured you could probably teach me more in that subject.¡±


    ¡°that¡¯s true, but based on what you¡¯ve been describing, you might actually want to focus on traditional enchanting first. traditional enchanting is what you would want in order to make, for example, the walls of a manaless room,¡± said cecilia. ¡°and your perks will help you out a lot in choosing a specialty anyway ¨C after all, perks won¡¯t lead you astr- ermm.¡± cecilia looked at the pile of rubble sitting on her enchanting table. ¡°perks are... usually reliable, at least. i have never been led astray by one before today.¡±


    ¡°if that¡¯s the easiest way to make a room with no mana in it, i guess i can focus my attention on traditional enchanting for now. but would you at least give me a basic overview of how both work? right now, i know what distinguishes consumable enchanting, traditional enchanting, and system enchanting from each other, but i don¡¯t know how everything actually works when making an enchantment.¡±


    cecilia seemed to think it over, before she nodded.


    ¡°all right, we¡¯ll start with the very basics then. to create an enchantment, you need 3 things ¨C first, you need a concept. this is akin to the heart of an enchantment ¨C in essence, it is what tells the enchantment what to do. for example, the novice ring i showed you the first time you came to my shop ¨C it has the concept of ¡®lock onto an object moving faster than the speed i described using my mana, then stop its movement.¡¯ this can, theoretically, be anything, as long as you have the right seeds to go with it,¡± began cecilia, as she pulled out an iron ring. alice recognized it as the first enchanted object cecilia had shown her ¨C it had stopped a piece of iron she had moved using her mana.


    ¡°that being said, remember, enchantments are dumb ¨C they can¡¯t remember instructions that are too complicated. it¡¯s one of the reasons why organic magic isn¡¯t very popular for [enchanters] ¨C you just can¡¯t get an enchantment to remember the dozens of different ways you need to be able to interact with even a small and seemingly simple bone because there are way too many variations on how a bone can break. heck, even humans often struggle with learning all of the weird complications that can occur if their [intelligence] is lower ¨C usually, [organic mages] rely on their perks to help them figure out the best and safest way to heal a patient, because memorizing everything without assistance would be time consuming and difficult. perks offer a massive shortcut here ¨C they make it much easier to feel out and remember how you need to deal with most situations.¡±


    cecilia paused, absently fiddling with the ring she was holding. ¡°in fact, some people argue that, at least as far as information retention goes, [organic mages] get even better options than [scholars], although it¡¯s also far more specific. but that¡¯s besides the point i¡¯m trying to make here. the first aspect of enchanting is the instructions you want to encode into an object. these instructions are processed via your magic seeds ¨C which is why traditional and consumable enchanting can only be done by mages. if you don¡¯t have any magic seeds, no matter how well you fulfill the other two requirements for making and using an enchantment, you can¡¯t made anything. and, of course, you also need to actually be able to do whatever you¡¯re trying to get your enchantment to do ¨C you can¡¯t make an enchantment somehow warm up a room if you have never figured out how to do so without an enchantment. in short, enchantments can never exceed their maker in terms of control over mana. that being said, there is one area where an enchantment can do more than the wielder. that is mana quantity. an enchantment burns through monster cores to work, and that also means the enchantment might be able to have access to dozens or hundreds of mariums beyond what the actual enchanter has available. even if enchantments tend to be inflexible compared to humans, and can¡¯t seeds with the knowledge and intelligence of humans, when it comes to sheer quantity of mana enchantments have much better fuel sources available than most humans do. monsters have more mana than humans, after all ¨C they just waste much more when using magic and waste most of their advantage.¡±


    concept and mana? alice frowned, absently thinking through the idea. while she didn¡¯t have a good idea of what it meant to process a set of instructions via her magic seeds, the fact that it seemed possibly to directly translate her ideas into an enchantment once she knew what she was doing was important information. if she was understanding cecilia correctly, as long as she was able to manually do something with her magic and had whatever materials enchanting needed, it would be possible to turn it into an enchantment. it would definitely make her first major goal, a room with no mana inside of it, much easier to achieve. alice shook herself out of her thoughts, refocusing on cecilia¡¯s words as the other girl continued speaking.


    ¡°however, you¡¯ve probably also noticed, a variety of materials are needed to create enchantments as well ¨C it isn¡¯t as simple as just dumping mana into any old material and then calling it a day. at least, not without other factors,¡± said cecilia. she held up the ring that she had been toying with, revealing the inside of the ring ¨C alice could faintly make out that the ring was actually composed of two layers of material. the outer band of material, exactly as she had previously assumed, was just regular iron. there was nothing particularly special about it, and it seemed to mostly be there for the purposes of helping the ring maintain its shape and keep the inner materials safe. however, the inner band of the ring was made up of totally different materials ¨C there was a band of some sort of green rock inside of it, and alice could easily make out glimmers of grey and silver mana flickering around inside of the ring. it was actually somewhat similar to the way the strange rock¡¯s chunks of mana had looked, except that it was dozens, if not hundreds, of times less complex.


    ¡°usually from monsters?¡± cecilia actually flinched.


    ¡°it is... technically possible to use human mage organs as a power source as well. however, don¡¯t do that. ever. it is illegal, and it is wrong.¡± cecilia shivered. alice, realizing she had touched on a bad subject, quickly switched the subject.


    ¡°are these three things also needed for consumable enchantments?¡± cecilia looked at alice, and seemed to ease her way back into the flow of the conversation, putting her revulsion and the mention of human enchanting materials aside.


    ¡°yes, although for a consumable enchantment you don¡¯t need much of an ¡®information¡¯ managing material ¨C the amount can be much lower. usually just a little fleck of it. you also don¡¯t need to worry about keeping the base material safe ¨C after all, everything is going to get destroyed after one use anyway. who cares about keeping materials safe for long-term use?¡± ceclia shrugged. ¡°basically, you can just ignore adding things like iron coatings and just slap a bit of greenstone together with a mana core and use a perk to glue them together. should be available at level 10. if you¡¯re not interested in spending a perk slot, there are some material options like glue available, but they¡¯re kind of expensive since they need high level craftsmen to make them. that kind of defeats the point of a consumable enchantment, which is to make otherwise low-value materials into something useful and sell it for a cheap and quick profit. but if you¡¯re planning on just buying them or creating them for research purposes, it might do well enough.¡± alice decided she would think about it whenever she got to level 10 in [enchanter]. right now, she didn¡¯t even have the class, so while making plans in advance wasn¡¯t a bad idea, it was still a bit far away from her.


    ¡°that makes sense. so, for making a room with no mana in it, i¡¯m assuming i would need a material to remember instructions, some walls i can throw those materials into, and a pure mana seed to actually make the enchantment?¡±


    ¡°that¡¯s the easiest way that i can think of to do it, at least. if you¡¯re willing to pay a blacksmith, you could put the enchanting materials inside of some sort of metal wall, or something. that being said, that¡¯s probably both expensive and overkill ¨C you could also make some sort of ¡®paint¡¯ that blocks mana out, and then just manually drain a room afterwards. there are a few enchanting materials that are liquids, even though most are solids ¨C the liquid ones are a bit sketchier because you need to make sure they¡¯re mixed properly if you combine them with other stuff. otherwise, the whole enchantment might break down. of course, even before then, i recommend getting a few levels in [enchanter] to help you actually make enchantments without screwing up.¡±


    ¡°that sounds like a good idea to me ¨C what do i actually need to do to get the [enchanter] class? or the [apprentic enchanter] class?¡±


    ¡°make three enchantments. they don¡¯t have to actually work - you just need to try to do so three times while using the correct materials and going through a process that should give you an enchantment. basically, you can screw up and it won¡¯t be a big deal. apart from that, study enchanting for 10 hours under a teacher or twenty hours on your own. the teacher doesn¡¯t need to have a [teacher] class ¨C they just need an [enchanter] class. pretty easy.¡± cecilia walked towards a bin of various rocks ¨C alice could see that several of them had similar colors and textures, and most of them resembled the band of green stone inside of cecilia¡¯s first ring.


    ¡°these are also greenstone. you can try to make a few basic enchantments with these,¡± said cecilia. ¡°i¡¯ll stick around and help you for a while ¨C we can... we can put off telling illa about the rock destroying itself until tomorrow, hopefully, right?¡±


    ¡°... probably?¡± alice felt like cecilia was trying to avoid the problem a little bit too much, but given the awkward circumstances of cecilia accidentally destroying a strange material she was asked to investigate with no results, alice didn¡¯t blame her for wanting to push the problem away for a little bit longer. besides, at this point, alice was excited to try to make her first enchantment.

 Chapter 45

    chapter 45


    through training, you have increased an attribute!


    willpower +1, magic +2


    through training, you have increased a skill!


    basic enchanting +6


    you have leveled up!


    explorer of magic: 34 -> 37


    ¡°your encoding is messy,¡± said cecilia, looking over alice¡¯s first attempt at creating an enchanted item. ¡°however, even though it can¡¯t be called a successful attempt at creating an item, it also can¡¯t be considered a total failure. even if it doesn¡¯t do what it¡¯s supposed to, it does spend mana to create an effect on the outside world. for a first work, it¡¯s not bad.¡±


    alice looked over her own work, pushing aside a mild headache as she tried to eye the piece critically. after learning how to convert her mana into a set of instructions and then set up an enchantment inside of a band of greenstone, alice had gotten to work making her first ring. under cecilia¡¯s instructions, alice had done her best to make a copy of cecilia¡¯s first enchanted ring. while there were three things required for creating an enchanted item, fundamentally, ¡®encoding¡¯ the instructions of an item was the most difficult and time consuming part of the process. slowly, alice had attempted to hammer out a set of instructions inside of a band of greenstone ¨C by transmitting her thoughts into the item, pouring her mana into it, and trying to guide and manipulate the resulting shape of the mana to keep her instructions intact. if, before, it had looked like a thin wire, now it looked more like a piece of string someone had tied into a knot ¨C still simple, but with added layers of complexity to it.


    still, alice also knew that she had messed up at some critical moments during the enchanting process. the band of greenstone in front of her was, fundamentally, incapable of doing what it was supposed to do. instead of stopping any materials that moved too quickly within a given area, it instead slowed down all objects within a given area as long as it had enough mana. this included the user, making the band basically useless. it hindered the wearer, and worse, it chewed through mana at an obscene rate in order to do so. however, alice wasn¡¯t dissatisfied with the result ¨C after all, it was her first time enchanting, and she wasn¡¯t particularly good at magic yet, either. she had been formally learning magic for around a month in total now, and half of that was spent on the expedition, where illa was mostly focused on managing things and didn¡¯t have time to teach her. for her to create a result that did something despite that fact felt like a success to her. she would get better with practice.


    she gave the small band of greenstone a light grin as she rubbed her temples. the headache was growing worse ¨C hours spent squinting at a tiny band of rock and mana probably weren¡¯t great for either her eyes or her concentration, and it was beginning to take its toll on her body.


    ¡°how about we take a break? your concentration was beginning to falter a bit, towards the end of the enchantment,¡± said cecilia.


    alice nodded, resisting the urge to pop open her status screen and grab another perk. she could do it when she wasn¡¯t in the middle of a conversation with cecilia. that being said, the idea of getting another perk from [explorer of magic] made her feel excited ¨C perks from that class were always interesting, because she never knew what she was going to acquire.


    ¡°that reminds me ¨C i already mentioned it earlier, but did you want to look over the results of food and mana regeneration? i¡¯ve been meaning to talk to you about it.¡±


    ¡°definitely ¨C what did you find?¡± alice resisted the urge to shuffle around, a mix of nerves and excitement buzzing around under her tongue. her first ¡®experiment¡¯ on this world could be considered more a form of observing and information-gathering, rather than a real experiment. experimenting with food and mana could be considered her first ¡®real¡¯ experiment, in that sense ¨C it was something that, as far as she knew, no one on this world had tried testing, and which might produce real, concrete observations. best of all, it was a result she didn¡¯t need to worry about keeping the results secret if she got concrete results ¨C after all, mana was a well-researched topic on this planet. unlike experiments involving the system, nobody here would mind researching more about magic and mana ¨C it wasn¡¯t part of anyone¡¯s religion, after all. magic, mana, and its effects on the world was a well documented and researched branch of study in the mage community already.


    ¡°i found that there wasn¡¯t much change, actually. here...¡± cecilia got out a precious piece of paper, where she had written down the results of her observations as she changed around her food.


    ¡°i spent almost a solid week only eating mana-rich foods, and there wasn¡¯t any change at all in my mana regeneration,¡± said cecilia. ¡°i still regenerated mana at about 3 percent an hour, based on all of my perks and achievements. in other words, there was no change ¨C or if there was a change, it was too small for me to easily notice, at least. my perk for measuring mana rounds to the nearest marium. when i switched to food with no mana in it, the results were also the same ¨C at least over an observation period of five days, eating food with no mana in it didn¡¯t influence my mana at all. it didn¡¯t even slow down my mana regeneration. still 3 percent an hour.¡±


    alice frowned, nodding as she looked over the piece of paper. the results written down detailed cecilia¡¯s meals, as well as her mana regeneration rate. it even went as far as detailing her daily activities that involved mana, which was a useful source of information alice had forgotten to take into account ¨C even if it was common sense that mariums were regenerated at the same rate regardless of activity, alice was here to investigate common sense. thus, she really should have tried to control for that a bit better.


    ¡°during the expedition, my usage of mana was somewhat inconsistent, so my results might have been contaminated by that. i picked all of my food beforehand ¨C unless the fact that it was stored inside of a storage perk contaminated the results of the experiment in some other way, it doesn¡¯t seem like my mana regeneration changed at all, either.¡± alice¡¯s frown deepened.


    ¡°does that mean that food doesn¡¯t produce mana?¡±


    ¡°it... at least seems to be that way,¡± said alice, frowning. ¡°there could be some other explanations for this, but at the very least, it seems like this idea is lower priority for now. well, i had a lot of possible ideas for where mages get their mana from, so hitting a few dead ends is to be expected. it just means diet probably doesn¡¯t impact mana regeneration. we also didn¡¯t have a control for the experiment, but since there are only two of us right now, it¡¯s a bit difficult to have one. in fact... come to think of it, getting a control in this world seems really difficult in general. everyone¡¯s perks and attributes are different, which creates a ridiculously high level of variance...¡± alice frowned. after a moment, she sighed, switching back to the results of the mana/food experiment. for now, she could focus on that.


    ¡°fine. what other tests did you plan on running?¡±


    ¡°cut a mage off from sunlight, to see if mages are just somehow turning sunlight into energy for using magic somehow. apart from that, i wanted to see what happened if you cut a mage off from the mana in the air around them ¨C after all, it¡¯s entirely plausible that mages get mana from the air around them, as well. humans already naturally suck in mana whenever they gain stats and skills, as well as at most other times in lesser quantities for unknown reasons. since humans are already absorbing mana basically all the time, it would make sense if mages never noticed that they suck in a bit more mana or something. in all honesty, it¡¯s the test i have the highest hopes for ¨C it is just that the test is also the most difficult to run without materials, so i haven¡¯t been able to set up an experiment for it yet.¡±


    ¡°the bit about sunlight slightly confuses me, but i can certainly see how mages would get mana from the air around them.¡± said cecilia. ¡°i agree that it¡¯s a fairly reasonable line of questioning to pursue.¡±


    ¡°the issue is that we still can¡¯t isolate mana from an environment right now, thus making it hard to test. it¡¯ll be good to look into later, though,¡± said alice, trying to project confidence. now that she knew what she was missing, it was just a matter of getting better at enchanting and making a pure mana seed.


    on the other hand, {broken seed} offered a lot of things she was interested in. for one, it would allow her to observe the process of forming a magic seed over and over again, which was highly appealing. that would definitely net her some levels in [explorer of magic] and [scientist]. for another, it would allow her a lot of flexibility when it came to enchanting ¨C after all, most [enchanters] had a severe limit on what they could do, since most of them picked up weird and suboptimal seeds to get around the inherent lack of flexibility of most enchantments. if alice could scrap seeds she didn¡¯t need anymore, or switch them around to suit whatever she wanted to work on, that would give her a lot of room to mess with different concepts and ideas, as well as give her a better grasp of the rules that actually governed magic seed formation. most importantly, it would let her experiment with a wide variety of different magics, which seemed to be exactly what gained her levels in [explorer of magic]. what better way was there to explore magic than to keep trying out new things? the perk would ultimately do wonders for her ability to interact with and understand magic and the world around her. not to mention, alice wasn¡¯t aware of any other method to switch magic seeds around ¨C as far as she knew, once you picked a magic seed, that was it. case closed. there would probably be other ways and other opportunities to boost her magic seed conversion ratios in the future, but she had no clue whether any of her classed would offer such a useful perk for messing around and testing things in the future.


    did she want to be better at fighting, or did she want to discover more of the world around her?


    when she thought about it that way, there was only one option. she would be much better at fighting once she learned how to multitask, but she would much rather be in a lab or a library than on a battlefield.


    alice picked {broken seed}. a wave of mana gathered from the air around her, diving into her body and worming its way towards the magic core behind her heart. alice suddenly had a random thought ¨C what would happen if she tried to pick a perk while in a room isolated from mana? she had no clue ¨C and doing so might harm her. on the other hand, she was suddenly very curious. in fact, for that matter, what would happen if she tried to pick up a skill in a room without mana? alice had avoided meeting the skill requirements for a few things that, realistically, she should have had already ¨C for example, even though she would probably have a low skill level, she could probably get a few dozen levels in {advanced mathematics} whenever she stopped dodging the requirements. this was something that was entirely possible to test once she had a room without mana inside of it.


    ¡°anything good?¡± cecilia asked, seeing the mana around alice stop moving.


    ¡°yes, actually. i can change my magic seeds now.¡± alice grinned. then, before cecilia could ask any follow up questions, alice barreled ahead with her new idea.


    ¡°hey cecilia, does anyone know if messing with mana flowing into people¡¯s bodies can cause damage to them? like, has anyone tried to weaponize it during a war or anything along those lines?¡±


    ¡°no. it¡¯s too difficult and inefficient to mess with that ¨C if you have the mana to be screwing around with objects so far away from your main body, you might as well just electrocute them or fire a rock at them. much faster and cleaner. why do you ask?¡±


    ¡°i was just wondering ¨C there¡¯s a big flood of mana whenever we pick up a skill or a level, right? what happens if we cut off the mana and then still try to get the skill?¡±


    cecilia paused, staring at alice. ¡°i have no idea.¡±


    ¡°that would let us more clearly define cause and effect ¨C for now, i¡¯ve had a lot of suspicions that mana somehow creates skills and attributes.¡±


    ¡°based off of what we¡¯ve seen so far, that does make sense.¡±


    ¡°that being said, there¡¯s still some small chance that maybe gaining a skill or something just causes a reaction that pulls in mana, or does something else weird.¡±


    ¡°that is also possible, yes.¡± cecilia nodded.


    ¡°well, i have avoided meeting the requirements to gain {advanced mathematics} for multiple weeks now, because i wanted to get a better idea of how a skill looks while it¡¯s forming, whenever i got some better instruments or perks to measure things. i think that whenever we get a room with no mana in it, i want to see what happens if i meet the requirements for {advanced mathematics} without any mana near me.¡±


    cecilia¡¯s eyes widened, and then began to shine. ¡°that sounds interesting,¡± she said, after a while.


    alice let herself grin, slightly. ¡°it does, doesn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°you need to hurry up and get better at enchanting ¨C suddenly, i¡¯m very curious to see what will happen next.¡±


    ¡°so am i.¡± alice smiled, thinking of the experiments she would be able to run in a month or two ¨C before she winced. ¡°but first, i need to find out if i¡¯m still employed.¡±


    ¡°why wouldn¡¯t you be?¡±


    ¡°i was hired by illa to keep the mages in town who were planning to scurry away in line ¨C their reputation would take a pretty big blow if a newly baptized teenager stuck around in town while working under illa and all of them ran away, after all.¡±


    ¡°and now the immortal came much faster than expected, meaning the danger is already partly resolved?¡±


    ¡°yup.¡± alice winced.


    finally, cecilia sighed. ¡°all right, let¡¯s go face illa. if we¡¯re going to make plans for the future, we need to know what¡¯s going on. besides, i was originally still planning on leaving cyra in a month and a half ¨C i¡¯ve gotten a good chunk of the legal work done for buying a shop back north, where things are a bit more stable and where my house doesn¡¯t remind me of my dad. if you don¡¯t have a job, we¡¯ll figure something out. i think that your experiments could lead to something amazing at the end of the day ¨C i still want in.¡±


    alice nodded. she felt awkward returning to illa¡¯s mansion, so for tonight, she would find one of the town¡¯s inns and stay. before she left for the night, she made arrangements with cecilia. tomorrow, they would meet up and go to face illa. cecilia would apologize for breaking the strange rock, and alice would find out if she still had a job.

 Chapter 46

    chapter 46


    that night, alice successfully formed a pure mana magic seed. the formation of the magic seed itself went well ¨C she formed a 10% mana conversion seed, which was the maximum she could possibly get from her {three seeds} perk. however, alice¡¯s attempt to observe the process of forming a magic seed was far less successful. the simple reason for this was her inability to divide her attention effectively. in fact, this wasn¡¯t the first time alice had run into a major problem due to her inability to multitask ¨C when the expedition was ambushed while leaving the town, alice had, in a limited way, been able to defend herself. for someone who had been formally training as a mage for only a few weeks under illa, one could even say that she had performed admirably, managing to always stop one person from attacking her at a time. her mana also wasn¡¯t the problem during the fight ¨C even though she wasted a fair bit, and wouldn¡¯t have had enough mana to fend off all three attackers for an extended period of time, she still had enough mana in her body to put up a reasonable fight. the problem was that right now, she could still only focus on doing one thing at a time. during the fight, she had managed to consistently deal with one attack ¨C the problem was that three people had been attacking her from the very beginning. similarly, right now, she could form a magic seed or carefully observe the creation of the magic seed ¨C but she wasn¡¯t able to do both. in the future, alice suspected this would be an even bigger problem ¨C after all, she wanted to observe the process of enchanting more carefully in the future, since she could probably find all sorts of fascinating nuggets of information about how magic worked from observing the process. however, especially if alice wanted to experiment with enchanting using weird seeds and also observe the process in detail, she would need to be able to divide her attention properly.


    similarly, while she was forming her magic seed, she hadn¡¯t been able to concentrate on observing the process while also forming the seed correctly ¨C she nearly lost focus and messed up when she tried to do both, and was barely able to rescue the seed and finish forming it. naturally, her plans of observing how a magic seed was formed in greater deal had to be scrapped.


    alice had a skill that, notably, was supposed to help mages multitask ¨C {divided attention}. unfortunately, this skill wasn¡¯t very high in level yet ¨C even after the battle, and all of the stress and danger alice had been put under, it remained at a measly level 13. furthermore, the skill had significant problems with its upper limits ¨C according to the church¡¯s records, the skill would generally make it easier to multitask, gradually allowing people to split up their attention into two or three parts. however, it would also become more and more taxing on one¡¯s [intelligence] and [willpower], requiring both stats to be much higher each time one wished to split their attention into more separate components. while continuously boosting the skill itself would help cut down on these requirements somewhat, the skill would still ultimately struggle to deal with the level of multitasking a [kinetic mage] seemed to require. after all, a [kinetic mage] had the major weakness of only being able to interact with objects they were touching with a mana tendril. if one wished to stop a barrage of arrows, one needed to be able to ¡®touch¡¯ every single arrow at the same time. this was impossible for the human mind to deal with, which ultimately meant that multitasking was a crucial component of staying alive as a [kinetic mage].i really need to get a perk that lets me multitask, thought alice, grimacing.


    alice sighed as she thought about her perks and future as a mage. at least, on the bright side, she wasn¡¯t constrained by the number of seeds she could form, especially when it came to experimenting and trying out new things. her new perk in [explorer of magic] ensured that she would always have a level of flexibility other mages wouldn¡¯t, especially when it came to enchanting. she could switch around her magic seeds at will ¨C in fact, alice was already somewhat tempted to break down her organic seed and replace it with something else that suited her needs better. an organic seed would allow her to pick up a few perks she wanted, but it blocked a seed slot she might want for other, more important ideas. worse, if she grabbed the perks she wanted and then replaced her organic seed, she was fairly certain that the perks she acquired while she had the seed would deactivate, failing to work properly after the seed was lost. while there weren¡¯t actually any cases that alice knew of where mages replaced their magic seeds, and she wasn¡¯t entirely sure how it would work out, there were plenty of known cases where swapping a primary class to a secondary class caused the higher level perks to deactivate themselves. for now, alice assumed that the organic seed related perks would work the same way. if she was willing to spend a year waiting to replace a perk again, she could test this and then replace a perk if it turned out to be useless. however, that could only be done once per year, and would require alice to make a donation to the church as well. thus, it was clearly a limited resource that she couldn¡¯t just throw around left and right.


    therefore, while on the surface it seemed like alice could totally swap out her magic seeds left and right, it was still probably a good idea to keep some sort of ¡®core seeds¡¯ laying around. it was probably best to use one or two of her seed slots as a sort of ¡®flex¡¯ slot that she could swap around when she wanted to experiment or create a new enchantment. then, she could keep the rest of her seeds the same ¨C after all, even if she could create new seeds with an hour or two of concentration once a month, without the skills and practice to back up a magic seed it wouldn¡¯t be very useful.


    the next day, alice left the inn she had stayed at, quickly meeting up with cecilia. without further ado, the two of them marched up to illa¡¯s manor.


    they were quickly ushered into illa¡¯s study ¨C clearly, illa had been expecting them to show up.


    ¡°i was expecting alice to come, but i must ask, why are you here, cecilia?¡±


    ¡°i... have something to report, regarding the strange stone you gave to me for analysis.¡±


    ¡°is that so? all right then.¡±


    cecilia began to relay all of the events that had happened when alice had given her the rock, ending with the rock self-destructing.


    ¡°that¡¯s one of the two things that i wanted to speak with you about ¨C i don¡¯t intend to just kick you out, but with alliria¡¯s presence here, obviously...¡± illa looked a bit awkward for a moment, as if she was trying to find a way to rephrase her words. finally, she simply shrugged. ¡°frankly, you aren¡¯t anywhere near as useful to me anymore. the crown has rather decisively displayed that it takes the threat to the south very seriously. people with high [charisma] tend to be quite good at interrogation and getting information, since most people are fairly willing to open up and chat with outrageously beautiful women asking questions about neighbors acting strange. and alliria has the highest [charisma] in illvaria. in short, whatever information channels the sigmusi have in cyra, as well as the nearby towns, will probably either flee before they get tracked down and killed, or they will be directly exterminated. your presence is thus much lower priority.¡±


    alice felt a cold, sinking feeling in her chest ¨C even though she had known that illa was a practical woman, it still didn¡¯t feel great to be told upfront that her time with the most competent magic teacher she had access to no longer had any particularly great need for her. even if alice could get levels and information from constant practice as time passed, it was obvious that her development would be nowhere near as quick in the future.


    ¡°however, first and foremost, i want to discuss your bonus.¡±


    ¡°bonus?¡±


    ¡°originally, i hired you based on the assumption that the sigmusi would probably flee after the assassinations a few towns away ¨C after all, the crown would obviously respond afterwards, and i didn¡¯t think they would want to stomach any real losses. therefore, i paid you on the assumption that you might face some verbal harassment from mages who wanted to flee, but it would be nothing severe, and there wouldn¡¯t be any major danger. that assumption was obviously incorrect ¨C we were ambushed outside of illvaria, and if you hadn¡¯t gotten treatment, you would have died. furthermore, even though it was unlikely that the situation would take a turn for the worse, you still accepted a job that had some inherent degree of risk in it. even if you were desperate at the time, and didn¡¯t have much choice, i don¡¯t abandon people that have done a good turn for me. i have two choices for you-¡° illa¡¯s eyes twinkled a little, and alice felt a small kindling of hope reignite in her chest.


    ¡°first, you can take some severance pay. i understand that your funds are rather low, since you don¡¯t have any of this world¡¯s currency, right? thus, i will give you a nice bonus ¨C 15 golden suns. this can be broken down into any quantity of smaller coins, if you prefer. it would have been equivalent to over a year of your pay, if we don¡¯t factor in other things that you got from our original deal.


    ¡°alternately, you are still missing a lot of fundamental information about magic, as well as access to resources in this world. and, obviously, you are still missing a teacher as well. thus, you can also take your bonus in the form of continued lessons from me ¨C say, a month and a half of five lessons a week. if you are still interested in having a stable form of employment, i also still need workers to help finish constructing the docks. the pay will be lower, but i will still give you full access to things like my library, in addition to lessons, and a letter of recommendation for a magic school in the north if you want it. i don¡¯t know what your future plans are, but it¡¯s at least worth considering, no? those with high levels and skills have a fairly easy time getting employed wherever they are, and magic academies have mages literally devoted to teaching. and even if you don¡¯t go to the north, having a formal magic teacher for another month and a half would boost your skills by a lot and help fill in the gaps in your knowledge as a mage.¡±


    alice felt the anxiety and nervousness in her heart disappear without a trace. even though illa obviously didn¡¯t have much use for alice as a means of keeping the political situation in town stable, she was still looking after alice in her own way. alice couldn¡¯t help but feel an appreciation for the woman.


    ¡°thank you very much,¡± said alice. it was at moments like this that she wished she knew more about illvarian etiquette ¨C she felt that just words weren¡¯t quite sufficient to describe the gratitude welling up from the bottom of her heart.


    ¡°it¡¯s not a big deal,¡± said illa, though the edges of her lips quirked up slightly. alice felt that she could actually see the traces of a mischievous grin on illa¡¯s lips.


    ¡°i¡¯d like the second choice ¨C i want to learn more about magic. i still haven¡¯t really made up my mind about whether or not i¡¯m interested in going to a magic academy in the north, but i would love to be your student for another month and a half,¡± said alice. quietly, she also mentally checked the time ¨C cecilia had said she would be leaving town in a bit less than two months. if illa gave her lessons for a month and a half, that might mean they would leave at around the same time. alice had no clue whether or not she would head to the same destination as cecilia, but it was at least a possibility.


    illa gave alice a small smile. ¡°then i¡¯ll be seeing you around.¡±

 Chapter 47

    chapter 47


    that night, alice went back to sleeping in illa¡¯s mansion ¨C she felt nowhere near as nervous about doing so as she had last night, so she didn¡¯t mind taking advantage of illa¡¯s generosity for a few more days. that night, illa¡¯s maid quietly hinted that alice should start looking for lodgings on her own. alice had taken this in stride. since illa no longer needed alice to keep a lid on the situation in town, it made sense that she wouldn¡¯t give alice a separate room inside of her mansion anymore. once alice was a more ¡®ordinary¡¯ worker in cyra, it was natural that she wouldn¡¯t receive special benefits anymore. it was a bit unfortunate, but alice had already expected something of the sort. this was a world where worker¡¯s rights didn¡¯t actually exist, after all ¨C for illa to still be quietly offering alice some assistance for exposing her to unexpected danger was already above and beyond what she was ¡®required¡¯ to do.


    the next morning, illa¡¯s maid brought alice breakfast. she ate in her room for the final time, trying to figure out what she would do next. absently, she spooned mouthfuls of some sort of monster meat fried like bacon and combined with some sort of lettuce-like plant into her mouth. she had no idea what she was eating, but it tasted... all right. a bit strange, as far as breakfast food went, but alice was growing used to this world¡¯s lack of breakfast culture. what was more important to her were her thoughts and plans for the future.


    the inn she had stayed at last night was relatively cheap, only costing 3 copper artisans a night. it would only take another few copper artisans to pay for meals for a day. if she looked only at room and board, plus food and minor daily necessities, her daily expenses amounted to about two silver suns a day. alice wasn¡¯t actually sure how much money illa was offering her for dock work, but alice had finally learned more about the demographics of the town she lived in.


    apparently, the reason there were so many males in town was because most people in this town were temporary workers ¨C they were hired to work on the docks, construction of new buildings, and the other miscellaneous tasks a town under construction needed in order to function and grow. while there were some female workers that had the levels to match their male counterparts, this world still tended to expect males to be the breadwinners of the family. this world still prioritized levels and attributes as the ¡®primary evaluation¡¯ of a worker, but men tended to be the ones expected to gain those levels. it was simply that most employers wouldn¡¯t care much about the gender of a worker as long as they had the right skills, meaning that women who wanted to work could certainly do so. most of the workers in town were temporary workers who sent back money to their families in the north each month.


    alice took that to be a mostly positive sign. if working conditions were good enough that people were willing to work here, it must mean that the pay was fairly good. in fact, if alice didn¡¯t take into account the fact that she would have to pay for her own room and board, and her meal and room quality were about to take a major drop in quality, she might actually end up making more money a week working on the docks compared to her previous deal with illa. while her room and her food were valuable, at this point levels in [enchanter] and research materials were more valuable to her. in the short term, at least, alice should be able to manage.


    she had a plan for the next month and a half, at least. what alice needed now was a long term goal. what would happen in a month and a half? at that time, her lessons with illa would have run out, and cecilia would also move out of town. as alice saw it, that left her with two major options for what to do next.


    first, she could try to stay in cyra. it was a small town, and it desperately needed mages. alice would probably be able to make a living safely if she stayed here ¨C especially after cecilia left, alice would be the only enchanter in town. if she could make even half-decent enchantments by then, she would be able to make a living off that. it would probably take her some time to get used to dealing with buying materials from adventurers, figuring out how to manage expenditures, and generally improving her classes and skills to manageable levels. it might be rough at the beginning, but it was probably a safe and stable path overall. at the end of the day, alice imagined it wouldn¡¯t be too hard for her to own a shop and make a reasonable living here.


    while the skirmishing between illvaria and the sigmusi colonia left her slightly uneasy, but it was also unlikely that there would be a repeat of alice¡¯s near death experience during the expedition. the roads and rivers, the arteries of travel between northern and southern illvaria, had unthawed. that meant moving troops and agents around would be much easier. after the assassinations and chaos the southern towns had experienced over the winter, the crown would definitely take drastic measures to weed out imperial spies. the sigmusi weren¡¯t stupid, so they had probably already moved their important personnel back home, leaving only a few dregs behind to make themselves a nuisance for a few more months.??v€l?1n.


    however, while staying in cyra seemed safe and stable, alice had her doubts about it. it wasn¡¯t because of her safety, but her ability to perform experiments and learn here. alice still hadn¡¯t forgotten her new goal in life ¨C to explore the nature of the system and magic. it might seem a bit insane for a teenager to dream of learning everything about the system and magic, but alice firmly believed that having big dreams was the best way to stay motivated and keep moving forward in life. she didn¡¯t want to give up on her dream of learning and growing.


    staying in cyra would, at the very least, seriously hinder her progress. she would lose access to cecilia, her partner in this journey that alice had managed to rope in. furthermore, cyra was far away from established bases of scholarly research. the illvarian south was a land scarce in mages and rich in opportunities. while it was easy to make a living here as a mage, alice had a very hard time getting books about studies she wanted. it was also very hard for alice to get enchanted items she wanted for experiments.


    the very fact that alice had to make a manaless room on her own was a good indicator of how many problems alice would probably face in the future if she stayed here. in the north she would at least be able to ask an enchanter to help her design or make one if she had enough money. in cyra, alice didn¡¯t even have that option. the only [enchanter] in town was cecilia, and since cecilia didn¡¯t have a seed related to mana, alice could either make it herself or do without. this problem would probably only get worse in the future. shipping enchanted objects from the north was possible, but would cost an exorbitant fee each time, and alice would never be able to sustain any reasonable experiment pace unless a wealthy merchant suddenly gave her their entire fortune for no reason. in short, opportunities to grow and experiment here would be limited.


    the second option was to go to one of the magic academies in the north. this one had the most obvious pros ¨C she would be travelling directly to one of the centers of the magical world. illvaria was renowned as the most ¡®magical¡¯ country in the shil confederation, and while it might not be the best in the entire southern continent, it was at least able to compete for the spot. the country of illvaria was a center of magical research, and moving to northern illvaria meant that alice would be at the center of magical research and discoveries. cecilia had also mentioned that she was moving north, meaning that alice would still have access to her only true ¡®friend¡¯ and co-researcher, making it easy to coordinate things.


    however, it also had some notable downsides ¨C if alice was smack in the center of the northern illvaria, there was no guarantee she would be able to make a living. without any materials, she wouldn¡¯t be able to conduct experiments. after all, northern illvaria was saturated with mages from the academies, and most of them were desperately scrabbling to make pocket change during their time as a student. thus, plenty of them turned to doing more mundane jobs for some money on the side. it was one of the few places on the entire southern continent where there might actually be too many mages compared to the economic niche for magic.


    if alice wanted to attend a magic academy, it was expensive as heck. illa had mentioned that she would provide a letter of recommendation, but alice had absolutely no idea how she might come up with the money to attend an academy. the way most poor mages paid for their education was to join the military for some time and go fight nomads in the north or skirmish with the sigmusi for a decade, but alice was absolutely sure that she didn¡¯t want to join the military. regardless of what else happened, alice wanted to avoid that at all costs. even if she was learning how to defend herself with magic, alice had no interest in going somewhere people were likely to shoot arrows at her on a daily basis. that meant she needed to find a way to actually pay for her education. she would need to come up with dozens of gold suns, and while illa¡¯s maid had given alice a small pouch of money as a ¡®bonus¡¯ this morning, alice still had a little under two golden suns right now. she probably didn¡¯t even have enough to pay for a day of lessons, much less a full education.


    ¡°maybe. tell me, do you remember if there are any towns, cities, or other populated locations here?¡± asked the man, pointing to the spot on the map where the white light had disappeared.


    ¡°there seems to be a newly established town there ¨C one by the name of cyra,¡± said the creature, after a few moments. ¡°would you like further details on its history and establishment?¡±


    ¡°just give me a quick overview.¡±


    ¡°very well. it was established as part of the illvarian king¡¯s plan to reclaim the south by a mage named illa. it is primarily funded via the mercantile practices of her husband.¡±


    ¡°relative power? levels?¡±


    ¡°low. illa is estimated to be between level 70 and level 85, probably closer to 75. she has displayed no signs of having a perk above level 75, though she might have picked a passive one or she may have simply never been forced to use it. however, based on her history and assumed achievements and pseudo-achievements, she cannot be higher than 85 at most.¡±


    ¡°hmm.¡± the man seemed to think for a while, before he sighed. ¡°what do you think? is there any hope of finding one of the society¡¯s bases from it?¡±


    ¡°unlikely. i don¡¯t know why someone in the town would have picked up one of the probes, but i doubt the town has any connection at all with the society of starry eyes. if you wish to find one of their bases, this is unlikely to yield anything.¡±


    ¡°a shame.¡± said the man, after pausing for a minute to think. ¡°i suppose going there would have no value then.¡±


    ¡°correct.¡±


    ¡°send in another one. we¡¯ll get lucky at some point, right?¡±


    ¡°it is neither highly likely nor highly unlikely. the first surveillance web is more likely to catch them.¡±


    the man simply nodded, before turning back to the map. ¡°i really would like to see more of their research. it will be the best way for me to accomplish my goal. oh well,¡± said the man, with a mild shrug. ¡°they can¡¯t keep getting lucky forever. sooner or later, i¡¯ll find them. their research should be the last key to the puzzle.¡± the man sensed no more changes in the mana of the map, so he picked up a small object from the side of the room. if alice had been there, she would have recognized it ¨C it looked startlingly similar to the strange rock cecilia had accidentally destroyed in the enchanting room.


    the man tapped the rock twice, and then began manipulating his mana, flooding the rock over and over again as he began encoding a new set of instructions. afterwards, another tendril of mana extended out from his body and touched the map, before a connection between the map and the rock began to form. several minutes later, the connection seemed to be complete ¨C and then it became almost impossible to notice. just like the man himself, it was now incredibly difficult to focus on. anytime one saw it, their attention would begin to slide away, without them even realizing that they were failing to see something right in front of their eyes. the man nodded happily, satisfied with his work, and threw an outrageous amount of mana into the seemingly ordinary rock. the object began to slow drift out of the room, as if it was floating, before it sped up. in a few moments, it faded into the distance, vanishing without a trace.

 Chapter 48

    chapter 48


    alice spent the next day detailing her plans to illa ¨C she asked a lot of questions about the north, and illa was more than happy to provide alice with crucial information.


    first, alice was told she should expect tuition to cost around 100-200 gold suns for a year. magic academies usually awarded a certificate of completion after a certain level of proficiency in magic was acquired. unlike schools on alice¡¯s home world, there were no strict ¡®year¡¯ requirements ¨C the certificate was awarded solely based on ability. most academies assumed that you would be somewhere between level 30 and 50 in a tier two class by the time you graduated. in other words, you needed to acquire an apprentice class, level it to 25, and then evolve it to a level 1 ¡®normal¡¯ class before levelling it back to an appropriate level. the exact requirements differed a fair bit based on what school you went to. cheaper schools usually had lower level teachers, and also tended to have lower graduation requirements. most people finished their education somewhere between 3 and 5 years after they started.


    alice couldn¡¯t help but grimace at the thought. a magic academy was expensive. even if she had already guessed she would face a steep paywall, having actual numbers laid out in front of her made her wince.


    ¡°do you have any ideas where i might be able to acquire a large amount of money in a short period of time?¡± alice asked, looking at illa.


    ¡°the easiest and fastest way is to join the army. if you serve in the army for a number of years, the army will pay for your education. the army is always looking for more mages, since there is a chronic shortage of competent mages in the north. furthermore, the crown has a system set up to give you preferential treatment in a number of other respects. while several of those benefits would be useless to you, since you don¡¯t have any family members in this world, i definitely think you would be interested in benefits such as library access throughout the city and special training, right?¡±


    ¡°i really don¡¯t want to join the military,¡± said alice flatly. ¡°it¡¯s not an option, or at least not one i¡¯m willing to consider unless i have no other choice. i would have to spend around a decade in the military if i joined, right? in that case, i would probably have a very hard time focusing on magic research. i want to use a magic academy as a way of furthering my understanding of magic and progressing my studies and my research projects. if it comes at the cost of losing a decade of doing experiments, the value of a magic academy as a whole becomes questionable.¡± illa seemed taken aback for a moment, before she nodded.


    ¡°i suppose you also wouldn¡¯t feel any particular patriotism towards the country either, since you¡¯re from another world. hmm... all right. if you aren¡¯t interested in joining the military, things become much harder. let¡¯s see...¡± illa began tapping her finger against her cheek as she sank into contemplation.


    ¡°there are a few jobs that would probably be available to you while you are in the north and getting an education,¡± said illa, finally. ¡°first and foremost, you could be a research assistant ¨C that would probably suit your tastes fairly well, at least. but it might be difficult to amass the funding you would need just from that. after all, research is usually funded by either a wealthy merchant or merchant group, unless it is directly useful to the military. in that case, it is funded by either the crown or the nobility ¨C after all, nobody in power wants merchants to gain access to mages screwing with military technology. that would just be begging for trouble to happen someday in the future. strangely enough, nobody in power seems very keen on the idea. i can¡¯t imagine why,¡± said illa drily.??v€l?1n.


    ¡°since the funding for magic research tends to be mixed, the amount of money you could make as a research assistant would also vary quite a bit depending on what project you attached yourself to. and, obviously, how much the people in charge of that project valued you. that being said, for the kind of funding you need, it probably wouldn¡¯t be possible to support yourself with just work as a research assistant. unless you volunteered yourself to be a test subject in some sort of experiment related to your status as an [outworlder.] obviously, that would be a terrible idea. hmm...¡± after a minute, illa shook her head. ¡°i can¡¯t see it working out for you on its own. maybe if you work multiple jobs you could scrape together the funding? however, it seems like it would be very difficult to make work. it might still give you access to magic research you wouldn¡¯t otherwise see, and it will probably get you some amount of money if you can find a position, but i don¡¯t advise using it as a primary method of funding. perhaps as a way to grab some levels in research classes it wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea, though.¡±


    alice thought about it, before she nodded. even if it wouldn¡¯t generate large amounts of income, being a research assistant fit her interests. in the future, she would at least consider it as an option if she had enough free time.


    ¡°if you manage to get your enchanting up to par in a reasonable time frame, you could sell enchantments to get money. i recall that [outworlder] grants a boost to learning attributes and levels. even if it doesn¡¯t boost you in learning [skills], it would still be a fairly big bonus to your learning speed.


    illa grinned. ¡°now you¡¯re asking the right questions. i would say that¡¯s pretty darn rare, now that you mention it. achievement rarity is determined by 2 things ¨C the difficulty in acquiring something, and the number of people within the population that actually have the achievement in question. even though that can create some oddly high or oddly low rarity achievements sometimes, having two achievements at ¡®high¡¯ rarity should still be sufficient proof that it wasn¡¯t a fluke. just don¡¯t tell anyone what the achievements actually are. most people will be respectful about privacy for that sort of thing, especially if you mention they are somewhat related to combat.


    ¡°and most people can still pick up at least a lesser achievement for participating or helping to discover something, even if the reward is usually much lower. if a noble or merchant had a child that was a bit low on achievements, they might be very willing to sponsor you in exchange for a slice of the potential achievements you might pick up in the future. you would need to include another person in your experiments, and that person may not be particularly interested in what you¡¯re actually doing, but,¡± illa shrugged. ¡°even if they need to participate in the experiment without knowing or caring much about it, it is a way to pick up some funding, as long as you can produce results. plenty of nobles and merchants are willing to ¡®buy¡¯ a few decent achievements for their children this way. it¡¯s definitely worth a thought if you can find the right people.¡±


    alice nodded as she mulled over illa¡¯s words. from what it sounded like, patronage would be the most preferable method of paying for her education. however, this path also presented several problems for her that she would need to deal with. she would need to learn how to present herself in a way that would make potential patrons want to invest in her education and future, and she would also need to find a way to actually get in touch with the people who were looking for young mages to sponsor. as of right now, she didn¡¯t know anyone outside of cyra, so getting in contact with people who were influential enough to make things happen would be difficult.


    alice suddenly thought of something, and turned back towards illa.


    ¡°didn¡¯t you say that your husband is a successful merchant in the northern cities?¡±


    illa actually chuckled. ¡°i did indeed. he is leader of a very successful merchant group that specializes in trading enchanting materials. though they have been branching out into other things as well, especially in the past few years. to answer your follow-up question, i don¡¯t mind sending a letter to tell him to watch out for you. however, your ability to impress him into either finding you a sponsor or sponsoring you himself is entirely on you. i don¡¯t mind providing you the opportunity to grow, but you will be the one responsible for determining the outcome. think of the letter as a final bonus for how everything turned out in regarding your job in cyra, all right? of course, i will also publicize the matter in cyra as a way to boost my prestige. being known for being generous is never a bad idea when you¡¯re trying to recruit manpower, after all.¡±


    alice thanked illa. the woman may have placed alice in a dangerous position in cyra, but she at least seemed willing to provide bonuses equal to that risk. even if it wasn¡¯t a huge benefit from illa¡¯s perspective, since she was only providing a letter, it meant a lot to alice right now.


    as for illa using this as a new form of ¡®promotional material,¡¯ alice didn¡¯t really care. she did find it amusing that illa had claimed on more than one occasion that she hated politics, yet seemed so good at ¡®promoting¡¯ the image of herself that she wanted other people to be familiar with. however, illa was also very open about when and how she was doing so, perhaps as a remnant from her time as a soldier. the woman was, in many ways, a unique person who both hated politics and seemed rather adept at managing them. however, alice was glad that she had come to cyra instead of one of the other towns. meeting illa and spending time as her student had been both fascinating and helpful, and alice certainly didn¡¯t regret the time she had spent here.


    after alice thanked illa, the two made small talk for a while longer. eventually, alice left, deciding that she would head to cecilia¡¯s workshop to grind out a bit more work on enchanting before she started working on the docks and learning under illa again tomorrow. as she walked, she continued to think about the future, and what she needed to do in the last month and a half she would be staying in cyra.


    illa was providing alice an opportunity, but alice still needed to be able to take advantage of it. for that, gathering levels, furthering her research, and learning enchanting were all things she needed to focus on. in short, what she needed to focus on was learning everything she could in the time she had left. alice was already starting to hit the limit of the amount of information she could collect from books while she was left in cyra, so there wasn¡¯t much she could do about that. she would get the [bookworm] achievement soon as long as she finished reading through illa¡¯s library, which was the main achievement she thought would be both useful and (relatively) easy to acquire while she was in cyra. moving out of the town would provide her with some opportunities to pick up a few of the other achievements she thought might be nice, but had never gotten around to grabbing. the only other thing she needed on was setting up and performing her manaless box experiments, if she could get them set up in time.


    there was only a month and a half left before she left, and she needed to make use of every moment she could.

 Chapter 49

    chapter 49


    the next two weeks settled into a comfortable routine. alice had discovered that milo also worked at the docks, which made alice feel much more at ease in her new job. milo was more than happy to show her the ropes, which made her integrate smoothly into the crowd of workers there. a lot of the work alice needed to do wasn¡¯t particularly complicated. it mostly involved lifting heavy objects, such as planks, walls, and so on, and then holding them steady. afterwards, workers would come and help do the more ¡®detail-oriented¡¯ parts of the work, such as nailing in objects and putting everything together. other than that, alice would sometimes move large amounts of materials from one place to another, especially if they were awkwardly shaped and difficult to carry with human hands. in all, the work was more than slightly dull, but it was more useful for her magic training than she had thought it would be. as a result of the work at the docks, along with illa¡¯s training, student of kinetic magic had gained a few levels, going from 19 to 23. at level 20, alice had selected a perk called {split mind}. this perfectly addressed one of the bigger problems alice had felt that she had, which was the inability to multitask effectively.


    split mind


    requirements: student of kinetic magic level 20 or higher, magic 100 or higher, intelligence 150 or higher


    you gain the ability to focus on two things at once, creating the ability to genuinely multitask


    the feeling of being able to think of two things at the same time was... trippy. alice had a headache for almost a solid hour after unlocking the perk as she tried to figure out what in the world was going on. the way her brain worked once she was processing two sets of information at once instead of one was... different. very different. instead of processing information from her surroundings once, it felt as if she was receiving the same set of information twice, with one set of information being ever so slightly delayed.


    naturally, the next thing she had done was try to walk around, only to trip over her own feet and lay on the floor of the inn. after that, she decided she wouldn¡¯t move until the room stopped spinning. luckily, after an hour, her headache had started to go away, and alice had started to figure out how to process multiple streams of information. even though it was originally migraine-inducing, alice had quickly began to figure out how useful it was to be able to do two things at once after she started to get the hang of it.


    she could control two mana tendrils at once instead of one.


    she could observe the formation of a magic seed while also forming a magic seed.


    she could keep an eye on her surroundings, remaining alert for danger, while also thinking about magic or research.


    she could even read a book while simultaneously doing her work at the docks. it had taken some convincing on her part for illa to let her take a book out of illa¡¯s mansion, but once alice had done so, the increase in efficiency was simply remarkable. it was just a shame that alice only had two eyes, and so even if she got more perks allowing her to multitask, she would still have a hard time using it as effectively as she was using two streams of information at once. still, there were probably perks that could fix that problem. even so, alice was pretty sure this was the best perk she had ever gained. the fact that it was available at level 20 was even more absurd. she wouldn¡¯t have been surprised if a perk as useful as this one wasn¡¯t available until she reached the upper 40¡¯s.


    alice was also becoming increasingly aware of the fact that she would get her [student of kinetic magic] class to its maximum level soon. all student classes maxed out at 25, and she had been curious to see what a class evolution looked like for a while. with a month remaining before she left, and only two levels to go, alice was sure she would get to see it before she left.


    with the two weeks and her newly boosted efficiency, she finished raiding illa¡¯s book collection. along the way, she finally picked up {bookworm} when she was almost out of books.


    you have gained an achievement!


    bookworm (rarity: 3)


    you have read at least 50 books from cover to cover in less than a year.


    +10% class experience for all classes related to research. +5% effect of the intelligence stat. significantly improved reading speed.


    alice had originally thought that the magic had actually disappeared. she had even spent a few hours trying to figure out how and why that might happen while she was messing with the seed. however, once she had broken the magic seed, she had discovered that things might be a bit different than her expectations. the moment she used her new perk to shatter the magic seed, several bits of yellow-grey mana had been dragged out of the mage core behind her heart. they had then stuck around inside of her body for a few moments, before they were dragged out of her body by a force she could neither see nor interact with. a few moments later, the only evidence that alice had ever had the magic seed to begin with were a few clumps of broken mana, hanging around in her surroundings.


    the broken mana told her a few things. most importantly, the mana hadn¡¯t just disappeared into thin air. it was obviously still somewhere, in some form, after she had formed her mana seed. however, once the mana seed was formed, she couldn¡¯t see a thing. it was impossible to observe, impossible to interact with, and impossible to even confirm the existence of. however, it was still inside of her mage core.


    or at least, that was alice¡¯s current theory. she would need to think about a better way to observe whatever was going on in there.


    the light experiment had provided her with 2 levels in [explorer of magic] and a level in [scientist] just for observing the weirdness of the seemingly unobservable magic seed. frustratingly enough, [explorer of magic] was now level 39, and [scientist] was now level 19. exactly one level away from gaining a perk in each class.


    however, the biggest gain alice had from her two weeks of her new lifestyle wasn¡¯t just levels and achievements. instead, alice had finally managed to create the necessary supplies for a manaless room.


    it had been surprisingly simple once alice learned that enchanting materials did not have to be solid matter. cyra may have been a relatively newly established town, but one of the major reasons illa and her husband had built a town in the area was the easy access to enchanting materials from the south. in the wilds, plenty of weird materials existed, and adventurers had perks to figure out which ones interacted with mana, even though they weren¡¯t mages. it was an obvious safety need, since [adventurers] were almost universally afraid of mana poisoning, and also gave them the ability to find new and odd materials to sell for a living.


    about a week after alice¡¯s new lifestyle had started, cecilia had told alice that an adventurer sold her some plant sap that worked well with pure mana. it could only remember one instruction, so it was surprisingly affordable, and cecilia had simply bought about a bucket of it.


    from there, cecilia and alice spent a day messing with the sap, trying to figure out if there was a way to spread the sap around a bit more. as long as it was first boiled, then mixed with water, it could form a sort of ¡®paint¡¯ that was still able to remember enchanting instructions, as long as the sap wasn¡¯t thinned out too much.


    from there, alice had finally had the basis to start her manaless room experiment. cecilia had lent alice one of the rooms in her workshop which was insulated, which her father had used to contain explosions or risky experiments. alice had enchanted the sap-paint with exactly one instruction ¨C do not allow mana to pass through it. then, she had painted the inside of the room, used her pure mana seed to clear out all of the mana inside of the room, and then cecilia had cleaned up all of the broken mana alice had made in the process. alice still hadn¡¯t learned to purify broken mana, although illa had mentioned she would teach alice before she left. however, for now, alice finally had what she was longing for.


    a room with no mana inside of it, which repelled mana from outside the room.


    ¡°it¡¯s finished?¡± asked cecilia, giving the room one more look.


    ¡°it is! we can finally do the manaless room experiments i wanted to try.¡± said alice, grinning. ¡°i¡¯ve been wondering for a while what happens if a mage doesn¡¯t have access to mana from the air. can we still cast spells? do things still work?¡±


    cecilia frowned a bit, as she looked at alice. ¡°you¡¯re free to do things that are a bit risky as long as you are only experimenting with yourself. just... be careful. after you go into the room, let me know immediately what you¡¯re feeling. i¡¯m not going to let you just die in the room. i know we¡¯re trying to be more open-minded about how mana interacts with stuff, but even so...¡±


    ¡°i¡¯ll be careful. i wouldn¡¯t do the experiment if i thought it would actually hurt me. well, i don¡¯t know for sure, but... i need to know,¡± alice said. ¡°at home, there was no such thing as mana. does touching mana once really mean that i can¡¯t survive without it any more? i just... i want to know if it¡¯s true. the only reports i could find on the subject just said that people separated from mana started feeling weak and dizzy, before being separated from the environment on ethical grounds. and monsters do die without mana, but they also eat nothing but mana. they¡¯re a different species to begin with. i know that i¡¯ve changed a lot since i came to this world, but... i need to know.¡± i need to know how much i¡¯ve changed. and whether going to back to earth is just mostly impossible, or a pipe dream. even though alice had mostly given up on going home, she still had a sliver of hope. deep inside of her heart. even if she knew that people needed special permits to even form a dimensional seed without becoming a fugitive, and that it was dangerous, she didn¡¯t want to give up hope completely. but if going home would cause her die of suffocation, there was obviously no hope of ever leaving.


    ¡°all right. the room is set up, and i¡¯ll be sitting right outside of the door. call out to me so that i can record everything, and we¡¯ll start the experiments. just... stay safe. if you feel any danger at all, let me know so i can immediately open the door and let in some mana,¡± said cecilia.


    alice nodded.


    it was time to finish figuring out how mana had changed her. and see how mana and the system really worked.

 Chapter 50

    chapter 50


    alice entered the manaless room. cecilia closed the door. for the first time since alice had arrived in this world, she was completely out of contact with mana. she had suspected for a long time that being cut off from mana wasn¡¯t lethal for humans, but now that the time had finally come to test it, she couldn¡¯t help but feel nervous. she took a deep breath, then released it.


    so what if she was wrong? if she ended up being incorrect, cecilia would open the door to the room and get some mana inside. alice would learn a valuable fact about how mana interacted with the human body. exploring the nature of mana and reality required sometimes taking bold stances. and sometimes, she would just be wrong. she needed to accept that and run the test anyway ¨C otherwise, she would never know. what was important was to gain information from running the experiment.


    she took another deep breath, trying to feel out the changes in her body. was she actually dying? was she suffocating in some sort of slow, unnoticeable way? she didn¡¯t feel very different yet. however, it might just be hard to notice the changes at first.


    the only sound was cecilia slowly counting out her heartbeat to use as a method of keeping time. while horribly imprecise, neither of the two had access to a perk that would allow for perfect timekeeping, and clocks in this world were expensive and rare. it was nowhere near perfect, but it was something.


    60 of cecilia¡¯s heartbeats passed.


    ¡°i am starting to feel a bit of what the other anecdotes and cases mentioned. even though it isn¡¯t necessarily indicative of me dying, i feel a bit weaker,¡± said alice. ¡°it¡¯s not by much, but i definitely feel something.¡±


    ¡°are you feeling all right otherwise? any illnesses or strange problems?¡±


    ¡°not yet.¡±


    ¡°what else is changing about your condition? you mentioned weakness ¨C can you get me some data on that? is it just a feeling, or are you actually weaker?¡±


    alice picked up one of the ¡®weights¡¯ she and cecilia had prepared beforehand. it was actually just a sack filled with sturdy tools, none of which were likely to break even if alice dropped them. this particular sack was the heaviest one alice had managed to pick up before the experiment started.


    of course, in the process of figuring out alice¡¯s maximum weightlifting abilities, alice had gained a point of [strength], meaning she and cecilia had needed to completely redo all of their calculations afterwards. luckily, alice hadn¡¯t gained another point of [strength] after that.


    gathering research data when attributes could change in seconds was nightmare inducing. something alice had never thought about before she had actually tried to do it.


    alice shook away her thoughts and prayed that she wouldn¡¯t gain a point in any of her attributes during the test inside of the room. who knew how that would mess things up?


    then, with a heave, alice magnificently failed to lift up the sack. she was almost able to lift it, but it was just a bit too heavy for her. after a few more seconds of trying, she quickly realized it was pointless. she stopped messing with the heaviest weight.


    ¡°strength is certainly dropping. i can¡¯t lift up the heavy sack anymore.¡± alice then picked up the next heaviest weight, which the two had approximated should be around ninety percent of the heaviest sack¡¯s weight. cecilia¡¯s high perception skill let the two make at least vaguely approximate guesses, but without either perks or equipment to get real numbers, vague approximation would be the best the two were able to do. still, it would serve for now.


    ¡°i can still lift the second heaviest sack, although it¡¯s difficult. how are we doing on time?¡±


    ¡°300 heartbeats, so we should be at around five minutes. give or take a few seconds on either side. any dangerous symptoms yet?¡±


    alice closed her eyes, trying to focus on the sensations and feedback her body were giving her as she moved around.


    ¡°i am starting to feel very slightly dizzy. it¡¯s a bit hard to evaluate what that means in numerical terms. however, i can definitely feel that it¡¯s getting just a bit harder to keep my balance. i am also feeling... slower? less precise in my movements?¡± alice shook her head. ¡°i can¡¯t quite put it into words. however, it¡¯s not just my physical strength ¨C it¡¯s not even just that i am starting to feel a bit weaker. it is like something is missing that has always been there. i feel... clumsy. slow. i think if i tried to balance on something, i would probably fall.¡±


    ¡°slow and clumsy?¡± cecilia sounded surprised.


    ¡°yeah.¡± alice tried walking from one end of the room to the other. not only was each step less sure than it usually was, she felt that her limbs just weren¡¯t obeying her the way they usually did. it didn¡¯t feel entirely foreign to her, though. in fact, the entire sensation felt oddly familiar...


    ¡°it feels like i¡¯m losing stats in dexterity,¡± said alice, absently popping open her status to make sure she wasn¡¯t actually losing attribute points. there were no changes in her actual stats ¨C in fact, her status screen looked exactly the same as it had before she had entered the room.


    breathed a sigh of relief.


    ¡°alice... you say that you feel like you¡¯re losing points in dexterity, right? and that your maximum strength has decreased a bit?¡±


    ¡°yeah, i definitely feel that way. it¡¯s as if...¡± alice sucked in a deep breath. ¡°say, what do we know about attributes and skills?¡±


    ¡°according to our best guess, they need mana to form,¡± said cecilia, sounding like she was also realizing where alice was going with this. ¡°though, thus far, we have only actually proven the two are related to each other, and have yet to prove any sort of causation. are you thinking what i think you¡¯re thinking?¡±


    ¡°that this might be a way to actively prove that mana is what causes increases in stats, rather than the other way around? and that maybe those stats stop working without mana?¡± asked alice.


    ¡°so you are going the same direction i was thinking you were going,¡± said cecilia, her speech slowing down. ¡°tell me, do you notice any mental effects? you mentioned changes to your physical abilities, but no changes to your mental capabilities. those are also stats, after all.¡±


    ¡°all right. let¡¯s wait another fifteen minutes, then we can also try seeing what happens if you hit the requirements for a skill. you mentioned you wanted to see what happened if you tried to form one inside of a manaless room, right?¡±


    alice nodded, then realized that cecilia was only able to see her through a small peephole in the door. she spoke out loud, to make sure it was easy for the other girl to know she agreed. ¡°yeah. let¡¯s go for it.¡±


    the two spent another fifteen minutes or so with alice sitting inside of the room. every five minutes, cecilia would have alice go through a list of physical tests and ask what had changed, but by the thirty minute mark, alice had stopped noticing anything different. she retained 85% of her physical abilities, as far as the two could tell, and her ability to use perks remained ¡®difficult but still possible.¡¯


    ¡°all right, i think we can assume mana deprivation isn¡¯t fatal ¨C at least, it isn¡¯t fatal to you. we haven¡¯t tried with someone from luliv yet, so even if earthlings can survive without mana, people from here might still struggle. anyway, how about we try forming {advanced mathematics}? you said you should already have a few levels in the skill already, even if it didn¡¯t show up yet, right?¡±


    ¡°to the best of my knowledge, at least.¡±


    ¡°in that case, how many degrees are there in a triangle? make sure to write down the question, and then say the answer ¨C if you aren¡¯t looking at a written version of the question, the skill won¡¯t be awarded. even though this question is a bit on the simple side, it¡¯s one of the most common ones to start getting into the skill. that means it¡¯s well documented, which is valuable. also, easier questions about triangles help to work on the skill, which is important because some of the later stuff is very hard to do the calculations for. having a higher level in {advanced mathematics} is critical to gaining more skill levels in {advanced mathematics}, amusingly enough.¡±


    alice grabbed a piece of charcoal and a piece of scrab wood, and quickly wrote down the formula for the question. then, she simply scribbled the correct answer on the wooden slat, and said it out loud as well.


    ¡°all triangles have 180 degrees,¡± she said.


    she checked her status screen. she looked at the room around her, preparing to bat away any mana if it somehow made its way into the room.


    instead, nothing at all happened.


    no skill increases. no attributes. no levels.


    it looked exactly the way it would have on earth, really. she wrote down a question and then answered it. there was no reason to expect anything to happen afterwards.


    ¡°i didn¡¯t get a {skill},¡± said alice, after waiting a few minutes.


    ¡°huh.¡± cecilia sounded like she was scribbling something down. ¡°there¡¯s really nothing?¡±


    ¡°no change at all. no new skill, no new levels, nothing. in fact, i haven¡¯t seen a single change to my status screen since the moment i entered this room,¡± said alice, sinking into her thoughts.


    ¡°is that really true? that¡¯s... that¡¯s really....¡± cecilia cut herself off mid-sentence, as if she didn¡¯t know how to continue what she was saying. ¡°don¡¯t talk about this with father friedheim. in fact, don¡¯t mention it in public. i won¡¯t either. let¡¯s just... think about this.¡±


    alice nodded.


    ¡°all right, so we¡¯ve established that you can¡¯t form skills inside of the manaless room. we haven¡¯t tried it with anyone else yet, but we at least know that it seems impossible for now. do you want to come out now?¡±


    alice thought about it for a few moments, before she nodded. ¡°i haven¡¯t seen anything change at all in the last half hour. while there might be some shocking discovery in the next half hour, i am starting to doubt it. at the very least, we know it¡¯s unlikely to be potentially fatal to carry out this experiment, at least for me. we can try replicating it one more time with me as the test subject, and then if you¡¯re willing to, you can try it as well.¡±


    ¡°all right,¡± said cecilia. a note of delight entered her voice a moment later. ¡°ah, i got an upgrade to [on the shoulders of giants]! i also got a few levels in [scholar]. i also picked up [scientist]. it¡¯s a shame [scholar] is a secondary class, and i don¡¯t intend to focus on science. still, not bad for a few weeks of work. especially the achievement boost. how about you?¡±


    ¡°nothing,¡± said alice, sighing slightly. she hadn¡¯t gained a single attribute, level, or skill. the moment she had failed to form the {advanced mathematics} skill she had realized she might not get anything out of this experiment in her status screen, but she had still hoped that she would gain some levels.


    she gritted her teeth, and decided to ignore it. she wasn¡¯t doing experiments just for the sake of gaining levels and attributes ¨C she genuinely wanted to know more, see more, understand more. even if she didn¡¯t get a single level out of this, she would still do it.


    of course, it would still be more than a little disappointing.


    ¡°nothing? that... does verify the idea that mana needs to be in the area for skills, attributes, etc. to work. still. i¡¯m sorry,¡± said cecilia.


    alice sighed, then walked over to the door and opened it.


    the first thing she saw was her friend, standing directly outside of the door and standing on her toes, looking inside the room.


    the second thing she saw was mana.


    a whole lot of mana. the moment alice touched a wisp of mana from the surroundings outside of the manaless room, all of the mana in the hallway seemed to perk up. then, it started surging towards her, like a tidal wave.

 Chapter 51

    chapter 51


    alice watched as mana poured into her body. it was far more than she had ever seen before. it wasn¡¯t just a trickle, or even a stream.


    instead, this time, it was as if a veritable tsunami of mana was surging towards her. system notifications started popping up left and right.


    and alice, filled with curiosity, tried something else. it wasn¡¯t something she had directly prepared to try, and it wasn¡¯t something she had the time to design a sophisticated or precise experiment around. it was merely a growing hunch, an idea that she wanted to inspect. however, if she didn¡¯t act now, it would grow harder and harder to test in the future. she needed to test it now, while she was in the middle of gaining a bunch of levels and skills.


    alice immediately turned around, hopping back into the manaless room. she slammed the door shut, before using her pure mana seed to drive away the remaining wisps of mana from her surroundings. she was acting on a half-baked suspicion. she hadn¡¯t really made a perfect hypothesis for this idea yet. however, she still had a growing suspicion, after what she had seen in the previous experiment.


    she had a guess.


    that the system did not work without mana.


    the moment alice stepped back into the manaless room, the system notifications stopped.


    from gaining levels, skills, and attributes every second, suddenly, alice¡¯s status screen just froze. it was like someone had hit a giant pause button on her status screen. all of the numbers, notifications, and levels just stopped changing.


    alice opened the door again, letting mana stream towards her.


    for a moment, the mana did absolutely nothing. however, the moment alice¡¯s skin made contact with a wisp of mana, the surroundings began to change again. mana began to ripple and surge. within ten seconds, the veritable tsunami of mana was back.


    meanwhile, cecilia watched alice with an increasingly dumbfounded expression.


    what the heck is she doing?


    right now, all cecilia could see was alice opening and closing the door to the manaless room over and over again. mana would drift around in weird, unnatural patterns every time. it looked like an incredibly drunk fish ¨C it would start ¡®swimming,¡¯ before it flopped around unnaturally and became still. over and over again.


    alice opened the door. she ran out, stared at thin air for several seconds, and then ran back in. she closed the door, and waited for several seconds.


    she repeated this four times.


    finally, alice opened the door and walked back out of the room. she turned to cecilia, and started cackling madly. her face wouldn¡¯t have looked out of place if she was the villain in a play.


    did something go wrong with her head during the experiment? cecilia couldn¡¯t help but wonder as she stared at her surroundings.


    finally, alice stopped cackling. she turned to cecilia with a massive grin on her face, and her expression was filled with expectation.


    cecilia shivered. her friend¡¯s expression was strange. however, after seeing the mana start and stop moving over and over again, and thinking about the advanced mathematics skill, cecilia finally got it.


    she realized what alice had been testing. cecilia opened her mouth, then closed it. if she distracted alice right now, both of them might lose information during one of the best periods of time to test alice¡¯s assumption.


    alice opened her status screen.


    that was because she had already finished her rough experiment.


    if there was no mana in her surroundings, she couldn¡¯t gain levels or attributes. if she was supposed to gain levels, attributes, or skills in a room with no mana, she wouldn¡¯t get a single system notification. her status would remain ¡®paused.¡¯


    in fact, it felt exactly the same way she would do something on earth. almost as if the system didn¡¯t exist at all. the only evidence that the system had ever existed in the first place was the fact that, even in a room without mana, alice could still open her status screen. she could also feel her perks still working, even with no mana in her surroundings. they started to limp along, like a computer without enough ram, but they still kinda worked.


    however, it was an undeniable fact that when there was no mana in one¡¯s surroundings, the system seemed to stop functioning at 100%. stats, perks, and the ability to gain levels and stats all just froze when one no longer had mana in their surroundings.


    even more interesting, if she re-entered a field of dense mana afterwards, all of the system stuff she should have gotten would start ticking up again, as mana was pulled towards her. and if she shut off the flow of mana again after that, she would immediately stop gaining levels, attributes, etc. it was like a water faucet that could be turned on and off at will.


    author¡¯s note: status changes are tracked from chapter 34. i underlined or bolded things when i thought it was appropriate, to make ¡®changes¡¯ easier to spot, and i also broke the skills section into some sub-categories because i was thinking that it was starting to get a bit hard to easily look over.


    name: alice verianna


    age: 15 -> 16


    strength: 101 -> 103 (113%)


    perception: 114 -> 119 (146%)


    dexterity: 100 -> 102 (115%)


    intelligence: 158 -> 160 (123%)


    endurance: 105 -> 109 (111%)


    willpower: 133 -> 138 (108%)


    charisma: 125 -> 126 (107%)


    magic: 112 -> 123 (107%)


    primary classes: 6/6


    survivor: 37 -> 40


    explorer of magic: 31 -> 41


    scholar: 19 -> 24


    scientist: 14 -> 22


    (student) of kinetic magic: 13 -> 19


    (apprentice) enchanter: 0 -> 9


    secondary classes: 1


    fisherwoman: 3


    perks:


    foraging (survivor 5)


    microbe resistance (survivor 10)


    extremophile (survivor 15)


    camouflaged (survivor 20)


    sixth sense (survivor 25)


    enhanced training (survivor 30)


    sense hostility (survivor 35)


    magic proficiency (explorer of magic 5)


    enhanced regeneration (explorer of magic 10)


    combat spellcaster (explorer of magic 15)


    bookworm (rarity 3)


    the experiment had given her several levels, especially in [scientist], [explorer of magic], and [scholar]. each of them had picked up at least one perk, and scientist had even gotten past two perk levels.


    she had expected all of those. {seeker of truth} had also increased in tier, even though it was still a rarity 8 achievement. it had been hard for her to figure out how many experiments she would need to boost the achievement further, and so it was a welcome, if not wholly unexpected, result.


    however, why the hell had she gotten a level in [survivor]? that... didn¡¯t make any sense. she had been looking over her status screen for a while, thinking that she might have to give up on her original intention of getting [survivor] up to level 40 and getting her fast-healing perk, since it was becoming harder and harder to level the class. however, her [survivor] class had finally ticked up one more level as a result of this experiment.


    and frankly, that was just bizarre. she tried to think more about the subject, but no matter how she turned it over in her thoughts, she couldn¡¯t figure out where the level in [survivor] had come from.


    was there a greater element of risk in the experiment than alice had assumed? she had thought it should be relatively safe, and even if it wasn¡¯t, cecilia was watching over the experiment, and it wouldn¡¯t take more than ten minutes for an [organic mage] to get over here and help her if she was in real danger. therefore, alice shouldn¡¯t have really been in too much danger at all. as far as she had observed, [survivor] mostly gained levels when she survived dangerous situations.


    on the other hand, this experiment also seemed to show that there were definitely bugs in the system. ways that it worked, or failed to work, where it obviously should. thus, the level in survivor might also be one of those. in fact, it could even be a big hint about where one of the other errors in the system were.


    alice shook her head. for now, at least, she had no ideas. she quickly grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled down the strange occurrence. she would keep it in mind, and think about it later. for now, she had other things to look at.


    seeker of truth (ii) (rarity: 8)


    you have gained a multiple glimpses into the mechanics of the system and at least partially understood it. your ability to observe mana is no longer subject to interference, and you may now see clearly.


    +1 primary class slot(s), +35% -> 50% class experience for all research-related classes, +10% effect of intelligence, +15% effect of perception. your ability to see mana is significantly enhanced. you will no longer experience any interference at all when attempting to observe phenomena involving mana, and will be able to see perfectly clearly.


    interference?


    alice tried to think about what interference could mean.


    truthfully, she had always found it odd.


    why was it that no one had discovered the link between mana and attributes? it felt like someone should have noticed it by now. sure, people might have attributed it to some sort of idea like ¡®if you exercise, your body will inhale more mana, just like you need to gasp for breath after a hard workout¡¯ or something like that. however, for that kind of idea to exist for thousands of years? in a world where the church was unlikely to actively suppress this kind of research, and centers of academic research were established all across the world?


    alice had wondered what was going on.


    now that she thought about it, she remembered cecilia saying that it was hard to see what alice was talking about, when she was trying to explain the link between mana and attributes. after cecilia had picked up {on the shoulders of giants}, however, cecilia hadn¡¯t mentioned any sort of similar problem. illa, too, had mentioned picking up a perk that allowed some sort of ¡®improved sight.¡¯


    was there some sort of actual interference that happened when people tried to look at the relationship between the system and mana?


    if so, how did it work?


    and why?


    was it some sort of natural phenomenon? some sort of ¡®natural result¡¯ of the way the system worked? was it intentionally designed? alice had no idea at all.


    she shook her head. for now, at least, she had no good ideas for investigating the matter. she intended to figure out what ¡®normal¡¯ mages saw during her experiments as soon as possible, and she could probably ask milo to help her out on that front. however, assuming that people without achievements improving their sigh didn¡¯t see anything in particular when people gained stats and levels, it would at least explain why the link between mana and attributes wasn¡¯t common knowledge. she would ask him to help out whenever he next had free time.


    ¡°i was right. the system can¡¯t work without mana!¡±


    cecilia nodded, still giving alice a slightly odd expression.


    ¡°that¡¯s fine, and it¡¯s actually really interesting. may i ask why you decided to run in and out of the room four times in less than a minute before cackling like a maniac though?¡±


    alice twitched. ¡°erm... for the sake of greater scientific experimentation! look, it did look slightly silly, but it was important, all right?¡±


    ¡°s... sure.¡±


    cecilia looked away from alice, as if she couldn¡¯t bear to watch any longer. a moment later, cecilia looked back at alice. her expression quickly warped back into a more focused expression.


    ¡°come to think of it, you said the skill for {advanced mathematics} also didn¡¯t form while you were inside of the room, even when you solved the basic question for starting trigonometry, right?¡±


    ¡°yeah. it formed once i left the room, but i didn¡¯t get all the levels in the skill at once. it stopped getting levels whenever i ran back into the room and cut off any contact with mana.¡±


    ¡°then what happens if you try to grab a perk while inside of the manaless room?¡±


    ¡°... huh. that¡¯s a really interesting question.¡± before cecilia could say anything else, alice ran back inside of the room.


    ¡°nothing. i opened the perk selection screen, and then ran inside of the room. the moment i stopped touching mana, the entire screen just closed itself. i can¡¯t open it back up, either.¡± alice opened the door again.


    ¡°i think you have entered that room at least ten times today,¡± said cecilia, absently. then, she tapped her chin, as if she were trying to stroke a beard that wasn¡¯t there. instead of looking as if she was deep in thought, she started to give off a comedic vibe, but alice said nothing.


    ¡°you know, if the system really doesn¡¯t work without mana, that could also be why people think it¡¯s lethal to not have mana.¡±


    ¡°what do you mean?¡±


    ¡°it¡¯s easier to think of if you¡¯re a native to this world, probably. however, the system is... everything. it¡¯s almost literally what shapes us, from the moment we unlock our status screen to the moment we die. one of my perks failing to work properly was a big shock to me, because for most of my life, ¡®trust in the system¡¯ was an undisputed fact. it wasn¡¯t even something i would have thought of. it¡¯s like... it¡¯s like thinking about breathing, right? nobody thinks about breathing in a normal situation, because they don¡¯t have to. their body just does it. just like they don¡¯t usually think about air.


    ¡°and now, in this experiment, it seems like the system itself doesn¡¯t work without mana. you experienced about a 15% reduction in your physical strength while inside of that room, right? but at the same time, you aren¡¯t a good example of the average person in this world. what if the effects are worse on someone who has grown up with the system for a longer period of time? what if the stat loss is greater? heck, what if losing access to the system is, in and of itself, lethal to people who have been connected to it for a long enough period of time?¡±


    alice fell silent, thinking over the question.


    was her research impossible? or was it unethical to keep moving forward?


    alice didn¡¯t want to seriously endanger someone¡¯s life just to prove a hypothesis.


    but at the same time, she felt like she was so close. that the answer was there, and if she pushed just a little bit farther, she would be able to know.


    suddenly, she felt like she could understand the society of starry eyes just a little bit better. why people would want to join such an organization that was willing to place lives in danger, in order to satisfy curiosity.


    she didn¡¯t like that feeling.


    the room fell into an awkward silence for a few minutes, as cecilia¡¯s face seemed to switch between worry and curiosity, over and over again. eventually, alice broke the silence.


    ¡°for now, let¡¯s keep experiments constrained to me, then. we¡¯ve confirmed that this shouldn¡¯t be lethal to me, and i¡¯m not willing to put someone else in danger. not until we know with a higher level of certainty that this isn¡¯t likely to be a dangerous experiment.¡±


    cecilia seemed to think about it. finally, she sighed.


    ¡°it will cripple our ability to collect other data. things like whether there is consistency in how many stats people lose, in whether perks are universally unpickable in a manaless room, how mana interacts with things while inside of a manaless room after being used by a mage...¡±


    alice felt a slight, bitter sting inside of her heart. but she also sighed.


    ¡°at least i can test those things. even if we can¡¯t ethically try this on another person, even after this experiment, we can still test things on me.¡±


    ¡°at least it¡¯s something,¡± said cecilia. however, there was something else in her voice. a slight hint of stubbornness. a desire to learn more without giving up. ¡°we can at least learn more. even if we can¡¯t generalize the experiments yet, we can learn more, and do more experiments. i don¡¯t want to give up. we can start here, and try to learn more. then, when we¡¯re sure that it¡¯s safe, we can try to get it past an ethics committee. if we succeed, we could try to generalize the experiments.¡±


    alice nodded. she had hoped that this experiment would let her open up doors to a completely new path.


    in a sense, she wasn¡¯t wrong. this experiment seemed to prove that mana and the system were linked together. without mana, the system didn¡¯t work. attributes would degrade. perks would stop working at full capacity. she had entirely new questions and ideas to test.


    but the fact that it would still be hard to use as a ¡®real¡¯ experiment, one that could be tested on multiple people, recognized, and published in an academic circle, was hard to swallow.


    still, that was just for now. she could use herself as an experimental subject, and she was fairly sure it was safe. even if it wasn¡¯t perfect, it would do the job.


    for now, at least, she still had plenty of things to explore with cecilia. she would remain the only test subject, and wouldn¡¯t even be able to see how things looked like if someone like milo were involved instead. still, it was something.


    even if it wasn¡¯t perfect, for now it was enough.

 Chapter 52

    chapter 52


    as alice was wrapping up her thoughts, she started to go through her classes and pick her perks. she had unlocked a total of five over the course of the experiment, which was a record high for her. she was more than a little eager to see what she had available. survivor was the easiest pick, since she had already decided roughly what she wanted a long time ago, while reading through the list of known perks in the church of the system.


    moderate tissue regeneration


    requirements: survivor level 40 or higher, endurance 100 or greater


    once per day, you may regenerate a great deal of damaged tissue and internal organ matter, healing you from even potentially fatal wounds or missing parts of limbs (hand-size or smaller). may only be used once per day.


    increases the effect of the [endurance] stat by 10%


    (note: if you lose an entire arm, this perk will help you eventually recover the lost limb, but it will take several days.)


    (note: regenerating large amounts of organic matter also requires proper nutrients. this can be paid over said days, but each time you use this perk, you will need to eat a great deal more afterwards.)


    (note ¨C it impossible to recover from destruction of the brain, regardless of method used. if your brain is damaged heavily enough, recovery is impossible.)


    alice didn¡¯t even take a serious look at the other options. while they were okay, they didn¡¯t offer as much as this one did. besides, alice had already realized, and accepted, that it would probably be very hard for her to level up [survivor] in the future. it felt like a waste of her extra class slot in some sense, but at the same time, alice didn¡¯t think it was a terrible idea to have one class ¡®wasted¡¯ in order to have an emergency plan just in case everything went horribly wrong somehow. at least until her magic was really up to par, she felt that keeping the class around was still useful.


    therefore, this perk did exactly what she was hoping the survivor class would do for her. it provided a pseudo organic seed ¨C one that she wouldn¡¯t need months or years of time and training to use, unlike her real organic seed. if things hit the fan, she would at least have some safety margin. if things went well, alice would never need to use the perk, but just in case. at some point in the future, she might drop [survivor] entirely, but this would serve until then.


    after grabbing that perk, alice started to look at the other perks. the ones she was really looking forward to.


    enhanced seeds


    requirements: explorer of magic level 40 or higher


    all magic seeds you have access to both now and in the future can gain an extra 15% mana conversion by integrating more of your understanding of the core concept of the seeds in question. exact gains are dependent upon your understanding of the magic seed in question.


    yet another seed.


    requirements: explorer of magic level 40 or higher


    allows you to form another seed of magic with a maximum mana conversion ration of 50%.


    infusion of comprehension


    requirements: explorer of magic level 40 or higher, at least one magic seed, intelligence 150 or greater, magic 100 or greater, at least one achievement related to magic at rarity 5 or higher and 1 or more achievements related to scholarly or scientific investigation at rarity 5 or higher.


    you may select one of your seeds. over the course of the next eight hours, you will gradually improve both your internal comprehension of the seed as well as the seed''s conversion ratio. the results of this perk will vary based on how quickly you understand the concepts inherent to the magic seed, but will have an absolute minimum improvement of 30% and absolute maximum improvement of 100%.


    warning: you will be helpless during this time, so it is highly recommended you activate this perk only when your safety is assured and you are in an environment where you will not be interrupted.


    alice decided to ignore {yet another seed} for now, because she didn¡¯t think she needed another seed slot just yet. she already had her hands full learning to deal with the seeds she already had. every single seed needed training and understanding to back it up. more seeds meant nothing if she couldn¡¯t use them effectively.


    however, {infusion of comprehension} was... very interesting. not necessarily because it was useful on any of her combat related abilities, the way it seemed like it was intended to be used. in fact, alice suspected that if she used it on kinetic energy or organic magic, it would mostly be a waste. this world had well-documented understanding of the human body, and if alice used this perk on the organic seed or kinetic seed, it would definitely save her some time reading and researching, which would be nice. however, it probably wouldn¡¯t fundamentally change anything besides her mana quantity.


    however, using it on her pure mana seed... that would be far more interesting. interesting in that alice had absolutely no idea what the result would be. even though this world had some understanding of mana, none of the theories about mana alice had read indicated that it could do anything along the lines of powering the system, or making it work, or whatever was happening here. which meant that those theories were probably incomplete. this perk might let her get a much better glimpse behind the curtain, and that would be very interesting.


    and interesting things might give her new ideas for new experiments. for now, all alice knew was that the system only operated when mana was present. however, that still left a wide variety of questions unexplored. alice was fairly certain that if she had a better grasp of mana, and what it actually was, she would have a better idea of what the system was and how it could exist.


    alice briefly glanced at {enhanced seeds}. that perk was actually tempting. if she was looking at it strictly from the perspective of enhancing her combat abilities, it was probably the correct choice. it would even give her enchanting abilities a slight buff, since the mana conversion ratio of a magic seed did matter when it came to enchanting. it was of lesser importance most of the time, since there were only a limited number of hours in each day and if one was only focusing on enchanting they would usually run out of ability to focus before they ran out of mana. still, {enhanced seeds} would be useful in some cases.


    however, it didn¡¯t appeal to alice as much as {infusion of comprehension}, which she picked with a huge smile. she already knew that she sucked at fighting, so she didn¡¯t want to focus heavily on that. she would learn to defend herself, but there was no point in leaning further into something she hated and was bad at, as long as she didn¡¯t neglect her safety.


    {enhanced seeds} would also be a bit useful for enchanting. still, alice was more tempted to pick perks she found interesting compared to what was optimal. {infusion of comprehension} would provide her with a wider perspective on things, and possibly, new ideas to mess with for experiments as well. experiments could be turned into levels, skills, and attributes, and so it was probably a better investment than {enhanced seeds}.


    she would use the perk later tonight, back in her inn room. she should be safe and free from disturbance there.


    increases the effect of the intelligence stat by 9%


    published works


    requirements: scholar level 20 or higher


    the effect of the intelligence stat is increased by 2% for every published academic paper or book you have written or contributed to, up to 20%. you must have genuinely published works that have some level of academic merit - works published specifically to trigger this perk will not work without genuine scholarly intent driving the work.


    rhetorical improvement


    requirements: scholar level 20 or higher, charisma 100 or higher, intelligence 100 or higher


    when you are in the midst of any form of debate, you gain the ability to articulate your ideas more clearly and effectively, and you will be able to speak clearly without stumbling over your words or thoughts.


    three disappointments to round off the perk selection.


    alice mentally shrugged. she couldn¡¯t always get lucky. if she had only been gaining a level in [scholar], she probably would have felt incredibly disappointed. but in the wake of the exceptional perks she had gotten from the [scientist] class, she didn¡¯t feel too disappointed by the mediocre results from [scholar]. she briefly scanned back through the earlier perks from level 5, 10, and 15 of [scholar], looking for anything interesting. then, finding nothing useful, alice started to debate whether it was actually time to grab {greater intelligence} as the best of the worse perks. maybe {rhetorical improvement} was worth thinking about? a 9% increase to the effect of the intelligence stat just felt... rather lacking, honestly. that was basically just the side effect of an average rarity 3 perk, and alice knew for a fact there were plenty of other, lower rarity perks she could, and would, pick up in the future.


    alice sighed, and grabbed {rhetorical improvement}. she didn¡¯t think it was particularly amazing, but enhancing her stats by a small margin also didn¡¯t seem that amazing. at the very least, being able to articulate her ideas clearly and calmly would be useful in the future. if or when she was trying to find a patron, the perk might provide a little boost. she wasn¡¯t actually sure the perk would trigger in those circumstances, but it was better than the alternatives.


    alice finally closed her perk selection screens, before turning to cecilia. cecilia, like alice, was staring into thin air with a glazed expression, staring at something alice couldn¡¯t see. finally, cecilia finished looking at her own perk selections, before she turned back to alice and grinned. however, her smile was nowhere near as huge as alice¡¯s.


    ¡°i got an amazing perk!¡± said alice, trying not to burst into laughter again.


    ¡°i got some good stuff too, besides just the achievement tier. some levels in scholar, even. i think i¡¯ll switch it to a main class ¨C it¡¯s unexpectedly easy to level these days. what did you get?¡±


    ¡°a solution to the biggest research problem we have!¡± alice said, before she explained the details of {safety analysis.}


    by the end of her explanation, cecilia was also grinning.


    ¡°that solves a lot of problems, actually. truthfully, i was starting to get a bit worried about how much we could do with these experiments, if we were limited to using you as a test subject. if we expanded the research, we would have probably been accused of being part of the society of starry eyes. even if we could have proved that we weren¡¯t with some truth-telling perks, it would have still been a very bad reputation to have.¡±


    alice simply grinned maniacally.


    she no longer had to worry about the safety of participants in her experiments, as long as she used {safety analysis} before each experiment. she could revisit her original thoughts about a few experiments.


    ¡°can i steal a bit of paper from you?¡±


    ¡°sure ¨C i already had some ready for recording the experiment. let me just...¡± cecilia pulled out a few sheets of paper, before handing them to alice along with a quill and ink bottle.


    after a few moments of thought, alice began writing. even with [enhanced memory], she found writing down her thoughts helpful.


    future experiment ideas/questions to answer:


    find out if other people lose stats after losing access to mana. if so, how much of their stats? do other people experience greater loss of stats than i do? also, how are other perks affected by lack of mana?milo probably would not mind helping me test this. ask later. cecilia also would not mind, assuming there are no safety concerns.do mages need mana in the air around them to use magic? this experiment can be run with just me in the future, though testing with cecilia and milo would also be useful. (this would finally conclude my experiments on where mages get the mana to use magic from. finally finishing up this experiment chain would be nice).actually, side note. thus far, i have only tested the effects of lack of mana on myself, and even after doing some tests with idea 1, i still wouldn¡¯t have tested how mana works with mages versus nonmages. since it¡¯s already clear that mana is somehow at work when it comes to the effects of the system on people, i should absolutely test to see how these experiments work on nonmages as well. if there is a difference, it would be extremely interesting to see, and might provide some other clues on how all of this actually works.how do mana and the system actually work with each other? how much mana does the system need to operate? can it just always work, as long as there is any amount of mana in the air, or is there a certain density of mana required? are there other conditions that need to be met for the system to work? try messing with mana. as long as the mana is not broken, {precise mana measurement} from [scientist] can be used to provide accurate numbers for this experiment.


    alice smiled as she wrote down the list, before passing the list back to cecilia. cecilia started scanning the words on the page, occasionally nodding or making a thoughtful expression. finally, she passed the piece of paper back to alice.


    ¡°it looks fine, i think. we can run the experiments on mages in a manaless room tomorrow ¨C i¡¯m ready for today¡¯s experiments to be over, at least. however, i think these are good directions to head down.¡±


    alice nodded, before she quietly stored the paper in {sample collection} as a ¡®piece of paper.¡¯ even if the perk was a bit more limited in use than she had expected, it was still useful for picking things up and keeping them safe.


    ¡°sounds good. i have something else i want to check back at my inn room tonight, anyway. i need to use a perk that will take some time to activate properly. tomorrow, i¡¯ll also ask milo if he minds being a guinea pig, as long as {safety analysis} says everything is ok. we can have a few people inside of the manaless room, in that case. it¡¯ll certainly make our data a bit more reliable if we can get three different tests instead of just one.¡±


    cecilia nodded. ¡°sounds like a plan. then i¡¯ll see you tomorrow?¡±


    alice resisted the urge to cackle as she looked at her perks and her notes. everything was finally coming together.


    ¡°i¡¯ll see you tomorrow.¡±

 Chapter 53

    chapter 53


    that night, alice returned to her inn room. it was noisier than her room at illa¡¯s mansion had been, but it had been reasonably clean and tidy. on the bright side, alice could deal with a bit of noise, and she still had meat with every meal. monsters being present everywhere seemed to make meat a surprisingly cheap commodity in this world, so long as one wasn¡¯t too picky about exactly what they were eating.


    after she said some greetings to the innkeeper, had a meal of spidercrab wrapped in lettuce with unidentified purple fruit on the side, and spent a bit of time going over her thoughts and notes for the day again, alice got ready. she let the innkeeper know that she might be ¡®sleeping in¡¯ the next day, and that she didn¡¯t want to be disturbed unless it was an emergency. then, she retreated to her room.??v€l?1n.


    it was time to use her new perk. alice gave the inn room another glance, before she locked the door. she hadn¡¯t detected anyone with [sense hostility] since the end of the expedition, when the immortal had come to cyra and started purging the area of both monsters and humans who were problematic. however, just to be safe, alice quietly spent a few spidercrab cores and a few roots an adventurer had sold to cecilia that were good at dealing with kinetic force. she quietly spent several minutes making a small enchantment to stop the door from moving, even if someone tried to open it. she took a few moments to be proud of the fact she could slap together this kind of basic enchantment in less than an hour, giving herself a mental pat on the back, before she got back to business.


    finally, alice was done setting up. {infusion of comprehension} had stated she should wait to use the perk until she wouldn¡¯t be interrupted, and this was the best she could do for now. after giving her room a final check to make sure there was nothing that might get in the way, alice laid down on her bed. then, she used {infusion of comprehension} on her pure mana seed.


    immediately, her vision started to get blurry. over the course of less than a minute, her sight of her inn room faded away into darkness. soon, the physical world vanished without a trace.


    the world became an endless series of drifting images and patterns. alice felt like she was laying down in the midst of an endless ocean of mana. it floated everywhere ¨C shifting, blurring, solidifying, and collapsing at a moment¡¯s notice. the only constant in this ocean of mana was change ¨C no particular pattern of mana remained stable for more than a few moments before it collapsed and reformed into something else again.


    finally, she managed to find something easier to understand. a fragment of an idea that she understood more clearly drifted into her vision, and she latched onto it like a drowning woman holding onto the side of a raft. the chaotic and nonsensical images began to stabilize, and the world around her transitioned from an endless sea of mana into a series of semi-stable images that she was more familiar with.


    suddenly, she could see physical force, electricity, light, sound, heat and cold forming in front of her.


    even though alice wasn¡¯t able to physically seesound and physical force under normal circumstances, she could do so here. not perfectly, and each force mostly looked like a scattered group of colorful blobs, but with the assistance of the perk she could still sort of understand what she was looking at.


    it seemed... like mana ¡®understood¡¯ reality fairly different from the way alice did. alice was familiar with the concept of atoms being the root of everything. ultimately, reality could be broken down into a set of interactions between smaller and smaller things, all the way down to the level of subatomic particles if one wished to look at that scale. this was the reality alice had learned about in school, the way she was used to looking at the way the world worked.


    mana did not seem to interact with reality on the basis of atoms and subatomic particles. instead, what alice saw in front of her was a huge series of different ideas. heat, for example, should have been the result of atoms vibrating at higher speeds. however, when alice looked at the ¡®force¡¯ of heat, instead, she felt dozens of different sensations. the warmth of a fire on a cold winter¡¯s night. the agonizing sensation of fire crawling along her body, the proteins that made up her body denaturing and breaking down. the tiny radiance and heat of a candle just flickering to life. dozens of different images of fire, of heat, of warmth, of burning, all combined together into a messy and complicated web of memories, images, and ideas.


    and not a single one was related to atoms. it was sort of like a child making a wish to a genie ¨C even though the child understood practically nothing, the genie would simply interpret the child¡¯s wish and produce results, even without understanding what was changing or why. the way mana worked, on a fundamental level, seemed to directly sidestep physics and work in a totally different way.


    was this why kinetic magic seeds couldn¡¯t influence the heat of one¡¯s surroundings, even though kinetic magic and thermal magic should theoretically be the same thing on different scales?


    after that, the ideas displayed by the hovering mana in front of alice changed. before, they had mostly focused on magic seeds ¨C especially the basic four. however, they started to shift in a very different direction now. the mana began to build itself into entirely new forms, returning to chaos and instability of before. new images, ideas, and concepts were created and destroyed within seconds, over and over again. eventually, a new stable image was produced.


    alice stared at the new image, trying her best to keep calm as she stared at herself.


    however, the ¡®alice¡¯ that she was looking at wasn¡¯t made of flesh and blood. instead, every single organ, every single cell, every single fragment of regular matter was replaced with mana.


    through the help of her perk, she sensed that the ¡®alice¡¯ she was looking at was still herself. in the same way all the cells of a human body would replace themselves as a natural result of deterioration and replacement every so often, the alice she was looking at had replaced every single cell of her body with mana.


    most odd, however, was that the mana-alice was changing. every second, alice could feel that the fake ¡®her¡¯ was shifting into... herself? over and over again, every single second, she was constantly transforming into herself. an unending cycle of change, and yet despite the constant change, somehow nothing changed at all.


    before alice could probe the image more closely, it broke apart again.


    alice looked around her room, double checking the enchantment she had slapped onto the inn door. it was almost out of mana, but otherwise looked undisturbed. she carefully disentangled the nearly-spent spidercrab cores from the enchantment, then lifted the spidercrab cores and roots and stored them both away. then, she stretched her body, wincing a little as she moved around and rubbed her eyes.


    sure enough, her perk did not count as sleeping. her body was letting her know, in no uncertain terms, that she had not slept for the entire night, and she was tired. alice took a quick peek outside of her room, only to see that the inn was already beginning to wake up. the innkeeper gave her a friendly nod when he saw that she was up.


    ¡°hello ¨C erm i mean, good morning to you, lady mage! i thought you said you were going to sleep in today?¡±


    alice rubbed her eyes. ¡°just checking the time,¡± she said drily.


    ¡°the church has yet to ring morning bell, so it is before the sixth hour of the day. however, it should be ringing within the next hour,¡± said the innkeeper.


    alice nodded.


    working in the docks today was going to suck. still, her perk had provided her with everything she had hoped it would. she had an awful lot more food for thought today than she had yesterday.


    ¡°wake me up an hour and a half after morning bell, please,¡± she said.


    ¡°of course,¡± said the innkeeper.


    she retreated back into her room. even if she couldn¡¯t get much sleep, she was currently running on almost twenty four hours of uninterrupted consciousness. getting a few hours of sleep would help.


    she took another look at herself, thinking back to the image she had seen of an alice formed entirely out of mana.


    and froze.


    inside of her mage core, located directly behind her heart, were several colors of mana. and she had never seen any of them before. even though she had distinctly, directly checked the magic core located inside of her chest over and over again, several times, in order to find out as much as she could about what mages were, she had never seen a thing. apparently, neither had anyone else in this world. what a mage core did, and what made mages different from regular people, had been a mystery to this world for centuries, with no one ever discovering a thing about it. magic cores had no traces of mana inside of them, showed no visible interaction with the rest of the body, and had no visible effect on anything.


    the only thing people knew for sure was that all mages had a mage core, and if it got damaged, mages usually couldn¡¯t use magic until an organic mage with a specialized perk fixed it. apart from that, mage cores could be used as enchanting materials, the same as monster cores ¨C though it was also incredibly illegal almost everywhere. even the sigmusi empire forbade usage of mage cores in enchanting, except for those originating from slaves or people who were not of the empire.


    in short, people of this world didn¡¯t have great understanding of mage cores.


    and now, inside of alice¡¯s mage core, she could see mana through her skin, condensed into three solidified balls of color. all three were easy to identify, once she focused closely on them. one had the same sort of silver-grey color her broken mana did when she used her kinetic seed. another was easy to miss, and was almost the same color as the mana alice saw floating in the air around town. it was fairly clear that it was her ¡®pure mana¡¯ seed. the third easily identified seed looked like a mixture of green and red. even though alice hadn¡¯t experimented with her organic magic seed very much, she could at least still match this color to broken mana created from her organic seed.


    alice took a moment to process these new, unique additions to her vision. she had never seen them before, and they carried a world of new implications.


    and then alice walked over to her bed, dragged herself under the covers, and closed her eyes.


    all of this could wait until tomorrow.

 Chapter 54

    chapter 54


    a few hours later, the [innkeeper] politely rapped on alice¡¯s door a few times. with the help of some sort of noise-enhancing perk amplifying the sound of him knocking on the door, the sound was loud enough to wake alice up.


    only to find that the world looked a rainbow cloud had fallen over it. for a brief moment, she wondered if she had somehow wandered into the aurora borealis back on earth. every single inch of air, floor, and wall was covered with color and lights. the lights were not static, however ¨C instead, it seemed as though every single inch of the air was rippling and vibrating with color every second.


    ¡°lady mage? as per your request, i am trying to wake you up an hour and a half past morning bell. can i receive an acknowledgement that it has succeeded?¡± came the innkeeper¡¯s voice from outside of her door.


    alice looked at the swirling lights, which were moving enough that she was starting to feel motion-sick. the entire world was suddenly swimming and rippling with swirling color every second, and there was nowhere alice could move her eyes to avoid seeing more of the dancing colors.


    ¡°i... i am awake. thank you, innkeeper.¡±


    ¡°it is my pleasure to be of service to a mage,¡± said the innkeeper. alice heard the man begin to move away from her room, giving her more time to examine... whatever the heck was going on with her vision.


    this was something alice had never experienced before. it certainly hadn¡¯t been there when she had gone to sleep earlier. even if she had been tired from the experiment she and cecilia had finished yesterday, she was still sure she would have noticed the entire world starting to look like a confused unicorn¡¯s rainbow puke.


    she looked blearily at the walls of her room, before she shook her head and closed her eyes. she rubbed at her eyelids for a moment, trying to figure out if she was seeing things.


    maybe she was still sleepy? she had only gotten a few hours of sleep before waking up.


    she opened her eyes again. the rainbow colors had not disappeared. they were just as prevalent and vibrant as before, distorting the air and making it hard for alice to see her surroundings clearly.


    she looked at her hands, only to see that even underneath her skin, the rivulets of rainbow lights were still present.


    she closed and opened her eyes a few times while focusing on a specific point in her inn room, giving her eyes and brain some time to adjust to the perpetual motion in her vision. after a few minutes, her motion sickness was starting to clear and she was getting used to it. even though she still found the constant shifting and moving in her vision to be obnoxious, it was no longer making her feel ill, at least.


    ¡°what in the world am i looking at?¡± she asked, watching as the streams of color whirled and danced underneath her skin. the colors were inside of her skin, her flesh, her bones... everything.


    as she watched, alice started to feel a sense of familiarity with the lights. hadn¡¯t she seen something like this before?


    after a few moments, she finally figured out why the streams of light looked familiar.


    didn¡¯t this look kind of like that incredibly complex flood of mana that had appeared when she nearly melted herself? she tried not to think about the time when she had tried, and failed, to form a wide variety of modern physics-based seeds, only to end up failing each and every time before she nearly melted both her room and herself. however, even though she tried not to remember that day...


    the swirling fractals of lights in midair reminded her of that day quite a bit.


    the difference was scale.


    the swirling fractals of light she had seen on that day had mostly been focused. they had been limited in scope, appearing mostly around her body and the air directly surrounding her. she hadn¡¯t been able to see much else as far as the light fractals went outside of that specific, limited space.


    the light fractal she was seeing now was everywhere. it was a rainbow fog that obstructed her vision of her surroundings.


    she reached out one of her hands towards the floating lights in midair. as expected, her hand passed directly through it.


    alice had a sneaking suspicion that she knew what she was looking at, or that she at least had a guess. she focused on her pure mana magic seed before she extended a tendril out towards the air in front of her and tried to mess with the dancing lights.


    the lights shifted away, continuously remolding and reshaping themselves into new patterns and fractals as they avoided her mana tendril. the lights also avoided any mana or broken mana that alice pushed out of her pure mana seed for a few seconds, before the lights seemed to ¡®ignore¡¯ the mana that had originated from her. she tried a few more times, before confirming something.


    ¡°cecilia and i have been trying to figure out how mana works, and how mana influences a lot of other things,¡± said alice. ¡°we found a few interesting results, but we want to verify them. after all, one person isn¡¯t a very good representation of everyone in the world, and i have a few achievements that might screw with the results a bit.¡± such as {outworlder.} alice still had no clue what ¡°increased support from the system¡± meant, and for all she knew that might throw all of her experiments out of whack.


    ¡°anyway, we need a little more data... if that¡¯s all right with you. i have a perk to detect how dangerous an experiment might be, and it looks like it¡¯ll be safe for you. there shouldn¡¯t be any danger, if that¡¯s what you¡¯re worried about.¡± said alice.


    ¡°mana levels and their effects? hmm... i think you might be best served by messing with some spidercrabs, if you haven¡¯t done that already. even if it isn¡¯t usually what they focus on, most [adventurers] would probably be willing to help you catch a few alive for a few silver suns. heck, if you wanted to save money, you could probably do so yourself. at this point i seriously doubt an average spidercrab pack poses any threat to you, and you could probably demolish a pack, grab a few alive, and then drag them back for research. just make sure to wear thick padding. there are even a few loons who try to raise them like farm animals in some areas where the ground is too barren to grow regular crops or fodder for animals. i seriously doubt they would be hard or time consuming to get ahold of.¡±


    ¡°the issue is that i want to look at how mana and stats interact. monsters don¡¯t have access to the system, so there¡¯s nothing to test there.¡±


    ¡°wait, testing the system?¡± milo gave alice a strange look. ¡°umm... like, to see what the almighty system deems proper?¡±


    ¡°ermm... i want to see how the almighty system makes decisions, and how its blessings work,¡± said alice. ¡°i just figure that there has to be some underlying mechanic behind how the system¡¯s blessings work out in practice, and i want to see what those mean for the world in general.¡±


    milo, thankfully, didn¡¯t immediately decide she was a heretic and start yelling, or anything of the sort. instead, he pursed his lips, seriously thinking it over. finally, he nodded.


    ¡°how long would it take, and what exactly do you want from me?¡± said milo, after a few moments of thought. ¡°at least, i trust you enough to know you wouldn¡¯t lie to me about my safety, and i don¡¯t mind helping you out.¡±


    alice felt a smile tug at her lips. ¡°i¡¯m just asking you to sit in a special room for a while and test your physical strength. i have also undergone the same experiment with no harm coming to me, and cecilia will be doing the experiment with you,¡± said alice.


    ¡°testing my strength in a room? all right, i can see it sort of making sense. are you planning on messing with mana quantity by changing it over the course of the experiment?¡± milo mulled it over for a few moments. finally, he nodded. ¡°i don¡¯t particularly mind, i guess.¡±


    alice felt her smile grow wider. ¡°great! thanks, milo! i¡¯m glad that you¡¯re willing to help out. i¡¯ll get more bags ready for the manaless room.¡±


    milo paused, and his expression turned to complete bewilderment.


    ¡°i¡¯m sorry, what? manaless room? as in... a room with no mana in it?¡±


    ¡°yes?¡±


    milo gave alice a blank stare.


    ¡°what exactly is the wording for this perk that claims no harm will befall the subject? didn¡¯t you say ¨C wait, you already did this? to yourself?¡±


    ¡°it¡¯s why i think i found something big,¡± said alice. ¡°i have gone through the process of sitting in a manaless room for about half an hour. during this period of time, i experienced some reductions in my stats and my perks became weaker, but none of them were life-threatening, and as long as you are not sick or seriously injured, none of them will place your life at risk either. since it¡¯s common knowledge that lack of mana is lethal, and it clearly isn¡¯t for me, i want to see what happens if other people try it. my perk claims it isn¡¯t lethal for other people either, so i want to know what actually happens if people sit in a manaless room for extended periods of time. do other people also lose stats? is the stat loss consistent? there are a lot of other finicky things i want to experiment with, but since everyone¡¯s perks are so different, i need bigger sample sizes if i want to really figure out what¡¯s going on here.¡±


    ¡°being perfectly honest, this seems more than slightly insane. alice, that¡¯s an environment with no mana! you can suffocate monsters just by dropping the mana in an area low enough! it¡¯s the main reason human civilization can thrive at all ¨C stronger monsters can¡¯t wander out of their high mana environments without dying off in droves. they stick to the mana-rich, wild parts of the world, and humans inhabit the mana-thin regions. to hear someone say that lack of mana isn¡¯t lethal just sounds... i trust you, but it sounds totally nutty.¡± milo¡¯s expression kept changing, warping between shock, and confusion, and anger.


    alice took a deep breath, feeling {rhetorical flourish} kick in and help her select her words more accurately.


    ¡°milo, there is a difference between monsters and humans. monsters need mana to survive, but there isn¡¯t enough evidence to conclude that humans do, right? in the first place, monsters don¡¯t even strictly need to eat in the first place, if the environment has enough mana. by contrast, humans starve to death, or get the {malnourished} achievement if they don¡¯t get enough food in their bellies. this happens regardless of how much mana there is inside of the food, right?¡± alice couldn¡¯t help but think about her and cecilia¡¯s mana-influenced diet, and how little the amount of mana inside of food seemed to influence mages. ¡°monsters get stronger in environments with high mana density, too. humans don¡¯t. similarly, mana deprivation doesn¡¯t necessarily have to be lethal for humans, even if it¡¯s universally lethal for monsters, right?¡±


    ¡°this is crazy.¡± milo sighed. ¡°i can¡¯t believe i¡¯m agreeing to this. all right, i don¡¯t mind. you can use me as a test subject. but let the record show that even if this experiment works out, this is insane. the fact that you tested this on yourself is insane. remind me at the end of the week to help out.¡±


    alice felt a huge grin tug at her lips. ¡°thanks, milo!¡±


    ¡°don¡¯t mention it. i might have a nervous breakdown if i think about it in further detail.¡±

 Chapter 55

    chapter 55


    after alice recruited milo for help in experimenting, the rest of the day went by quickly. at least, it would have ¨C if alice didn¡¯t still have gloppy chunks of colored mana whirling about every time she looked around her. the fact that the world was now made of rainbows made even walking distracting. alice was getting seriously frustrated by how hard it was to concentrate on other things when she had rainbow fractals painting literally every inch of the world around her. even if it was translucent enough that she could still see the physical reality underneath the mana, it was distracting. alice couldn¡¯t help but wish that she had some way to turn this off ¨C even if it would be useful to her goal of learning the truth behind this world, frankly, it was a huge pain in the butt when it came to doing normal, day to day activities.


    maybe she could get a perk to disable it? there could definitely be something about that in [scholar] or [explorer of magic], right? or maybe [scientist]?


    actually, i can¡¯t help but feel like i¡¯m falling into the same mental trap many other inhabitants of this planet have fallen into, mused alice. whenever i have a problem, i look to the system as the first way to solve it. the sheer utility and number of perks available makes it easy to develop reliance on the system. after all, it can solve almost any problem if you level up enough. age, sickness... it can even accumulate years of experience for someone in months or even weeks with the right perks supporting it. however, the system isn¡¯t the only way to solve problems. even if it¡¯s an excellent tool, i shouldn¡¯t become so reliant on it that i can¡¯t solve problems without the system.


    alice nodded to herself, deciding that she would try her best to solve this problem without the system. the best way to break a bad habit was to push through the instinctive reliance on it, right?


    right now, her problem was that her ability to see mana was becoming distracting. however, there was an equally simple solution which alice could already implement. make an enchantment that temporarily blocked her ability to see mana while she was wearing it. then, when she wanted to do an experiment, she would just remove the enchanted item and conduct the experiment. then, when she needed to go back to everyday life, she would put the enchantment back on. it would solve the problem, get her a bit more practical experience with enchanting, and help curb her reliance on the system.


    i¡¯ll see what i can whip up later, she thought. she would probably need a full workday to really make something functional, so she could deal with the rainbow fog for a few more days, then slap together an enchanted ring or something to help out afterwards. since she had a pure mana seed and a better idea than before of how mana worked, she could probably make something that fixed her newly acquired vision problem.


    that night, after she returned to her inn room, she spent more time experimenting with the mess of rainbow mana. however, regardless of how alice poked and prodded at it, she couldn¡¯t interact with the mana. it still avoided her and her mana no matter what she tried. eventually, she gave up, and went to the dining area.


    while she was focusing on her meal, she kept observing the people around her, trying to figure out how the fractals inside of people¡¯s brains and the rainbow mana in the air around people interacted with each other.


    the rainbow mana didn¡¯t just avoid her ¨C it avoided directly touching anyone. however, every single time anyone around her did anything, the rainbow mana fractals would recenter themselves, spinning and changing. even though the rainbow mana never directly touched another person, alice finally realized that the rainbow mana always touched mana that was about to enter a human.


    normally, all living beings on this planet sucked in mana. this was considered something normal ¨C every single person drained mana from their surroundings, basically every second. monsters would die if they were isolated from mana, and many kinds of plants and domesticated animals did the same. however, every single bit of mana that people ¡®pulled in¡¯ would be touched by the rainbow fractals first.


    curiously enough, the rainbow mana fractals didn¡¯t care about plants and animals at all. the dog the [innkeeper] kept as a pet absorbed mana from the air around it quite naturally, and the rainbow mana seemed to just ignore the dog¡¯s existence completely. it didn¡¯t even make an effort to avoid the animal ¨C it just literally passed through the dog as if it weren¡¯t there in the first place.


    grass, and the few potted plants near the windows of the inn, also drained mana pretty normally from their surroundings. as with the dog, the rainbow mana completely ignored their presence.


    but humans never touched a single drop of unfiltered mana. anytime mana was about to touch a human, the rainbow fractals would swarm it. the mana looked... different afterwards. even if alice couldn¡¯t see a distinct change in color afterwards, the mana would always have a different texture afterwards. then, once the mana made its way inside of a human¡¯s body, it would worm its way towards the fractals in their brain, or towards other parts of their body.


    for now, alice didn¡¯t have any further observations to contribute to her initial findings. for now, she decided to wait until the next weekend, when she could discuss what she was seeing with cecilia and see if the other girl had any ideas. apart from that, she could also get some basic test results from cecilia and milo spending some time in the manaless room, which might also give her some inspiration for new ways to mess with the rainbow mana. thus, at least for now, alice shelved her observations and decided to quietly take notes and prepare.


    through training, you have increased an attribute!


    perception +1


    at the very least, she got an attribute point out of spending her entire dinner giving people weird stares over each mouthful of food. it was small, but it was something.


    * * *


    the next day, near the end of alice¡¯s training with illa, a messenger entered the training room. alice took this as a welcome opportunity to trying and failing to take a drink of water from a glass without spilling any liquid, and looked over at the letter with keen interest. it was made out of real paper, instead of using wood and charcoal, which was pretty unusual for cyra.


    illa took the letter out of the envelope and began scanning the paper. she frowned for a moment, sinking deep into thought. then, she flicked a few copper artisans at the messenger, who snatched them out of the air before turning around and leaving the room.


    ill turned to alice with a thoughtful expression. a few minutes passed in silence, before illa spoke again.


    ¡°is wearing armor common for mages?¡± asked alice. in her previous world, it had been ¡®common sense¡¯ that mages all wore robes to fights. while robes had pretty minimal defensive abilities, alice was still used to the trope.


    ¡°why wouldn¡¯t we wear armor? do you enjoy getting shot with arrows?¡± asked vallenta, giving alice an odd look.


    ¡°i wasn¡¯t sure, honestly. i¡¯ve never seen mages in a real military situation before this, but i assumed maybe mages wore ... lighter armor so they can keep up. most of us don¡¯t have the physical stats to keep up with soldiers on the march, right?¡±


    ¡°ah, are you referring to [corellian warmages]? i know that they have lighter uniforms for mages, since their armies tend to value high mobility. on the other hand, they also don¡¯t have any other nations competing for land in their region, and so their armies are mostly focused on fighting nomads,¡± said vallenta. ¡°since mounted nomadic raiders attack and then leave before [soldiers] can arrive, their mages tend to be mounted and wear minimal equipment so that they can actually get there in time. a few decades ago, illvaria tried something kind of similar with a light mage cavalry corps, but the idea never really caught on. illvarian mages are higher level, and take a lot more time and money to raise, so we focus a lot more heavily on keeping our mages alive. not that i¡¯m complaining ¨C i like my organs to be arrow-free. not that i can¡¯t heal myself if my brain isn¡¯t damaged. still, i prefer to avoid wasting mana and dodging pain.¡±


    ¡°huh. i had never really thought about it too much. fair enough,¡± said alice, giving lady vallenta an appreciative nod. the idea of heavily armored mages struck her as bizarre, but alice couldn¡¯t help but feel more than slightly amused as well. a lot of tropes from her old world... really didn¡¯t hold up well in the face of practical necessity.


    ¡°speaking with you is always enjoyable, lady alice. your ideas are always refreshing to listen to, and i like that you aren¡¯t afraid to speak your mind. that¡¯s rarer up north. i like that things aren¡¯t so stuffy when i talk with you.¡± vallenta gave alice a warm smile.


    alice returned the older woman¡¯s smile before she changed the topic. ¡°do you know who else is coming along?¡±


    ¡°well, i am here, obviously. illa is also coming along. i know we have another [organic mage] for backup healing. apart from that, just these two,¡± said vallenta, gesturing towards the two mages, one of which was wearing heavy armor like lady vallenta and one of which was wearing normal clothing. both of them gave alice friendly nods.


    ¡°apart from that, the immortal of song and shadow is coming! my mother always told me stories about her when i was a little girl! i never thought i would get to see her in real life!¡± vallenta¡¯s gaze grew fervent.


    alice took a curious look at the three mages, who had various expressions of excitement, and was suddenly more than a little curious. how were immortals actually regarded in this country? vallenta had heard stories of immortals growing up? how... odd. she had a hard time processing the idea of hearing a person who lived inside of a country being used as materials for storybooks told to children. she was more used to the idea of children stories being about... well, mythical heroes going on adventures to slay monsters and rescue princesses.


    which, in this world, could just be an entirely factual tale of an immortal doing their job. huh.


    she settled down for a chat with the other few mages in the area as more soldiers and the other [organic mage] gradually entered the area.


    alice was glad to see the other [organic mage] dressed in more casual clothing. it was nice to know that only half of the mages here owned freaking armor and decided to wear it to cull vinebears.


    finally, alice saw alira walk into the area, accompanied by illa. alira was just as inhumanly beautiful as the first time alice had seen her, but the weird, rainbow-colored mana soup acted very differently near her.


    this was alice¡¯s first time seeing an immortal since she had upgraded her pure mana seed and her [truth seeker] perk. and now that alice could see things more clearly, allira looked even more odd than the first time alice had seen her. her body still looked like a solidified clump of mana.


    however, even more bizarre was that alice could see allira¡¯s body moving. every second, she was continuously transforming in tiny, subtle ways. her skin, bones, and flesh were all continuously shifting, almost as if they were alive, but still stayed in roughly the same position and place. it looked more than slightly unnerving, but it also seemed as if she were transforming into herself over and over again, similar to the fake ¡®alice¡¯ she had seen during her pure mana seed vision.


    most curious of all, the area around her brain was extremely still ¨C anytime mana started to move around near there, the rainbow mana in the area would throw a hissy fit. then, the mana near allira¡¯s brain would settle down. in addition, the woman didn¡¯t have a set of fractals in her brain, the same way other people did ¨C instead, it almost looked like her entire body had blended together with one of the fractal patterns present in other people¡¯s bodies. instead of five separate fractals located in various parts of the brain, her entire body looked like a massive blender had taken all of those fractals, broken them down into smaller but still recognizable chunks, and then scattered them randomly throughout her entire body.


    in addition, the rainbow-colored mana didn¡¯t avoid the immortal¡¯s body the way it avoided other humans. instead, it seemed to actively hug her at all times, like a layer of cling wrap.


    alice had no clue what to make of that, so she turned her attention back to illa. the older woman gave alice a friendly nod before she turned her attention back to immortal allira, continuing a conversation that alice was totally unable to hear even though she was standing fairly close to them. with some amusement, alice realized that she couldn¡¯t even see their lips properly ¨C it looked blurry whenever she tried to focus on how their lips were moving. whatever perk was preventing eavesdropping even stopped people from trying to lip-read.


    after a few moments, illa nodded to allira, and then turned to the group of forty [soldiers], mages, and [guards]. ¡°all right, all of you know why we¡¯re here already. i¡¯ll give you more specific instructions when we encounter the vinebear swarm. scouts, get into position. the rest of you, just focus on marching ¨C i¡¯ll give you more specific orders once we get there.¡± the others simply nodded, giving each other nervous glances before they turned to alira, seemingly feeling a lot more reassured whenever they confirmed the immortal was still there.


    with that, the hastily organized group of people got into formation and set off.

 Chapter 56

    chapter 56


    the group of [soldiers] and mages spent a few hours travelling through the woods before they found the swarm of vinebears. in that time, alice mostly chatted with the other mages, though a few of the [guards] travelling with the group also ended up joining into the conversation sometimes. apart from the occasional swish of [archers] dispatching overly adventurous spidercrab packs, the group marched in relative peace.


    alice was happy to talk with people from this world who she already knew and could get along with. even though she wasn¡¯t really a ¡®people¡¯ person back at home, she found the way this world¡¯s culture had developed to be fascinating. the [guards], for example, considered the sun knight, the most famous immortal of illvaria, to be something like superman back on earth. if superman could be met in real life, at least. alice was starting to theorize that even though it was well known that immortals didn¡¯t have the ability to overturn armies and fight kingdoms by themselves, they probably played a hell of a big role in boosting morale. fighting alongside someone you spend your childhood hearing bedtime stories about was probably like fighting with your idol, if lady vallenta¡¯s excitement was anything to go by.


    the effect an immortal could have on morale seemed to be something allira was keenly aware of. as the group marched forward, allira would continuously bounce between groups, talking a bit with one group for a while, spending a bit of time cheering up those who felt nervous and preparing people. something else alice noticed was that allira had left illa in charge of the hunting party, even though she probably could have taken command of the whole thing with little difficulty. was it because allira wanted illa to gain levels in some sort of [general] ¨C related class? was she just more confident in illa¡¯s commanding abilities, compared to her own? alice didn¡¯t know. either way, however, despite how intimidating the woman¡¯s status as an immortal was, she seemed surprisingly easy to get along with. she occasionally drifted over to tease or talk with illa, chatted with the soldiers, and worked to boost morale. if alice couldn¡¯t see the massive, solidified chunks of mana fractals replacing every bit of flesh and blood in the woman¡¯s body, or the woman¡¯s inhuman, ¡®too perfect¡¯ beauty, she would have had a hard time believing that allira was someone with an extraordinary status.


    which might have been because immortals didn¡¯t necessarily come from distinguished lineages. a [farmer] was almost as likely to reach immortality as a [king], if they worked for it and got the right achievements. if anything, [nobles] and [kings] tended to be less likely to take the kind of loony, insane risks one usually needed to take to get good achievements and reach immortality ¨C though they also had access to better [teachers] and educational resources. alice didn¡¯t know what background allira came from, but she made a mental note that she should ask around about it later on, when she wasn¡¯t near the woman. she suddenly found herself increasingly curious to know why the immortal of song and shadow had such a huge flinch reaction towards the sigmusi colonia and sigmusi imperia, and who she had been before she became an immortal.


    as the group followed the marks left behind by the [spies] under immortal allira¡¯s command, lady vallenta glanced at immortal allira no less than twenty-three times over the course of half an hour. alice couldn¡¯t help but feel a little amused by the woman¡¯s focus on the immortal.


    ¡°anxious?¡± asked alice, giving the older woman a grin.


    ¡°ah!¡± lady vallenta flinched, before she looked back at alice.


    ¡°if you want to talk to her, just do it. i don¡¯t think she¡¯s the type to make a big fuss over that sort of thing. you already mentioned you want to talk to her, right?¡± said alice, giving lady vallenta a mirthful look. even though lady vallenta was in her early twenties physical, and probably a fair bit older than that, right now lady vallenta seemed more like a kid. since she had a good personality and wouldn¡¯t mind, alice suddenly found teasing her to be unexpectedly fun.


    ¡°ah... i just... she does a lot for the kingdom, and as i grew up, i heard a lot about her, so i¡¯m just a little curious... i don¡¯t know if i want to interrupt her...¡± vallenta shook her head a little. ¡°even if she¡¯s the youngest immortal in illvaria, meeting her is still really amazing, you know?¡±


    ¡°you know her age?¡± asked alice, unconsciously dropping her voice.


    lady vallenta twitched a bit, before she looked at allira again. then, alice saw the rainbow mana fractals in the air spin a bit, and a strange bubble formed around the two of them. sound from outside of the bubble became muted.


    ¡°most people in the kingdom do, actually. knowledge about immortals isn¡¯t particularly secret, since any proper organization can usually dig it out. she was originally a [bard] that lived in southern illvaria, before it was razed to the ground by the sigmusi. she was present during the war with the sigmusi several decades ago, actually ¨C it was when she became an immortal. i hear that her home city was besieged by the sigmusi and over half of the town died from stray debris thrown at the walls by [kinetic mages] or starved to death. she managed to survive... unlike most of her neighbors and friends. she levelled up [bard] by trying to bring hope to the dying citizens of the city... and when she started combining perks, she somehow managed to make [bard] into an offensive class with shadow manipulation abilities. she¡¯s around eighty or eighty five right now, i believe.¡±


    huh. only seventy, huh. even if she wasn¡¯t an immortal, she could quite plausibly still be alive, even back on earth. compared to immortals like the sun knight, who are several centuries old, she really is quite young.


    alice shrugged, but dropped the matter. immortal allira would probably drop by the group sooner or later anyway. she could ask more if the immortal felt like chatting ¨C which she seemed to be inclined to do.


    it took another fifteen minutes before allira finally worked her way over to their group as she was making her rounds.


    ¡°so how are all of you doing?¡± asked allira. her voice was faintly musical, almost as if she was playing an instrument instead of simply speaking. curiously enough, the rainbow mana in alice¡¯s surroundings also seemed to faintly quiver as allira spoke. the more normal mana, however, seemed to totally ignore her.


    ¡°we are doing well, lady allira,¡± said lady vallenta, giving a slight, but visible, deferential bow.


    ¡°are you nervous?¡±


    ¡°not terribly so, honored immortal,¡± said vallenta.


    ¡°it¡¯s okay to be a little nervous. monsters actually becoming alphas is pretty rare up north, since mage academies deal with mana clusters whenever they form. there is no shame in being nervous, so long as it does not influence your ability to your job.¡±


    ¡°my thanks to honored immortal. i will keep your words in my heart and never forget them,¡± said vallenta, practically oozing eagerness. alice, who was starting more than a little secondhand embarrassment, gave allira a respectful nod.


    ¡°what about you? i recall... ah, yes, you were the one who closed your eyes during our first meeting a few weeks ago. i notice you now have your eyes open,¡± said allira, giving alice a smile wider than a cheshire cat¡¯s. alice suppressed an involuntary twitch. that was what stood out the most from the first time she had seen an immortal?


    on second thought, she did recall being unable to concentrate whenever she looked at allira. now, the rainbow fractals embedded inside of allira¡¯s body and the world around her were so distracting that alice had an easier time concentrating. after all, there was just so much moving every second in alice¡¯s mana vision that it was already easy to get distracted. still, alice couldn¡¯t help but wince a little bit. she had rather hoped to either make less of an impression, or a different one.


    seeing alice¡¯s discomfort, allira actually laughed. it wasn¡¯t a disdainful or mocking laugh, but one that sounded good natured. even though she could tell allira was amused, it felt like she was laughing with alice, rather than at her.


    ¡°it happens sometimes, actually. i remember previous king once tried really hard to convince me to wear really ugly, shapeless dresses by claiming they were the ¡®new fashion¡¯ when he was a young lad. he was quite an interesting child,¡± she said, her lips twisting into a nostalgic smile for a moment. ¡°it was a shame when he died of an assassin¡¯s arrow, but such is nature of life, i suppose.¡± the nostalgic smile on her lips twisted into a grimace for a moment, and then disappeared entirely.


    ¡°illa said that you are a newly baptized mage, yes? do you have any experience in combat from before then? you don¡¯t seem to have any perks that boost your marching speed or discipline, so i doubt you have a [soldier] class or anything of the sort. that¡¯s usually the first thing most [soldiers] take if they don¡¯t want to get yelled at for bad marching posture.¡±


    ¡°no. i¡¯ve had a few smaller encounters with monsters, and i was part of the expedition that scouted out the broken mana zone. however, i can¡¯t really say that i have too much fighting experience overall,¡± said alice. ¡°illa has been helping me boost my combat skills, at least, so i don¡¯t think it¡¯ll be too bad.¡±


    allira gave alice a sympathetic look. ¡°don¡¯t worry about it. this kind of thing isn¡¯t really that scary, honestly. i¡¯ll be doing a fair bit of the work, and the [archers] will be doing a lot more of the work. you guys are here to make sure that a huge mass of vinebears don¡¯t start roaming the countryside and terrorizing farmers or less well-prepared towns, but it shouldn¡¯t be very dangerous. just mow down the vinebears where you can, listen to the person leading your team when we break into groups later on, and prioritize your safety first. the [organic mages], as well as the illa and the people around you will keep you safe.¡±


    alice nodded. even though she knew allira was working to improve the morale of everyone, she still couldn¡¯t help but feel more relaxed about everything after the immortal personally took some time to reassure her. perhaps it was the woman¡¯s high [charisma], but alice couldn¡¯t help but feel like this really wouldn¡¯t be a huge deal after listening to allira talk about it.


    after that, allira continued chatting with the mages and [guards] as they continued walking. lady vallenta seemed about ready to burst with excitement, and alice felt the urge to let out a few chuckles as she watched the rest of the group interact with the immortal.


    then, another piece of rubble fell from the sky.


    this one did not miss. it smashed directly into the center of the vinebear group ¨C and the alpha, along with several of the vinebears, were crushed under its weight and immediately died.


    the previous patience and careful analysis of the vinebear group collapsed instantly. the vinebears seemed to jolt in surprise. then, with a start, they began looking in totally random directions. before, the group had been cautiously eying every one of the groups, as if they were trying to find the weakest point to attack and escape. now, they were just like wild animals ¨C there was no semblance of coordination or intelligence in their actions anymore.


    a few of them immediately charged towards random groups, totally ignoring their surroundings. most of the vinebears just targeted whatever group was closest to them. a few of them even began trying to chew on the buildings in the illusion, completely ignoring the humans in favor of the mana fractals inside of the buildings.


    alice tentatively pushed a mana tendril into a fist-sized chunk of stone that had passed through her a few moments ago. to her surprise even though the object had passed through her like a trick of light, when she touched it with her mana it felt the same as any other stone.


    alice picked it up with her mana before firing the fist-sized stone chunk towards one of the vinebears. it made no attempt whatsoever to dodge as the chunk of stone crashed into its skull, killing it instantly. the other [guards] with bows began shooting into the scattered and disorganized pack as well.


    what followed was neither difficult nor suspenseful. it was akin to harvesting wheat. there was no danger or difficulty at all. the vinebears were slaughtered mercilessly. debris kept falling from the sky, launched by the group of sigmusi mages outside of the walls. even though most of the debris missed completely, the debris passed through the humans while crushing any vinebears it landed on. the ¡®fight¡¯ wasn¡¯t even really a fight. it was just an organized group of overly prepared [guards] and mages mopping up a disorganized group of hungry wild animals. it took less than ten minutes for the last vinebears to be dispatched, including the few who were still insistently gnawing on illusory buildings.


    after the vinebears were all dead, out of curiosity, alice tried plugging her ears with her fingers.


    immediately, the illusory buildings in the area became fainter. if before they were only slightly translucent, once alice couldn¡¯t hear allira¡¯s singing, the buildings became far closer to transparent. alice tried touching one again, and found that she could now stick her feet and elbows inside of the illusory buildings. there was a faint feeling of resistance, but it was nothing like touching a real object. alice nodded to herself, unplugged her ears, and waited.


    allira stopped singing, and the illusory world faded away. alice immediately lost visibility of the other four groups, because she could no longer see through the trees in her surroundings. mana started rolling in from the area around her.


    you have leveled up!


    survivor: 40 -> 41


    (student) of kinetic magic: 23->25 (max level)


    exporer of magic: 41-> 42


    through training, you have increased an attribute!


    magic 123 -> 125


    through training, you have increased a skill!


    kinetic manipulation 48 -> 49, mana control 33-> 34, mana control 31->33, kinetic force 29 -> 30, sigmusi (language proficiency) 1 -> 7


    alice dismissed the system notifications. she would deal with her new perk when she got back to town.


    the [scout] began leading them towards the dead vinebear. as they did so, alice couldn¡¯t help but reflect on the ¡®fight.¡¯


    first and foremost, alice was surprised by both the massive strength and massive weaknesses of allira. vinebears were a species of monster that was considered a pretty big threat to most of the inhabitants of this world. dealing with one usually required a squad of [guards] or [soldiers], because the species tended to stick to areas where their plant control could shine. they were considered a big threat to [farmers] if they were caught off-guard, and could kill low level combat classes if they didn¡¯t work together. in wooded areas, they were a massive problem.


    and allira just literally changed the topography of the entire area. instead of standing in the middle of a heavily wooded region, suddenly the entire fight was taking place in the middle of a town. with a single action, she had totally nullified the biggest advantage the species had. this sort of reality-altering ability was nothing short of miraculous.


    at the same time, just by plugging her ears, alice managed to remove a huge chunk of this illusion. there were definitely still some remnants of allira¡¯s illusory world, and alice was sure the woman had far more than just this ability up her sleeve. still, it gave alice a better perspective on why immortals didn¡¯t rule this world. even though allira had a massive, overpowering advantage, as long as an army or nation was prepared for it, they could directly counter her abilities as well. even though allira certainly had other perks up her sleeve, there could just as easily be other counters to those perks as well.


    the higher someone¡¯s level was, the slower their levelling speed. nations would learn the perks of immortals from neighboring nations every time that immortal took action. unless they were just unable to counter an ability, they would definitely develop ways to counter the immortals of other nations every time they learned of a new ability. countering someone like the sun knight, who was reported to be a powerful all around commander and fighter, was probably several times harder than someone like allira, who had basically forced a noncombat class into a combat role. the massive stone debris lobbed into the city by the ¡®mages of the sigmusi empire¡¯ who had destroyed the nostalgic, dream-like city at the beginning of the song also weren¡¯t aimed well. even though each missile was still aimed sort of close to the vinebears, there were plenty of times that they missed completely. in a smaller fight, especially, this ability had a reasonable chance of just missing over and over again. allira might be a more espionage focused immortal, based on her absurdly high [charisma] and the fact that her title was the immortal of song and shadow. still, it gave alice a good perspective on how much an immortal could change a battlefield ¨C they were both incredibly good at doing so, and likely incredibly ineffective the moment a counter was developed.


    apart from that, however, alice had another thought. one that, at least to her, was far more interesting.


    after her mana-vision trip, she had already been starting to think about the nature of mana more closely. what exactly was a mage? a class? a perk?


    today gave her even more food for thought.


    because after speaking with lady valenta for an extended period of time, alice knew for a fact that allira was not known to be a mage. however, despite that fact, allira was able to do a lot of things that... well, seemed pretty mage-like. manifesting a song from what alice assumed was her memory as reality, darkening the sky, creating an illusion that was almost real... and lobbing around giant chunks of stone. all of those things were remarkably similar to what a mage could do. in fact, since allira had constructed a bunch of fake, illusory sigmusi mages proficient in kinetic magic... in a weird, convoluted way, allira was sort a [kinetic mage]. alice had no clue whether she could influence objects that weren¡¯t created from her illusions. however, the fact remained that she could create a somewhat similar effect, even though she was well known to not be a mage at all.


    as the groups met up and the [scouts] began to harvest the corpses of the vinebears, alice sank further and further into her thoughts.


    this matter... required further testing.

 Chapter 57

    chapter 57


    the scouts spent about half an hour cutting apart the vinebears, searching for valuable materials. in the meantime, a few spidercrab packs wandered into the area, perhaps attracted by the mana leaking out of the vinebear corpses. alice and the other mages quickly shredded them apart, if the [guards] didn¡¯t shoot them down first. alice was sure she was pretty close to {monster hunter iii}, though there was still some way to go. with some effort, she could probably pick it up before she left cyra. these corpses were also disassembled by the [scouts], turning into more spoils of war.


    apart from that, the few people who had gotten injured during the fight received treatment from the [organic mages]. luckily, nobody had died or lost a limb, making it fairly easy to heal most of the injuries. alice couldn¡¯t help but marvel at one of her first times seeing this world¡¯s method of healing [soldiers] and [guards] after a battle. she had been unconscious when an [organic mage] had interacted with her during the expedition, and the [organic mage] who had inspected her after her trial had simply used some perks to analyze her body for potential problems. thus, this was her first time actually seeing an [organic mage] heal someone else.


    and upon seeing [organic mages] heal people, alice couldn¡¯t help but think that this world¡¯s healing was definitely superior to earth¡¯s medical technology. on earth, getting someone to heal after getting mauled by a bear and receiving a massive gash to their chest would have required some serious medical attention. the person in question would probably have needed to take a trip to the emergency room. if a person was particularly badly mauled, they might have even needed surgery, blood transfusions, rabies shots, and any number of other things.n??v€l-b1n was the first platform to present this chapter.


    in this world, an [organic mage] demanded the patient give {patient¡¯s consent} to reduce their resistance against mana. then, the [organic mage] put their hand on some exposed flesh from the other party, closed their eyes, and started throwing perks and mana at the problem. a process which alice could now, finally, observe firsthand, as mana fractals formed a strange net that stretched out from the brain of the [organic magic] and into the other person¡¯s body, continuously lighting up the whole way before the entire net of mana dissolved into thin air and much more basic organic mana started healing up the person. usually, the whole process took less than ten minutes. afterwards, it was hard to tell that the person in question had even been injured in the first place. they could get up, move around, and walk with no problems, whereas on earth they would have probably needed to stitch up the mauled area and keep it safe for a few weeks before they finished recovering.


    after everyone was healed up and the [scouts] were done cleaning up the vinebear corpses, it was time to deal with the rewards from the battle.


    every single monster had a monster core ¨C this was something innate to all monsters on this planet. vinebear cores were particularly compatible with healing enchantments, making them relatively high in demand because healing magic wasted far more mana than organic magic. on top of that, the pelts of the vinebears were also decent materials for making warm clothes. even though many of the fur coats had been ruined during the fight, about half of the vinebears still had useable pelts. finally, there was a huge amount of bear meat and bones, neither of which was particularly valuable.


    first, everyone was given a choice: they could either take one vinebear core, or illa would sell them in bulk to one of the traders from upriver and divide the money among all of the people who just wanted to sell the core. most of the [guards], [scouts], and [soldiers] chose to sell the core, along with about half of the mages. everyone was given a similar option for the bear pelts. alice grabbed a vinebear core, since she would probably have a use for it sooner or later, but opted to sell her share of bear pelt because it wasn¡¯t particularly useful for enchanting. finally, the bear meat and bones didn¡¯t have very much value. thus, they were pretty much just ¡®whoever wants it can take some.¡¯ alice grabbed as much as she could stuff inside of {sample collection} ¨C which wasn¡¯t much, since the perk only allowed a certain quantity of any ¡®unique¡¯ substance to be stored inside of it. however, it was still at least a few days of free meals after they were cooked. alice could probably sell it to the [innkeeper] in exchange for a free dinner or two. she could use the money. she did the same with the bones, on the off hand chance she could figure out something useful to do with them, although she didn¡¯t have very many hopes for actually using her vinebear bones. still, since she had room to store them, it didn¡¯t hurt to bring them along, just in case. finally, the mages and [archers] picked up whatever they wanted from the dead spidercrabs.


    since the number of vinebears had slightly outnumbered the members of the hunting party, there were about fifteen remaining vinebear cores. these were distributed to the mages in the group, including alice, netting her a total of two extra vinebear cores, with the final remainder going to illa and allira.


    after that, with the spoils of war distributed, the group began trudging back towards cyra. alice opted to walk alone this time, intending to think more carefully about what she had seen during the fight instead of chatting with others.


    as they walked, allira began bouncing from group to group again. alice couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit surprised by this. she had expected that allira would mostly keep to herself on the way back home, now that there was no real need to keep up morale. however, the woman seemed to actively enjoy mixing around and talking to people.


    perhaps allira just enjoyed talking with people in general? that did seem quite logical. in the first place, [bards] tended to be people who interacted with other people a lot. if allira didn¡¯t enjoy talking, she would have probably picked a different class.


    eventually, allira made her way to alice. alice, although slightly surprised, was more than happy to see her. it wasn¡¯t often she got an opportunity to observe an immortal up-close.


    ¡°greetings to honored immortal,¡± said alice, giving allira a respectful nod. ¡°that was extraordinary! i had heard stories of immortals fighting before, but hearing about it and seeing it firsthand is completely different.¡±


    allira gave a small chuckle at alice¡¯s statement, before she nodded. ¡°the abilities immortals possess are pretty interesting. once i became an immortal, i could hardly believe what we¡¯re able to do myself. it took a few years for me to really get used to the idea that i my abilities were so... reality-bending.¡±


    ¡°so do all of your abilities get a comprehensive upgrade after you become an immortal?¡± asked alice.


    alice shrugged. ¡°i want to know the truth of mana. i am sure i¡¯ll find a way to use it for practical purposes in the future ¨C however, even if i don¡¯t find a single practical use behind anything i spend my time and energy learning about, i wouldn¡¯t regret it. i just want to know for the sake of knowing.¡± she felt a small smile tug at her lips as she said this. ¡°though, i have already gotten a few achievements for exploring and learning. in that sense, i¡¯ve already gotten some nice bonuses from studying this topic, so i can¡¯t say it has been a waste of time.¡± alice didn¡¯t hesitate at all to advertise the benefits of taking part in her research. even if it was unlikely, maybe in the future she could get an immortal to help her learn about the truth of mana! allira was a pretty relaxed person, so maybe someday it was possible!


    allira¡¯s smile became gentler, less filled with fun and carelessness and more relaxed. ¡°if that¡¯s what motivates you, then i can only admire you. wanting to know for the sake of knowing may not always be what causes [merchants] and [nobles] to line up and sponsor your research, and some people might even say it¡¯s a fundamental failure to research something just for the sake of knowing more. but... ultimately, even ¡®impractical¡¯ knowledge is what creates the stable base of knowledge all other [researchers] in the future reference as they make their own innovations. if you truly make great contributions in this area, perhaps in the future someone will take your work a step farther and create something miraculous.¡±


    the conversation fell into a comfortable silence for a while, until the walls of cyra came in sight. after a brief hunt, the vinebear threat was exterminated.


    * * *


    somewhere far away, a man stood in a room filled with rocks and maps. if one were to analyze the rocks, they wouldn¡¯t be able to find anything unusual about them ¨C save, perhaps, the fact that most system perks would completely ignore the rocks, as if they weren¡¯t there at all.


    in the center of the room was a map. on it were images of three continents.


    the central continent, the origin of the human species in this world, and the continent with the lowest mana density and highest human population density.


    the southern continent, which was more recently settled. it had much higher mana density than the central continent, and few had ever explored farther south than the shil confederacy and lived to tell the tale. it was becoming more and more heavily settled as the decades passed, but it would be a long time before it reached the population density of the central continent.


    and finally, the western continent. the mana density would kill anyone who tried to go there and wasn¡¯t a mage. and if the mana density didn¡¯t prove fatal, the ridiculously powerful monsters would. even immortals never ventured onto the western continent unless they were feeling suicidal. the only maps of the continent basically consisted of some random chunks of coastline. the rest was untouched by human hands.


    and on the map, there were a variety of blinking lights. most of them were black, but about one in four of them were white. there were even a few blinking lights on the western continent, though they were very few in number.


    on the map of the southern continent, one of the white lights blinked, then flashed bright red. after a few moments, the light disappeared entirely.


    ¡°another hit, huh?¡± the man turned to the only other occupant of the room ¨C something which seemed human, except half of its body had been replaced with metal. ¡°are there any known settlements there?¡±


    the half-metal human stared at the spot for a moment, deep in thought. then, finally, he shook his head. ¡°none of my perks are pulling up anything at all in that area. checking through the map¡¯s record log, there was no blue flash. so the total number of people is lower than 100. still... red means at least 50. an unrecorded settlement with a high enough level of [enchanter] to start investigating one of the probes and trip the minimum population requirements... it might be the one, master. there¡¯s a good chance of it being another miss, but this could be it.¡±


    the man who was looking at the map smiled. ¡°then prepare my enchanted weapons and items. especially the consumable ones ¨C get at least a few hundred ready. just in case. we are taking a trip to the southern continent, it seems. let us see if we¡¯ve finally stumbled across one of the bases of the society of starry eyes.¡±

 Chapter 58

    chapter 58


    after the group returned to cyra, the group quickly settled accounts. illa simply said that the payment for the expedition would be deferred for those who were selling at least one material, and would be settled the following monday after the city lord¡¯s manor had time to sell and record everything. nobody objected to this, since illa was known for being fair. shortly after, the group dispersed. some remained chatting after the fact, but alice decided to spend the rest of the day in her inn room. even if the danger hadn¡¯t been terribly high this time, spending hours walking through the wilderness being on guard for monster attacks and knowing a fight would come soon had been more than slightly mentally taxing. since alice had the rest of the day off from working on the docks, she figured a break for the afternoon was in order.


    she managed to convince the [innkeeper] to exchange her stored vinebear meat for two days of free meals. alice grinned slightly, since that saved her a silver sun or two. predictably but sadly, the [innkeeper] had no use for alice¡¯s vinebear bones, so he was unwilling to buy them. alice just left them laying around in her {sample storage}. maybe they would come in useful someday. or maybe they would lay there forgotten, for several months or years, until someday she started cleaning out her {sample storage}. at that time, she would probably wonder what the heck the bones were and why they were in her storage perk... if she hadn¡¯t gotten a fully photographic memory or something by then. her memory was already leaps and bounds above what it had been on earth, and alice had no reason to believe it wouldn¡¯t continue improving.


    after dinner and a few hours spent relaxing by the fireplace and listening to other patrons talk, alice returned to her room. it was time to pick her new perk, and deal with her class upgrade.


    solidified objects


    requirements: student of kinetic magic level 25 or higher


    objects which you interact with via kinetic mana become harder and more solid for a brief period of time during and after your contact with them. the amount of time each object retains these benefits is based off of the amount of mana used during interaction.


    improved object control (sensory enhancement)


    requirements: student of kinetic magic level 25 or higher, {object control} perk, magic 100 or greater


    improves the {object control} perk, expanding the range and detail at which you are able to sense objects in motion around you. you also gain improved speed at creating and manipulating mana tendrils.


    short range mana efficiency


    requirements: student of kinetic magic level 25 or higher, perception 100 or greater


    you gain the ability to drastically reduce broken mana production whenever using kinetic magic to manipulate objects close to your body. the closer it is, the greater the reduction in broken mana production.


    greater folds of magic


    requirements: student of kinetic magic level 25 or higher, {folds of magic}, {divided attention 5 or greater}


    your ability to multitask is backed by both perks and skills, and grows dramatically. you gain the ability to manipulate an extra tendril of magic, along with the mental capacity to pay attention to your improved magical capacity.


    alice laid on her bed in the inn, looking over her perk choices. she first knocked out {short range mana efficiency} ¨C she only lost somewhere between five and ten percent of her mana as broken mana when she used kinetic magic. even if alice still didn¡¯t have a good grasp on purifying broken mana, because things kept coming up, the amount of broken mana she produced was quite minimal and had little effect on her.


    {solidified objects} was also quickly dropped for being too situational. most of the time, if alice needed a harder material when she was using kinetic magic, it meant she should grab a harder material from her surroundings. although alice could see situations where this perk might be useful, she just didn¡¯t think it was worth a level 25 perk slot. maybe someone else would find more use in it? either way, it wasn¡¯t that useful for her.


    that left {greater folds of magic} and {improved object control}. both of which were tempting.


    {folds of magic} had gone some way towards improving alice¡¯s multitasking ability. however, even with the additional bonus from {divided attention} and {folds of magic} overlapping, it had never really reached the point where alice could manipulate three mana tendrils as the same time. sure, she was pretty close, and she would definitely reach that point whenever {divided attention} finally got another few levels behind it. still, alice often felt that this was a wasted perk slot. investing more heavily into it would... kind of justify that expense. however, at the same time, alice was afraid of the sunk cost fallacy. she also had access to two tendrils now, instead of one, which already meant that it was much easier for her to cope with multitasking than it had been. besides, she already had a clear path to getting a third tendril going, and it probably wouldn¡¯t take more than a month or two of practice anyway.


    therefore, after some thinking, and a bit of regret, alice set the perk aside. while it was actually still somewhat useful, alice felt that the final perk was better.


    alice had never once doubted the usefulness of {object control}. for a level 5 perk, it did more work than many of her level 20 perks by letting her sense movement in her surroundings. even if it wasn¡¯t particularly precise or efficient, compared to the usual level 5 perks, it was incredibly powerful, and supplemented {projectile awareness} and {dodge} very nicely. enhancing her ability to ¡®see¡¯ in 360 degrees also would eliminate one of the greatest weaknesses of mages, which was the fact that anytime humans fought with a mage they would immediately try to kill the mages in a surprise attack. monsters were about as smart as the average potato, but even they had a tendency to focus on killing and eating mages over other people if given the choice ¨C probably because mages had more mana inside of their bodies. even though alice didn¡¯t have many plans for picking fights when she could avoid it, improving her odds of not getting murdered in a surprise attack still seemed like a fabulous idea. allira had already rooted out most of the sigmusi infiltration into the south, but it never hurt to be cautious. especially since alice would be travelling north soon, away from the protection of the [guards] inside town.


    after a few more minutes of thinking just to make sure she couldn¡¯t find any reasons to second guess her decision, alice grabbed {improved object control}.


    after picking the perk, alice watched the rainbow mana, waiting to see what changes happened.


    the rainbow mana didn¡¯t disappoint her. it quickly flooded towards her. even though she was used to seeing mana swirl towards her whenever she gained attributes or perks, now that she could see the rainbow mana, she was also able to observe what happened inside her body. after the rainbow mana passed through her skin, it seemed to wander around for a while, as if feeling out all of the mana already there. then, it rushed towards her head. alice couldn¡¯t see her own skull, but based on direction and angle, alice suspected the mana was making its way towards her brain.


    she didn¡¯t have the ability to observe what happened after that, sadly. however, she quietly noted the few moments where the mana had seemed to be ¡®feeling out¡¯ what was already present.


    after that, she did her best to feel out the changes from the new perk. she picked up a pen and closed her eyes, before dropping it.


    even before upgrading her perk, she would have at least been able to tell that something was moving relatively close to her and falling towards the floor. when an object was heading towards her, as a result of illa¡¯s training, she could usually at least stop it from hitting her half of the time. however, it was still difficult and unreliable. she often slightly misjudged the location of the object, and she never knew quite how much force the object had, so sometimes she would apply too much or too little force to stopping the object. it worked sometimes, but it was crude and imprecise.


    this was no longer a problem. even with her eyes closed, alice could tell the exact location of the falling pen. she could also get a sense of the object¡¯s mass and speed. although it was nothing as precise as ¡®xx number of grams 40 centimeters in front of you,¡¯ she could at least tell that it was a fairly light object falling towards the floor at a somewhat fast pace, and she had an instinctual feel for where the object was.


    this gave her an idea. without opening her eyes, alice tried to use a mana tendril to stop the object from falling.


    unlike before, alice managed to perfectly catch the object. rather than deflecting the object too hard, wasting mana, or pushing too softly against the object, slowing it down without stopping it, alice managed to almost perfectly halt the object in midair.


    and then her ability to sense the location of the object vanished, since it was no longer moving. however, alice kept applying the same amount of mana to the pen. when she opened her eyes, directly in front of her was a floating pen.


    she grinned. precisely stopping an object she couldn¡¯t see without wasting even a fraction of a marium of mana ¨C this was exactly what she was hoping for.


    she could finally catch those damn beans illa was fond of lobbing at her during training. and, more importantly, she could probably do the same with an arrow. as long as she wasn¡¯t sleeping, she should now be incredibly hard to ambush. unless the other party had perks to make it harder to observe their arrows or something, but hey ¨C it was certainly better to have some protection than none. as of now, people would need specific perks to successfully ambush her, and without them they would certainly fail. that was progress.


    grinning a little, she turned her attention back towards her status screen.


    next to [student of kinetic magic], there was the word max written in all capital letters.


    alice had heard of class evolutions before, but this would be the first time she would be able to see one in person.


    her grin grew wider as she pressed the little blinking ¡®max¡¯ icon on her status screen.


    the class [student of kinetic magic] disappeared from her status screen, and for a brief moment, the classes section of her status screen seemed to melt into a puddle of glitch signs. then, the status screen closed itself, and a new popup screen appeared in front of her.


    class evolution: student of kinetic magic


    kinetic mage: the most traditional advancement for students of kinetic magic. kinetic mages have a wide variety of perk options available, and can learn almost anything. be it combat, research, or enchanting, this class trades away the power and precision other class evolutions might offer for a wide and versatile selection of perks.


    unlocked as a result of: having the student of kinetic magic class at level 25


    increases effect of [magic] attribute by 15%. increases effect of [perception] attribute by 5%. your kinetic magic seed will have its mana conversion efficiency improved by 10%. you will gain a moderate boost to your instinctive ability to use kinetic magic, improving the speed and effectiveness with which you wield kinetic magic.


    alice didn¡¯t think particularly carefully about this option. it was neither good nor bad. it was a pretty solid backup option if nothing else caught her eye, but it also probably wouldn¡¯t be her first choice.


    kinetic catapult: trading away many of the defensive options of a traditional kinetic mage, the kinetic catapult is the option traditionally chosen by many members of armies across the world. they excel in picking up heavy objects with kinetic magic and then hurling it at targets in the distance repeatedly, as well as tearing down fortified structures and working with other kinetic catapults. recommended for those who pursue long range firepower and teamwork with other kinetic mages of all varieties. especially useful when sieging an enemy fortification, or whenever extremely long range attacks are useful. falls somewhat short when doing other things, compared to other class options.


    unlocked as a result of: experience or take part in long-distance bombardment that was the result of multiple mages using kinetic magic together. have [student of kinetic magic] at level 25


    increases the effect of the [magic] attribute by 10%. [endurance] attribute will now have a slight effect on the [magic] attribute, boosting your mana reserves by a moderate amount. when attempting to work together with other [kinetic cannoneers], you will gain improved ability to balance heavy objects together. your [perception] attribute will have its effect slightly altered, boosting your ability to see things far in the distance while losing some of the boosts [perception] normally gives to your other senses (especially smell and hearing).


    huh. well that explains a bit about how these armies coordinate their mages. i always figured there was probably some sort of perk [generals] or some other military leader got that helped mages figure out how to lift up rocks and throw them together. i guess this class does the same thing, and a lot more besides that.


    honestly though, it¡¯s not really for me. if anything, trading away my close combat ability is the last thing i want to. right now, my kinetic magic serves as my best line of defense if someone wants to hurt me. this class trades that important function away for abilities i don¡¯t really need. i can certainly see why the class exists, but it¡¯s almost entirely useless for me.


    i am a little surprised by the fact that allira¡¯s illusion allowed me to qualify for this class, though. come to think of it, i wonder if allira¡¯s {sigmusi (language proficiency)} ever increased as a result of using her own ability? i don¡¯t know whether immortal allira¡¯s illusion is based on her memory and understanding of what happened, or on the system¡¯s understanding of the events that happened back then, or something else entirely. i would be pretty interested in finding out, if i ever get the chance to ask.


    alice shook her head, turning her thoughts away from allira¡¯s perks and abilities and back towards her class advancement.


    kinetic brawler: a class for those who prefer getting up front and personal during fights, and then supplementing their physical abilities with kinetic magic. the kinetic brawler has a wide variety of perks, many of which are similar to those in the [kinetic mage] class. however, where a traditional kinetic mage has a great deal of versatility, being able to gain perks suitable for most situations, [kinetic brawlers] tend to have significantly stronger perks. however, most of them only work within a very certain distance. strongly recommended to be paired with some sort of melee-oriented class, such as [swordsman] or [soldier].


    unlocked by: [student of kinetic magic] at level 25. any melee weapon related skill at 15 or higher. kill at least 10 monsters or humans with a melee weapon while having used kinetic magic during the fight.


    +5% effect of [strength], [endurance], [dexterity], [magic], and [perception]. all combat related classes gain 10% more experience points. once per day, you may activate {adrenaline}, which will increase your [perception], [dexterity], and [strength] by 40% for 10 seconds. {adrenaline} will also be automatically activated if you suffer serious injuries, if you have not already used {adrenaline} for the day.


    how in the world did i ever qualify for this class? what the heck?


    alice was more than slightly baffled, before she thought back to the lonely months she had spent surviving on her own. during that time, she had, indeed, used a spear to kill several spidercrabs. she had usually used kinetic magic to hold the spidercrabs down and keep them from biting her before finishing them off with a few spear stabs.


    split mind (student of kinetic magic 20)


    improved object control (sensory enhancement) (student of kinetic magic 25)


    enchanter''s vision (apprentice enchanter 5)


    skills


    academic skills:


    basic mathematics: 122


    english (language proficiency): 100


    illvarian (language proficiency): 98 -> 99


    intermediate mathematics: 78


    advanced mathematics: 18


    sigmusi (language proficiency): 0->7


    magic skills:


    kinetic manipulation: 48 -> 49


    mana control: 33 -> 34


    mana precision: 31 -> 33


    kinetic force: 29 -> 30


    projectile awareness : 9


    divided attention: 8


    basic enchanting: 6


    crafting skills:


    weaving: 27


    woodworking: 25


    cooking: 12


    stoneworking: 11


    physical skills:


    spearmanship: 19


    sprinting: 18


    dodge: 18


    climbing: 9


    fishing: 9


    digging: 8


    stealth: 4


    basic medicine: 3


    magic seed: 3/4


    (+1 undetermined seeds max 10% conversion rat.)


    kinetic seed (135%)


    organic seed (10%)


    pure mana seed (10%->50%)


    achievements:


    outworlder (rarity: 10)


    seeker of truth (ii) (rarity: 8)


    baptized by broken mana (rarity: 6)


    survivor of winter (rarity: 3)


    monstrous encounter (rarity: 1)


    monster slayer (ii) (rarity: 1)


    well trained (rarity: 4)


    murderer (rarity: 4)


    bookworm (rarity: 3)


    kinetic manabinder (rarity n/a)


    at the same time, the mana inside of alice¡¯s body began to dance. the fractals inside of her body began to shift, swirling round and round. rainbow mana once again probed the mana inside of her body, feeling out the structures and fractals already in place. then, alice saw some mana from her surroundings, especially the rainbow mana, slowly flow towards her body, before coalescing inside of her mana core. however, since she had a much better view of what was happening this time, alice noticed that the rainbow mana wasn¡¯t actually fusing with her body, or any of the mana already inside of her.


    instead, it seemed to be acting more like a filter. more ordinary mana rushed in from her surroundings, before touching the rainbow mana. there, the mana seemed to change in a way alice couldn¡¯t quite put her finger on. the color and shape remained the same, however, instead of being ¡®mana from her surroundings,¡¯ it suddenly seemed compatible with her. alice couldn¡¯t put it into better words than that, because she didn¡¯t quite understand what was happening. however, that was the distinct impression she got as she watched.


    the little ball of grey-white light inside of her magic core suddenly began to grow brighter and brighter for a few moments, before it started to dim again. however, alice could see that the kinetic magic-colored light ball was more structured than before. even though it was still just a lump of colored mana, there were certain lines and patterns to it that alice could see. however, these lines and patterns didn¡¯t seem to be linked to the entirety of the mana seed ¨C instead, it looked more like a second, half-formed mana seed made of fractals had been added on to the original mana seed.


    after a few moments, the rainbow mana dispersed. the mana, which had passed through the rainbow mana fractals and changed somehow, remained inside of her body, forming what alice assumed to be her new class and the benefits that came with it. the rainbow mana, however, returned to the hodgepodge of rainbow mana in her surroundings, no longer interacting with her at all. with a bit of curiosity, alice extended a mana tendril out towards the rainbow mana that had just acted as a filter moments ago. however, once again, it was now avoiding her mana.


    a few moments later, the light from the ball of mana inside of her magic core settled down, and the fractals started to slowly merge with her kinetic magic seed. within just a few minutes, it looked perfectly natural, as if it had been there all along.


    hmm. interesting, thought alice, as she observed the mana in the room settle down once more.

 Chapter 59

    chapter 59


    the next day, when alice went to the docks for work, she was caught off guard.


    the reason for this was simple. the broken mana in the docks had, rather naturally, built up over the time she had been working there. [kinetic mages] moved things around, [organic mages] occasionally popped in to heal injuries on the dock workers if needed, and on rare occasions enchantments would also be used in the area. all of these things would naturally cause broken mana to build up. alice had grown used to the fog of broken mana that hung over the docks even before she had gained the ability to see the rainbow fog that hung over the entire world. and after she gained the ability to see the rainbow mana, she had started to forget about the broken mana at the docks entirely. after all, she was baptized by broken mana, so it wasn¡¯t like any density of broken mana was ever going to harm her. and she simply had more interesting things to focus on.


    the amount of broken mana at the docks had never reached the critical point where it might start causing harm to people, of course. the other mages that worked in the area weren¡¯t that careless. however, alice had grown used to seeing a little bit of it here and there.


    however, today, the broken mana near and above the docks had shrunk by a noticeable amount. and as alice watched, it was still continuing to shrink. alice also noticed that the rainbow mana in the area seemed to be behaving a bit abnormally, although she didn¡¯t have a very good view of what exactly was going on.


    intrigued, alice stepped into the area to see milo and some of the other mages waving mana tendrils around. wherever their mana tendrils went, broken mana disappeared.


    the non-magical workers weren¡¯t around that day. it was just mages right now. there were even a few mages alice recognized as being part of the town, but who didn¡¯t have jobs at the docks. near the water, for example, was one of the town¡¯s [organic mages] who specialized in healing. standing next to him was an [organic mage] who specialized in healing herself while fighting that alice vaguely remembered taking part in the expedition. a wide variety of mages from around town were all joining together to clean up the broken mana at the docks.


    milo finally noticed her, and gave her a cheery wave. ¡°good morning, lady alice! it¡¯s cleanup day for the docks.¡±


    ¡°cleanup day?¡± alice felt somewhat baffled. she didn¡¯t remember a day like this happening so far in the two and a half weeks since she had started working here.n??v€l-b1n was the first platform to present this chapter.


    ¡°whenever the broken mana buildup gets bad enough, we flush out the area. some of the dock mages usually handle smaller regions regularly, but we also have a ¡®full clean¡¯ day. just to make sure no one gets hurt. on that day, all of the mages in town get together to clean up everything in the area,¡± said milo as he gestured towards a cloud of broken mana. ¡°that day is today. how about you take that area near the entrance, and start working your way towards the river? i¡¯ll help you after we finish this area up.¡±


    ¡°unfortunately, i still don¡¯t know how to clean up broken mana,¡± said alice, feeling more than slightly awkward.


    ¡°illa never showed you?¡± milo seemed surprised.


    ¡°no. she kept mentioning she would get to it at some point soon, but the expedition came up, and then the hunting party for the vinebears... overall, we just somehow never got around to it. the training room illa uses is also mostly used by her and occasionally me, and she said it would be easier to see whenever there was more broken mana in the area. i was originally planning to bring it up again next week if i still didn¡¯t know how to purify broken mana by then.¡±


    ¡°huh. come over here, then. it¡¯s actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it, and it doesn¡¯t take too much effort to learn. i¡¯ll give you a quick tutorial. i don¡¯t know much of the theory behind it, but i can do the practical bits. illa can teach you about the more theory-oriented bits behind it whenever she gets around to it,¡± said milo, shrugging. alice quickly obliged, heading over to the area where milo and the other mages were standing.


    ¡°so, the gist of cleaning up broken mana is just a visualization exercise. most usage of mana relies on pushing mana out of your mana seeds through tendrils, right? you guide mana out of your seed, through a tendril, and into a target, thus making the target do something. mana purification is sort of the opposite.


    ¡°take a mana tendril and push it into a broken mana area ¨C like this,¡± said milo, as he moved one of his mana tendrils towards a particularly dense cloud of broken mana. ¡°then, what you want to do is to imagine drawing the broken mana towards the mana tendril. however, you don¡¯t want to actually suck it into your mana seed ¨C after all, that way you might give yourself broken mana poisoning. instead, you want to draw the mana into the tendril and then leave it there ¨C like this,¡± said milo. as alice watched, milo¡¯s mana tendril seemed to start acting like a vacuum cleaner. mana from their surroundings was slowly, but surely, drawn into milo¡¯s mana tendril. alice realized that all of the mages around her were also drawing mana into their mana tendrils over and over again ¨C they were just doing it much more quickly, since they didn¡¯t need to bother teaching someone what was going on.


    once it was inside of milo¡¯s mana tendril, the mana just... stopped moving.


    ¡°once the mana is contained inside of one of your mana tendrils, imagine returning it to a state of nothing. you don¡¯t need to focus on any image in particular, but there are a few different ones most mages find helpful. i personally like to imagine a blank sheet of paper, but the image people use to purify mana can be pretty much anything. some people prefer to imagine air, or sunlight, or any variety of other things. then, guide a little bit of mana out of your mana seed and into your mana tendril while holding on to this image. over the course of a few seconds, the broken mana you¡¯re in contact with will slowly break down. see?¡± as alice watched, the broken mana inside of milo¡¯s mana tendril did indeed start to dissolve.


    a few things started happening at the same time. totally unnoticed by milo, rainbow mana rushed towards milo¡¯s mana tendril from the air around him. this was the second time alice had ever seen the rainbow mana actively move towards someone else¡¯s mana. the only other time she had witnessed the rainbow mana interact with human-controlled mana was when alice had evolved her class.


    the rainbow mana seemed to act as a sort of filter again this time. milo¡¯s mana touched the rainbow mana, where it seemed to change into a sort of... whiteness. it looked kind of like broken mana, but not quite like broken mana at the same time. before alice had time to get a better look at it, it touched the broken mana inside of milo¡¯s mana tendril.


    and then both the not-broken mana and the broken mana just vanished into thin air.


    one moment it was there. over the course of the next minute, as far as alice could tell, there was nothing there at all. no purified mana. no light or heat. it didn¡¯t look like the mana had broken down into anything at all.


    the broken mana was just... gone.


    it was like someone had hit the delete button on the chunk of broken mana, leaving nothing whatsoever behind.


    what?


    alice stared blankly at the patch of air inside of milo¡¯s mana tendril.


    alice reached the weekend while still feeling a strange mixture of irritation and excitement. previously, she had considered the ¡®can mages use magic with no mana in their surroundings¡¯ to be more of a side note. she had basically considered it to be an afterthought to the main experiment ¨C seeing how lack of mana influenced milo and cecilia. she had assumed that she would find out what she had already assumed ¨C mages would probably fail to use magic without mana, and that would be that. she would still test it, because one of the fundamental needs of science was to put your model where your mouth was and prove your assumptions. however, she had considered it to be a done deal.


    now, she checked one of her old notebook entries. it had been written quite a while ago ¨Cbefore the expedition, even. it had originally been simply a set of thoughts inside of her head, but she had later transcribed it onto one of her precious pieces of paper, because she had felt it was worth writing down. while her memory was vastly improved compared to when she had lived on earth, it wasn¡¯t yet perfect enough to forgo paper notes entirely.


    the sheet of notebook paper detailed her hypotheses on how mages got energy to use magic.


    1) hypothesis: mana is actually digested from extra food somehow ¨C as in, mages eat a lot more than regular people (not that i have observed, based on my own eating ¨C possibly [survivor] reducing food requirements or something though). magic seeds might actually be converting extra nutrition into mana. (do mages eat more than regular people? check this later. if all mages consistently eat more food than this is good evidence for this, and if mages don¡¯t eat more this hypothesis is unlikely.)


    alice had already done her best to test this hypothesis, and had eventually come to the conclusion that it was incorrect. mages seemed to have no dietary needs that were unique to them. they did eat more than average people ¨C however, that was mostly a difference based on income, rather than actual need. if a mage was on the brink of starvation, they could still use magic just fine, and similarly, nobody had ever found a single difference in dietary needs among mages. while alice definitely felt this world had some major flaws in how it explored scientific questions, she was pretty sure that over the few thousand years of recorded human history in this world someone would have noticed something as obvious as ¡®mages need lots of food to do magic.¡¯ the fact that nobody had ever picked up on a difference here was a pretty good indicator that there probably wasn¡¯t anything to find.


    2)hypothesis: mages absorb mana from their food somehow. i have noticed that food itself contains mana on this planet ¨C all living things seem to contain at least a bit of mana, and this includes plants. maybe mages are just somehow digesting this energy and then spitting it out using magic seeds? check to see if the amount of mana in the diet changes mana recharge rate).


    while it has only been an experiment involving two people, alice and cecilia had already tested this. the net change in mana regeneration rate was... nothing. eating no mana in each meal or super mana-rich food with every meal changed absolutely nothing about one¡¯s mana regeneration rate and magic ability. while there was some small potential for the two individuals involved in the experiment to have gotten some weird results due to sample size, alice felt that she could at least dismiss this train of thought for now. she had a preliminary result indicating this line of thought was probably just a waste of time, and while she would still do some follow up experiments eventually, for now she was comfortable ignoring it.


    3) hypothesis: mana is filtered from mana in the air, and mages just absorb when they aren¡¯t absorbing mana to improve their stats (assuming that¡¯s why people ¡®naturally¡¯ absorb mana). (do i absorb more mana than usual when i use magic? have not checked yet.) (if it¡¯s safe to cut myself off from mana, see if i can keep using magic if i sit in a room with no mana for multiple days.)


    alice looked at this question for a moment, before she nodded. this was currently her primary assumption for how mages got mana. she would be putting it to the test today, along with cecilia and milo. if the two lost their ability to use magic after being cut off from mana for a while, that would be a good indicator that this line of thought was on the right track.


    4) hypothesis: mana is somehow condensed from sunlight, and mages are doing the same thing plants do without mitochondria or something. (idea kind of vague, but maybe? see if cutting myself off from sunlight causes me to lose magic abilities or something. i don¡¯t think this one is correct, but still. the sun is a big, obvious energy source, and it would be dumb not to at least check later).


    alice had already determined this one wasn¡¯t it. again, nobody had ever found anything to this effect. even just looking at the town around her, there were a few mages that were, to put it bluntly, near-agoraphobic. cecilia herself rarely ventured outside after news of her father¡¯s death was brought back to town. when she had been a little more willing to talk about the following period, she had mentioned to alice that she had zero problem using magic even after staying indoors for almost a week straight. thus, sunlight probably wasn¡¯t the solution here.


    5) mana does not give a shit about conservation of energy, and is just doing whatever it wants. unlikely, but it¡¯s magic after all. who knows what it¡¯s capable of?


    this was now alice¡¯s second most likely hypothesis. which was unfortunate, because she had mostly written this down as a joke originally. she hadn¡¯t actually expected that it had any real chance at being correct. something which made her more than slightly twitchy, because if this hypothesis proved to be correct...


    well, it would toss out a lot of other assumptions alice had. about how reality worked. if conservation of energy wasn¡¯t, well... true, then alice would really be looking at an alien world. one in which many of her previous assumptions would need to be tossed aside, and she would need to restructure the fundamental root of her understanding of reality, at least to a degree.


    which was why she hadn¡¯t seriously considered it before seeing how broken mana was ¡®purified.¡¯ she had written it down more as a way of covering all of her bases. a conclusion that she didn¡¯t really think she would come to.


    conservation of energy was one of the building blocks of reality. it was a fundamental, inescapable of fact of life. it was part of the idea that every component of reality could be broken down into smaller, more manageable chunks of mathematically provable and identifiable chunks of matter and energy. it was one of the greatest hallmarks of human progress towards understanding the universe. the notion that, every single gram of matter and every joule of energy had always existed and would always exist in some form.


    even when matter and antimatter collided, something was left behind.


    if alice¡¯s growing speculation turned out to be right, and she learned that it didn¡¯t work here...


    what did that mean?


    honestly, alice had no clue.


    which was why she was hoping she would discover she was jumping to conclusions earlier. being wrong never felt good, but when the alternative was just directly throwing half of her understanding of reality out the window, alice kind of preferred the notion that she was just wrong this time.


    still, that didn¡¯t stop her from quietly writing in a new set of notes into her notebook.


    1)check whether conservation of energy is still correct when magic does... magic stuff. measure things wherever possible ¨C mariums of mana whenfueling enchantments is a good place to start.


    2) investigate in great detail how purifying broken mana actually works. this needs much, much more investigation.


    alice closed her notebook, before she began walking to cecilia¡¯s shop. the weekend was here.


    it was time to test some hypotheses.

 Chapter 60

    chapter 60


    when alice walked into cecilia¡¯s enchanting shop, many of the less popular items had been packed up. it was obvious based on the emptied shelves that people were coming into the shop more frequently right now. once cecilia left, it might be a while before another dedicated [enchanter] came to cyra. therefore, the people who were able to afford enchanted items had obviously been buying up everything they could before cecilia headed north, along with the magic cores needed to power everything. even if it would still be possible to import enchanted items afterwards, that would introduce extra costs, wait times, and further inconveniences.


    the only exceptions to the mass buyouts were the neat rows of enchanting ingredients. after all, only mages who were able to do some enchanting actually had a use for those. even though they were displayed on the shelves as ¡®merchandise,¡¯ they were often used by the shop owner rather than customers. even though some mages, like alice, would buy the ingredients to practice enchanting or to make some quick and easy enchantments, the market was far more limited for enchanting materials than for actual enchanted items.


    milo arrived at the shop a minute after alice did. ¡°lady alice! good to see ya!¡±


    ¡°thank you very much for coming, sir milo,¡± said alice, giving him a courteous nod as well.


    ¡°you¡¯re here too!¡± said cecilia, as she walked out from the back of the shop. ¡°good to see you, lady alice. and you as well, sir milo.¡±


    ¡°good to you see you as well, little lady cecilia!¡± said milo, giving cecilia a wide grin.


    ¡°are you two ready?¡± asked alice.


    ¡°yeah. we¡¯re mostly testing to see how fast stats drop without mana, right?¡±


    ¡°that¡¯s... one of the two things we¡¯re testing,¡± said alice, feeling her eyes twitch slightly as she thought of her new theories about mana and energy conversion. ¡°i also want to... hopefully finalize the results of our test on where mana comes from.¡± if the laws of conservation of energy still worked, and if alice wasn¡¯t missing something else that would realistically lend itself to producing mana. even though alice was pretty sure she was hitting all of the obvious ways to produce energy, she was also willing to believe that she could be wrong or missing something.


    ¡°sure. makes sense ¨C we might as well get that experiment done too. by the way, before i move, we¡¯re going to need to take down the manaless room. i¡¯m contractually obligated to make sure there are no remaining enchantments inside of the building before i turn the building over to the new owner. therefore, next week, we need to take it down,¡± said cecilia.


    ¡°all right. next weekend, we¡¯ll set aside sunday to break everything back down into components,¡± said alice, not too concerned. she had already started to get into the habit of stuffing some mana cores and random enchanting materials into her storage perk, just in case she wanted to enchant something on the go. she was already storing a few buckets of the pure mana sap inside of {sample collection}. recovering the sap from the walls would probably be difficult, so she would be down a bucket of sap and the mana cores she had already fed the enchantment. still, setting up another manaless room wouldn¡¯t be too hard now that she had both the supplies and the know-how.


    the three of them quickly got the preliminary work out of the way ¨C testing how much cecilia and milo could lift at once, preparing sacks of sturdy objects to evaluate how much their strength had decreased, and so on. testing mental faculties and some stats like [dexterity] was much harder to quantify, but alice had at least prepared a few simple sudoku puzzles that the two could work on during the experiment, all at approximately the same difficulty level (as far as she could tell, at least). it was far from a perfect way to gauge intelligence, but it was something. with some luck, maybe she would think of a better way to test mental stats in the future, but this was her best idea for now. she gave milo and cecilia a bit of time to familiarize themselves with how the puzzles worked, and once they both had a decent grasp of what they were supposed to do she moved on. finally, alice readied her{timer} perk, thankful that they no longer needed to rely on heartbeats to measure time.


    with that out of the way, the three of them proceeded to the manaless room. just to make absolutely sure that nothing was about to go horribly wrong, alice used {safety analysis} on cecilia and milo one last time. lowering one¡¯s [endurance] meant temporarily weakening the body¡¯s immune system, overall resilience, and health, and so even though alice¡¯s perk had said the experiment would be safe when she had tried it a few days ago, something might have changed since then. if milo or cecilia got sick, for example, the experiment could easily change from ¡®ultimately harmless¡¯ to ¡®dangerous¡¯ or even ¡®life threatening.¡¯ obviously, alice didn¡¯t want her friends getting hurt over this, so she was very careful to double and triple check everything. once she was satisfied that the experiment was still safe, alice double checked whether milo and cecilia had any perks that might mess up the experiment somehow, before finally beginning the experiment.


    milo was the first to step into the manaless room.


    similar to when alice had done the experiment, it didn¡¯t take long before milo started to notice a decrease in his strength. but milo¡¯s stats seemed to be dropping faster than alice¡¯s had, and his symptoms were also far more pronounced than alice¡¯s.


    ¡°i have a horrible headache,¡± said milo. ¡°my strength is also going pretty fast. how much time has it been?¡±


    ¡°three minutes.¡±


    milo frowned, as he reached over to the sack he could barely lift, even at full strength. he was unable to lift it. then, after that, he went to the 95% strength sack... and was also unable to lift it. alice immediately recorded the results. milo¡¯s strength was decreasing more quickly than hers had. alice had still just barely been able to lift the 95% strength sack at around five minutes, but milo was already unable to lift his at 3 minutes.


    ¡°my headache is getting worse. it¡¯s harder to think as well. hmm.... if i had to say, it¡¯s actually sort of like i had an extra drink or five more than what i might normally get at the bar,¡± said milo, waving his hands in front of his face. ¡°my vision is getting much worse, and my movements are getting slower and clumsier. it feels... ughhhh,¡± said milo. then, wincing a little as he moved around, milo pulled out alice¡¯s first ¡®logic puzzle.¡¯ milo took about two minutes to solve the first one.


    as the experiment continued, alice took a moment to appreciate the rainbow mana inside of the ¡®manaless¡¯ room. since alice hadn¡¯t been able to observe the rainbow mana during her first experiment, it had almost certainly still been in the room, so she had left the rainbow mana in the room the second time as well to observe it.


    normally, every so often, the rainbow mana would rearrange itself. alice was beginning to get more used to the way it flowed and moved, and was actually starting to recognize some shapes and patterns. even if she didn¡¯t know exactly what was going on behind the scenes, she could still remember the way rainbow mana seemed to transform when it was trying to guide mana inside of someone¡¯s body. whenever people moved, when they gained levels, the rainbow mana would swirl around them. the seemingly random eddies were people continuously gaining tiny fractions of stats and levels, every single second of the day.


    or at least that was alice¡¯s running theory right now.


    and that was it.


    nothing happened. the rainbow mana didn¡¯t react at all. the pure mana in the room, however, did something a fair bit more interesting. it drifted towards alice, just as it would when she normally gained levels and stats.


    and then it was absorbed by her, just like usual. however, the mana didn¡¯t integrate itself with any of her muscles, or class fractals, or anything of the sort.


    instead, it just kind of... drifted around in her body. it moved with the ferocious speed of a dying snail as it limped its way around her body over and over again, not accomplishing much of anything. occasionally, when the mana drifted near one of her class fractals, a small amount of the mana would be absorbed inside of it. however, the amount was quite small compared to the number of mariums of pure mana alice had dumped into the room. she had thrown out around 30 mariums from her pure mana seed, and maybe two or three were being absorbed per minute. since alice was used to seeing dozens or hundreds of mariums of mana get filtered and absorbed every second, this was truly way too slow.


    finally, after a few minutes of absorption, her [explorer of magic] class... leveled up?


    y*& [email protected] le#$veled uppppppp!


    explorer of magic: 44 -> 44#@l%#$


    alice looked at the incomprehensible glitch signs on the system notification, before she turned back to her status screen. the [explorer of magic] class was still at level 44 on her status screen, despite her having ¡®gained a level¡¯ in it. furthermore, there were now a row of extra glitch signs directly attached the class¡¯s level in her status screen.


    the system had finally bugged out.


    alice opened the door, and the rainbow mana finally reacted. for the second time ever, it stopped avoiding human beings and went inside of alice, seemingly dead set on straightening out whatever was wrong with her class fractals now. less than a minute later, she properly got a level in [explorer of magic], the glitch signs having all disappeared completely. she briefly checked her perk choices, before she decided to think a little longer. she would deal with perks once she was done experimenting. she had done multiple new experiments, and {truth seeker} might or might not be close to getting another tier. if it did, alice wanted to at least she what she got first since it might change what she wanted in her next perk, and none of the options were terribly relevant right now.


    besides that, alice had a sudden thought. it was closer to a fit of curiosity, but it was also the natural result of the many things alice had been seeing and thinking about during her time at cyra.


    the system being able to be fooled and manipulated made it fairly clear that, whatever the holy church of the almighty system claimed, the system wasn¡¯t a god. it was some sort of incredibly complex machine or enchantment, or something. however, it was neither omniscient nor omnipotent, despite being close in what it could circumstantially accomplish.


    the church had very clear mentions of there being a time where humanity had existed, but the system hadn¡¯t. why had the system suddenly come into being?


    and was it possible for alice to do the same thing as the system?


    it had only been an idle thought, but once alice spent a few more moments pondering the idea, the ¡®system¡¯ seemed to be some sort of incredibly complex thing that changed mana somehow. there were obviously a lot of specific mechanics behind how it worked, but at the end of the day, that seemed to be the gist of what the system was doing. in that case, was it possible for her to achieve the same effect, even in an environment where the system was cut off?


    sure, it was thousands of times more complex than anything alice had ever seen before. if the system was equivalent to calculus problem, alice barely knew multiplication right now.


    still, the more she observed, explored, and experimented, the more she felt that even though she barely understood what the system was doing or why and how it worked the way it did...


    at the end of the day, she already had some vague ideas about what she was looking at. and if she just kept striding forward, she would eventually figure out what the system was and why it existed. how it worked.


    alice grinned a little at the thought, before she started her final experiment that she had planned. she had wanted to see whether mages needed mana in their surroundings to use magic, and that would require spending a much more extended period of time inside of the manaless room to confirm what happened to her mana regeneration. thus, with cecilia¡¯s permission she got some meals ready, got some basic bedding set up, and prepared to spend the night inside of the manaless room.


    however, now that the little idea of trying to copy the system had sprouted inside of her head, it simply wouldn¡¯t leave.


    the system was the most miraculous thing she had ever seen before. but at the end of the day, if there were definite, specific mechanics behind how it had been constructed and how it worked, surely it was possible to recreate it and observe it.


    that was the nature of all technology ¨C it would be miraculous and nearly magical, so long as one didn¡¯t understand the nature of what one was looking at. while this world had literal mana, and magic, inside of it, the system seemed to defy the way even those two things worked. however, seeming to defy the nature of magic and actually defying the nature of magic were two totally different things. there had to be some reason behind how and why the system worked, right?

 Chapter 61

    chapter 61


    after a night spent inside of the manaless room, alice¡¯s mana deprivation symptoms didn¡¯t get any worse. this more or less lined up with what alice had experienced and seen so far. it seemed that there was no difference between half an hour and sixteen hours inside of a manaless environment ¨C once the mana deprivation symptoms reached a certain ¡®maximum¡¯ threshold, they did not seem to get any worse no matter how long the body went without getting more mana. alice originally found this reduction of stats and perks to be quite uncomfortable, because she had long gotten used to the extraordinary strength and balance she had acquired after living in this world. however, as time passed, she found herself growing used to the sensation of being weaker and less balanced again.


    more important was the fact that alice¡¯s mana was still regenerating. she had emptied it completely after entering this room, and even cleared out every speck of mana and rainbow mana here, just to make sure there was no mana left at all. anytime she acquired any amount of mana in her magic seeds, she would immediately empty it, trying to track the moment where her body stopped producing more mana. with {timer} and {improved memory}, she would have an exact time estimate after that.


    this was predicated on the assumption she would eventually stop producing mana. which, true to her worst fears, never happened.


    alice was still regenerating mana just fine even though there was no mana in the room at all.


    there seemed to be no difference at all in her mana regeneration rate, no matter little mana there was for her to absorb.


    even after falling asleep and waking up, alice kept inexplicably producing mana from seemingly nothing whatsoever.


    this led to alice feeling even more confused. why was this happening? in the first place, thus far the world had seemed to have an at least loosely consistent sort of energy economy. monsters ate mana to survive, and thus inhabited areas with more mana. areas with less mana were usually inhabited by humans, because humans relied on crops and animals to eat food and thus acquire energy. monsters all had cores inside of their body which stored energy, much like how the human body stored energy in the form of fat. humans could even directly measure and use the energy a monster stored inside of its core by turning it into a fuel source for enchantments. the enchantment would slowly drain away the mana in the monster core until it ran out, at which point the enchantment stopped working until the cores were replaced. the fact that monster cores seemed to follow the laws of energy conservation while alice¡¯s magic seeds did nothing of the sort confused her even more.


    alice spent several minutes trying to wrestle with this seeming inconsistency, before she remembered a statement she had made to milo in the not too distant past.


    monsters and humans weren¡¯t the same. the mechanics behind how each one dealt with, processed, and used mana were totally different. monsters consistently died whenever they were cut off from mana, didn¡¯t need to eat physical food at all if enough mana was present, and couldn¡¯t access the system. while human magic cores bore some resemblance to monster cores, alice had erroneously been assuming that the two were almost equivalent. however, right now she had no evidence that this was true besides the fact both could be used as enchanting materials.


    humans had tried, and failed, to figure out how human mage cores worked for thousands of years now, and to this day nobody seemed to have any clue what exactly they did or how they worked. they just knew all mages had them, and if the organ was seriously injured, it might damage or totally disable magic until it was healed. none of illa¡¯s books, or the mages alice had spoken to, even seemed completely sure that there was mana inside of a mage core in the first place, and instead left it for academia to debate. alice also didn¡¯t know how monster cores worked, though this one was significantly more possible to read up on and research from an ethical standpoint. right now, all she knew was that monster cores were good ways to fuel enchantments and they stored energy for monsters.


    did human cores have the ability to provide ¡®permanent¡¯ enchantments, or produce mana seemingly from nowhere? using human magic cores was illegal inside of illvaria, and most other countries in the shil confederacy also didn¡¯t tolerate the usage human cores for enchanting. therefore, alice had no way of answering this question legally. while the sigmusi might know the answer, alice had zero intention of going into the sigmusi colonia to find out.


    for a brief moment, she wondered if the society of starry eyes knew the answer. while the society seemed to be known for emphasizing a few kinds of ¡®illegal¡¯ research, such as dimensional research, the society was still known to dabble in several illegal branches of research. the country of illvaria seemed to be in a state of perpetual conflict with the society, so it was inevitable illvaria had found and attacked society research bases. if alice was lucky, maybe she could read some research notes illvarians had stolen from a successful raid? even if illvaria banned dangerous and unethical research, keeping and using the information obtained from that research might be perfectly legal, much like the way the allies had handled nazi research notes after ww2. it was worth keeping an eye out for, at least.


    however, that didn¡¯t help her right now. right now, alice was left scratching her head and wondering why her mana seeds were still producing mana. either human magic seeds were producing mana from nothing, or she was missing something. alice sighed in frustration, before she turned her attention to something easier to think about.


    at the very least, alice finally had a better idea what distinguished ¡®classes¡¯ and normal ¡®magic seeds.¡¯ after her vision trip from {infusion of comprehension}, she had started to seriously consider whether classes and magic seeds were the same thing, and why the system categorized them as two different things. however, she could at least say with certainty that things like attributes, perks, etc. didn¡¯t work at full power without mana in her surroundings, while magic seeds did. it wasn¡¯t much to go on, but it was a place to start.


    finally, alice left the manaless room.


    you have leveled up!


    explorer of magic: 45-> 47, scholar: 24->29, scientist 24->28, survivor 41-> 43


    seeker of truth (ii->iii) (rarity: 8->9)


    you have consistently taken steps to understand the system and the underlying nature of reality, regardless of how well or poorly you are equipped to understand what lays before you. while the nature of reality is often confusing, striving to understand it is what it truly means to seek the truth.


    +1 primary class slot(s), +50% -> 200% class experience for all research-related classes, +10% effect of intelligence, +15% effect of perception. your ability to see mana is significantly enhanced. you will no longer experience any interference at all when attempting to observe phenomena involving mana, and will be able to see perfectly clearly.


    {seeker} of truth¡¯s upgrade wasn¡¯t too interesting, all things considered. it quadrupled the bonus she had towards experience for research related classes, which was useful, but didn¡¯t require much thought or planning. if she wanted to reach immortality someday, she would absolutely need to stack massive amounts of xp boosts together, so alice certainly wasn¡¯t complaining. still, she had been a little hopeful that she might get some sort of new ability when the achievement gained a tier. still, [explorer of magic] was getting pretty close to level 50, and that meant {outworlder} would stop boosting xp gain for that class. coupled with the fact that every 25 levels, the xp needed to gain more levels would increase exponentially, this meant that alice would start to seriously struggle to level up without this kind of boost. even though she found the new achievement to be a bit bland, it was certainly very useful.


    apart from that, she had gained another two mystery levels in survivor. alice still had no clue why she was getting levels in a class that was supposed to thrive off of surviving close scrapes with death and living in the raw, untamed wilderness. she had already pretty decisively proven that there was no real danger in sitting inside of a manaless room, so the fact she kept getting levels for this was just odd. alice was starting to wonder if this was some sort of glitch in the system, or something of the sort.


    for now, she couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of it. she added it to her list of ¡®weird observations¡¯ before ignoring it and turning her attention to her perks.


    enhanced mana tendrils


    requirements: explorer of magic level 45 or higher


    doubles the range at which you can manipulate mana tendrils.


    magic seed


    requirements: explorer of magic level 45 or higher


    passion for reading


    requirements: scholar level 25 or higher


    if you have finished reading a book within the past 30, your intelligence stat grows 25% faster and the effect of the intelligence stat increases by 20%.


    scholarly pursuits


    requirements: scholar level 25 or higher


    all research-based classes gain experience 15% faster.


    photographic memory


    requirements: scholar level 25 or higher, intelligence 150 or greater, perception 100 or greater, {improved memory} perk (or a similar perk taken from within the scholar class)


    you gain the ability to perfectly remember and reproduce all sights and images you have seen since the acquisition of this perk.


    {almost as good as glasses} was an easy perk to ignore. {passion for reading} was actually kind of interesting. alice was pretty sure the perk would almost always be active as long as she hadn¡¯t lost access to libraries or books entirely. that being said, stat boosts weren¡¯t usually particularly exciting. {scholarly pursuits} suffered from a similar problem. 15% boost to xp gain wasn¡¯t... bad, per se, but it just wasn¡¯t very important either. furthermore, after getting a 200% boost from her achievement, 15% just didn¡¯t seem like a very big bonus.


    {photographic memory} was the best pick here. it would allow alice to finally start remembering exactly what the fractals the rainbow mana spontaneously formed looked like, as well as the exact context she had seen each fractal in. even though {improved memory} was pulling its weight more and more as alice mentally kept a growing list of oddities and suspicions she had, it only fueled her desire to improve her memory further. right now, she could kind of remember what mana fractals looked like, but not well enough to visually recreate them inside of her head. {photographic memory} would directly solve this problem, and also give her a bunch of other useful minor bonuses. a {photographic memory} perk would be invaluable when she was trying to investigate the mana fractals further, since drawing them was basically impossible for her to do with any level of accuracy or precision.


    with that out of the way, alice bought a small copper ring from cecilia¡¯s supplies, covered it in pure mana sap, and started working on enchanting it. she was more than a little frustrated by how hard it was to see her surroundings ever since she had gotten the ability to see rainbow mana consistently. alice had originally been planning to just make the ring block off her ability to perceive mana for a bit, but on further reflection, alice decided that was a little too drastic. she might miss something useful or interesting while she was ¡®blinded.¡¯ therefore, alice instead decided to work on making the ring block off around 80% of her mana perception. this would be a little bit trickier, but it should make her life more bearable without potentially missing valuable information she might need later.


    her first attempt at enchanting the ring... ended in failure.


    alice had tried to just make the ring ¡®turn off the color for surrounding mana.¡¯ this... didn¡¯t really work. instead of removing the bright rainbow colors that made it hard to see, the ring spurted out broken mana while making the other mana around her turn a weird grey color.


    even more frustrating was the fact that the system-controlled mana perfectly avoided the ring¡¯s attempts to interact with it. thus meaning the ring only worked on normal mana. not to mention, at the rate the ring was burning through mana and wasting it, it would probably chew through a spidercrab core every few hours. alice had expected a little bit of inefficiency because she was using basic spidercrab cores, but this was way worse than she had been imagining.


    alice quickly realized that this ring was a total failure. though, it did give her a small money-making idea that she would work on later today, if she had time. first she wanted a ring that stopped the distracting nausea-inducing rainbow though.


    the second ring was a fair bit more effective. instead of trying to decolor all of the mana around her, alice made the ring create a pair of ¡®sunglasses¡¯ out of mana, then force them to hover in front of her eyes. it was a bit tricky to get the height correct, but after some work she had two patches of mana that hovered in front of her eyes. these patches of mana blocked out the color of her surroundings, turning the mana around her into a bunch of muted colors.


    this unfortunately came with the downside of affecting not just mana, but every other color in her surroundings as well.


    finally, alice gave in. she grabbed a type of rock that could remember two instructions and made sure to deposit the correct amount of money on cecilia¡¯s ¡®shopkeeper¡¯ counter. then she used cecilia¡¯s enchanting tools to punch a small hole in the middle and loop a string through it. then, she made the ring figure out when alice was perceiving a ¡®color¡¯ created from mana. the second instruction was to seriously dampen her ability to perceive that color whenever it was created from system mana. since the enchantment was reliant upon her own perception, she would be able to dodge the issue of rainbow mana avoiding other kinds of mana. she put it on, and finally, the dancing rainbows disappeared. even though she could still perceive muted colors shifting quietly in the background, they were no longer overwhelmingly bright and distracting. she grinned to herself.


    alice¡¯s enchanting proficiency was coming along nicely. even though this enchantment had been a fair bit more complicated than her previous ¡®simple¡¯ rings, it had only taken her three tries to get a working model.


    then, she turned her attention back to her money-making idea.


    [adventurers] often went into the wilderness to scavenge for valuable items such as enchanting materials. while higher level [adventurers] usually had perks that let them identify useful enchanting materials and avoid mana poisoning, lower level [adventurers] didn¡¯t usually have access to these perks yet. alice had already accidentally created a ring that let one perceive mana in their surroundings.


    alice decided to make a ring that would let people perceive mana, by ¡®coloring¡¯ mana near them. this mana would become visible even to totally normal people, and would provide on the spot feedback on how mana interacted with materials. this would let [adventurers] have an easier time figuring out which materials were valuable and which spots were prone to cause mana poisoning.


    while it wouldn¡¯t be valuable to high-level [adventurers], who would naturally have perks to deal with these problems, for mid level adventurers this ring would be far more useful than the perks available at earlier levels. mid-level [adventurers] were usually people that had at least made a bit of money. even though people tended to pick up the [adventurer] class because they were desperate, they usually gained levels and materials quickly or ended up in a monster¡¯s stomach, meaning that mid-level [adventurers] often had a little bit of money floating around. this kind of ring that could potentially save their life and help them avoid missing valuable things should have a market. especially in cyra, which directly bordered the unclaimed wilderness of the south and had access to trade arteries to sell enchanting materials. furthermore, the stone she had used wasn¡¯t super expensive. it was a single silver sun, which wasn¡¯t tiny, but was still affordable. if she charged three silver suns, it would be most of the daily income of a normal dock worker. an adventurer should be able to afford that much, right?


    after thinking about it, alice got to work making a few of the mana-coloring rings. if anyone bought a few of them, she could finally have a use for her pure mana magic seed, since right now she didn¡¯t have a good way to convert pure mana mariums into money. it wasn¡¯t a good long-term source of income, because she would inevitably scrap the light magic seed sooner or later, but it would help her raise some funds before she went north.


    an hour or two later, cecilia also came down to the shop. alice used {shared memory} to give cecilia a better idea of what she had been seeing all of this time regarding rainbow mana, which cecilia found fascinating, but couldn¡¯t make heads or tails of. alice decided to put it out of her mind for the rest of the day, and focus on her enchanting. the two spent the rest of the day chatting as they quietly worked on their own enchantments, with cecilia occasionally springing up to make sales. it was a comfortable and relaxing day. alice felt vaguely reminded of days she had spent soldering robot parts together after building a code in arduino with her friends, before she had been teleported to this world. all in all, it was a nice way to spend what would probably be her last full weekend in cyra.


    you have leveled up!


    (apprentice) enchanter 9-> 17, kinetic manabinder 1->2

 My grandfather will not make it.

    my grandfather will not make it.


    my grandfather will not make it. as of today, it has been a week since he was admitted to the hospital, and today we received news that he¡¯s not going to get through this. he¡¯ll survive a few more days at most.n??v€l-b1n was the first platform to present this chapter.


    it really hurts. i was wrong. i¡¯m sorry. i can¡¯t think straight right now. i¡¯ll see everyone in april or something when i can think again.

 Chapter 62

    chapter 62


    the last week that alice spent in cyra passed by slowly. alice went to and from the docks each day, converting her kinetic energy into silver suns and the right to keep training with illa for a little bit longer. at the same time, cecilia¡¯s shop continued to pack up or sell its last remaining items. upon seeing alice¡¯s attempt at making a marketable enchanted ring, cecilia offered to sell them in the shop, which was far better than alice¡¯s original plan of trying to sell them to the [adventurers] she had seen around her inn.


    the mana-revealing rings didn¡¯t exactly fly off the shelves, but they gathered enough interest for alice to make a second batch partway through the week. by the end of the week, she had sold five of the mana-revealing rings, and had two left over that no one in cyra seemed to want. having acquired a net profit of eight silver suns, or one and three - fifths of a silver crown, (along with two spare rings) alice was in a considerably better mood by the end of the week. not just because of the money, but because it proved she was capable of designing and making a piece of enchanted equipment people wanted to buy. successfully selling her items helped her kick start the loop most [enchanters] lived off of. that is, buying and enchanting materials, getting levels and improving, and selling their items. even if her actions didn¡¯t matter too much right now, she was still happy to prove to herself she was at least capable of getting this process going.


    apart from that, upon hearing that alice wanted to finish rounding off the early stages of {monster hunter}, illa had some of her servants catch a few spidercrabs and bring them to alice¡¯s training sessions. alice also mentioned a vague idea she had a long time ago, which was testing a few spidercrab eggs to see what happened during the hatching process and if monsters had any sort of ¡®mana-baptism¡¯ process they went through. illa didn¡¯t mind helping alice with this, and so she acquired both grown and unhatched spidercrabs over the last week of her stay in cyra.


    instead of just having alice directly mow down the grown spidercrabs with kinetic magic, illa had alice use them as ¡®sparring partners.¡¯ she made alice go through a variety of different scenarios that alice might encounter while travelling, especially ones where she wouldn¡¯t have [scouts] pinpoint every group of monsters half a kilometer in advance. even though it wasn¡¯t exactly a perfect way to train, since spidercrabs were pretty weak, it still gave alice a good amount of combat experience and better emergency response mechanisms, as well as two levels in [kinetic manabinder] and another level in [survivor]. even though alice had long accepted that her talents in real, up front combat were lacking, she considered boosting her combat abilities as something like going through an emergency self-defense class. hopefully unnecessary, but it wasn¡¯t a bad idea to learn something. just in case.


    that thursday, alice got the third tier of monster slayer.


    you have gained an achievement!


    monster slayer (ii->iii) rarity: 1->2


    you have successfully slain 100 monsters. (to further advance this achievement, please ensure that you are hunting stronger monsters. weak fodder will no longer suffice to advance this achievement beyond this point).


    increases the effect of the ¡®strength,¡¯ ¡®dexterity,¡¯ and ¡®perception¡¯ stats by 5% -> 15%. improves your ability to perceive monsters in a ten meter radius. any classes related to fighting or hunting monsters gain 10% more experience.


    alice didn¡¯t find the difference between tier ii and tier iii of the achievement to be that important. she was a little bit faster, stronger, and had slightly improved senses, none of which were terribly hard to acquire in this world. the biggest difference was that classes related to fighting or hunting monsters would get 10% more experience than before. a bonus which, at least to alice, probably wasn¡¯t particularly useful, since most of her classes were enchanting and research focused. [survivor] and [kinetic manabinder] benefitted from it, although alice wasn¡¯t quite sure why the second class was included, but none of her other classes got anything out of the achievement at all. it was still better than not having the achievement, so alice didn¡¯t mind it too much either way.


    the monster eggs that alice had finally acquired had originally been to see if monsters went through any sort of ¡®mana baptism¡¯ process, since alice wanted to know if monsters had any sort of issue adapting to concentrated mana. humans either became mages or died upon going through a ¡®mana baptism,¡¯ but alice had no clue whether monsters had any similar process they went through.


    after watching them hatch and grow a day, alice found no evidence the spidercrabs needed to adapt at all. just like their adult brethren, they ate mana and wanted to kill and eat her the moment they were out of the egg. thus, alice shelved the topic, though she intended to read some follow-up studies if she could find them later. surely someone else had asked this question at some point, right? better to just check the past instead of re-inventing the wheel.


    apart from that, alice grabbed three perks from {apprentice enchanter}.


    monstrous enchanting


    requirements: apprentice enchanter level 10 or higher, create at least 5 enchantments with monster cores.


    your ability to effectively link together monster cores to enchantments is moderately improved. from now on, all enchantments made by you will waste significantly less mana and produce significantly less broken mana so long as they are using monster cores as a power supply.


    alice found most of the perks for level 10 of apprentice enchanter to be fairly unimpressive. this perk at least solved one of the bigger problems alice currently had with enchanting, which was the fact that she seriously struggled to optimize mana consumption for her enchantments. the perk didn¡¯t fully solve the problem, but it at least put her on the right path. it also gave her something new to look into, because after taking the perk, alice seemed to ¡®instinctively¡¯ do a few things differently when building enchantments. these differences gave her a direction to keep improving, which was a great supplement to cecilia¡¯s instruction in enchantments. all in all, the perk would save her a lot of time and effort in improving her abilities as an [enchanter].


    faster enchanting


    then, the rainbow mana formed dozens of different fractals around her (which alice immediately memorized, fully intending to throw it into {mana construct modelling} in the near future). the mana, which alice continued to pull in from her surroundings, passed through the fractals and changed in small and subtle ways. then, another set of rainbow fractals appeared inside of alice¡¯s mana core. the magic seed which had previously looked like it was on the brink of collapse began to change. the rough, poorly built edges smoothed out. the chunks of shoddy workmanship were fixed. the previously messy and poorly structured mana became smoother and more stable. it took less than a minute for alice¡¯s messy seed to become a normal, well-constructed electromagnetic seed.


    for the first time, alice had a front row seat to appreciate just how much the system really helped out behind the scenes. for all that the system was sometimes dumb, easy to trick, and bizarre, it was also quite possibly the reason mages (and humans) could survive on this planet at all.


    this didn¡¯t seem to be without a cost, though.


    alice was well aware of the fact that ¡®electromagnetic force¡¯ was one of the four basic building blocks of reality, along with gravitational force, strong force and weak force. it was capable of doing a mind boggling number of things, because ¡®electromagnetic force¡¯ as defined by physics governed a dizzying number of things. how protons and electrons interacted with each other, the chemical behavior of matter, the color of light... all of these were fundamentally linked to electromagnetic force.


    however, in this world, ¡®electromagnetic¡¯ mages weren¡¯t capable of any of the bizarre and wacky things alice knew they should be capable of. instead, they were reduced to being the weakest and least valued of the four major types of mage. at the end of the day, they could produce electricity and lightning bolts with their mana, and they could move metal around. far from breaking reality, they were just half-baked kinetic mages with lightning thrown into the mix.


    the system was clearly helping people form stable magic seeds. it wasn¡¯t incorrect to say that without the system¡¯s help, most people would probably fail to make a fully functional magic seed in the first place. however, the system also ¡®straightened away¡¯ extra concepts alice had been trying to integrate into her electromagnetic seed. clearly, it had some sort of ¡®template¡¯ of electromagnetic magic seeds it was working with. and when people tried to innovate too much, the system would remove that innovation in the process of ¡®helping¡¯ them form a seed. alice wasn¡¯t sure whether this was purely accidental or intentional.


    still, it was probably why this world¡¯s study of the fundamental forces of physics and life were weirdly advanced in some places, and outright crippled in other places. the system accidentally got in the way of some studies just by virtue of separating fundamental forces of physics into different magic seed templates, and no one on this planet had an easy way to break free of that influence.


    on the bright side, alice had a better idea what her first attempt to mimic the system might look like. alice had already proven that if she added mana to a manaless room, for whatever reason the system wouldn¡¯t work properly. she wasn¡¯t sure whether that was because she had created the mana personally, or if there was another reason behind it. still, whenever {broken seed} was finished cooling off again alice would try forming a magic seed in a room blocked off from outside mana to see what happened. {safety analysis} informed her that the test wouldn¡¯t be harmful to her ¨C so long as she broke the seed back down quickly enough. based on the magic seed models alice envisioned, it seemed that if she tried to use the magic seed too extensively, or left it around for longer than a day or two it would start to put her health in danger. however, since it wouldn¡¯t cause any harmful effects if she used it for a few hours before nuking the seed back into oblivion. alice thought it would be a valuable and interesting experience to try out whenever her perks were ready again.


    with that, alice¡¯s week came to an end as she made rudimentary plans for her move to the north. she needed to try to find a patron, get her financial matters squared away, find a place to live, and make contact with the magic academy she was planning to apply for. illa, living up to the original agreement she had made with alice when she had first arrived in cyra, had one of her servants provide alice with a long list of magic academies, recommendations, specialties, and information about the cities and magic academies available in the north. included with the list were a few recommendation letters to give to whatever academies she applied for, stamped with illa¡¯s personal seal.


    after talking with cecilia about the other girl¡¯s future plans, alice had ultimately decided to head to the illvarian capital, metsel, with the other girl. alice¡¯s ultimate goal in heading to a magic academy was to get access to a much wider array of knowledge and books. the capital of illvaria was the largest and most prosperous city in the country, and since illvaria was the country that specialized most heavily in magic in the shil confederacy it wasn¡¯t an exaggeration to call it the magical capital of the shil confederacy. illa¡¯s husband also had a decent level of influence there, even if it wasn¡¯t the city where his company had the most influence. it hosted four different magical academies. one of them were pretty research-focused (alice¡¯s top pick), one of them was more for enchanting specialists (alice¡¯s second pick), one was a low-quality but cheaper option, and the final academy mostly catered to the military.


    with alice¡¯s future plans solidified, the week drew to a close. on friday alice and cecilia were dragged away by the people they had met in cyra. they ended up going to a local inn that was on the pricier side, where everyone got a nice meal and some drinks to send the two of them off. it was alice¡¯s first time actually drinking alcohol, and she had to admit the effects were incredibly underwhelming. possibly because her endurance was so high that she could probably outmatch a grown man back on earth. still, it was good to see all of the friends she had made and the people she had come to care about wish her well before she left for the capital in the north. milo, father friedham, a variety of mages, alice¡¯s [innkeeper], and even illa had taken some time out of their schedule to wish the two well and remind them to send letters whenever they could, and to come back to cyra if they couldn¡¯t make things work in metsel.


    alice wasn¡¯t usually a big fan of gatherings like this. however, perhaps her time in this world was changing her more than she thought. she found that she enjoyed the atmosphere of the gathering ¨C friends and acquaintances reminiscing over the few months she had spent with them, people chatting and laughing, and tasty food. although she didn¡¯t notice it, she grinned softly throughout the night as she spent time with the people she was close to. the feeling of people wishing her well and sending her off...


    it wasn¡¯t bad. even if she still wished she could have properly said goodbye to the people from earth, or that she could see her best friend and her parents again, she was still glad to be part of something like this in the world she had come to.


    saturday was spent deconstructing the manaless room, as well as helping cecilia pack up the last little bits of her shop that she couldn¡¯t sell. alice shoved a lot of it into {sample collection}, which helped cecilia cut down on her luggage quite a bit.


    on sunday, a passenger boat from the north came. a variety of people got off, many of them either [adventurers] seeking to make a fortune in cyra, people of all walks of life who hoped to make a new life for themselves on the rugged frontier of the south, and merchants who planned to offload crucial goods in cyra before loading up on enchanting materials before going back north to make a profit.


    and then passengers started to board the ship as well. temporary workers who wanted to visit their families back north during a vacation. [adventurers] who had made enough money to scrape by, and wanted to find a less life-threatening profession. people who had realized the


    as alice and cecilia boarded the wooden barge, alice took a last look at cyra. the docks, still under construction but complete enough to allow some ships to properly dock in town. the people she knew and cared about, waving at her from the crowds near the entrance. illa hadn''t made it this time, but her most trusted maid was there to serve as her representative. alice tried to remember the woman''s name. was it ella? ellia? ellia sounded correct to her.


    then, she quietly said goodbye to it. she might return here someday, or she might not. she didn''t know yet. but for now, at least, she was setting off.

 Chapter 63

    chapter 63


    as the boat sailed up the river, alice took time to admire the view of the river gently drifting by. a sight that was only occasionally marred by a special [archer] shooting a lurker, a strange plant-like monster that alice had briefly seen during her flight to cyra. apparently, they were more common in this part of the river. the arrows seemed completely unhindered by the water they travelled through to reach their targets, which alice found even more curious because of the small speckles of green, unknown mana sprinkled into each arrow. the archer certainly wasn¡¯t a mage ¨C alice could see magic seeds now, and the woman certainly didn¡¯t have one. how was the mana getting into the arrow? she pushed the thought away. for now, at least, it was irrelevant. just another thought to add to her list, and she was trying to relax right now.


    it was the first time in quite a while she had just relaxed and looked at the scenery. she couldn¡¯t help but reflect a little on that. even though she loved spending time investigating the system, she should probably make a bit more time for other activities as well.


    such as observing her surroundings in more detail. this river, for instance, was actually quite fascinating. it continuously branched out as it travelled downriver, and each branch looked like a canal that was riddled with weird mana constructs. this made alice increasingly suspicious of whether this river was ¡®natural¡¯ or not. the mana constructs were nowhere near as complex as some she had seen. still, she couldn¡¯t figure out what they were doing. {mana construct modelling} gave her a bunch of weird magic seeds such as ¡®water¡¯ and ¡®examination¡¯ in addition to some more normal ones like ¡®kinetic magic.¡¯ alice had never heard of examination mana.


    alice frowned, as she realized she was getting caught up in her own little world again. spending such an obsessive amount of time indoors working on her own projects couldn¡¯t be healthy. even when she was outside and supposed to be relaxing, she already found her thoughts drifting back to research. that was surely a sign she had spent too long with her nose in her notebook. she couldn¡¯t help but shake her head and smile a little at herself.


    when she and cecilia reached the capital, she would make it a point to interact more with people. she would start with the contact that illa had advised her to seek out, then she would spend more time with people she was close to. maybe take a night at the end of every week to just hang out with cecilia, along with anyone else she got to know better and had a good impression of.


    heck, maybe she could make some quick and easy replicas of board games from home. alice¡¯s control of kinetic mana was getting good enough that she was able to ¡®cut¡¯ objects instead of just pushing and pulling things around. it would take some time to get right, but maybe she could try carving wooden board game pieces as a hobby? it wouldn¡¯t be a bad way to take some time away from her research, and it would probably get her some levels in kinetic magic skills and classes as well. it was somewhat plausible that a market for it existed somewhere, or could exist somewhere if people had enough leisure time in the capital.


    after a few more minutes of random thoughts, alice realized she could start working on spending more time with people right now. she went off to look for cecilia, who she found sitting on the other side of the deck and watching a pair of passengers the boat had picked up from riverbranch. the other girl was fiddling with a pair of roots that seemed to conduct mana in a particularly interesting fashion, though, alice didn¡¯t see any actual mana moving near the roots. since the other girl wasn¡¯t actively enchanting anything, alice didn¡¯t see a problem interrupting her.


    ¡°what¡¯s up?¡±


    cecilia seemed a bit startled when she saw alice, before she smiled and gave alice a nod. ¡°are you enjoying the journey so far?¡± asked cecilia.


    ¡°i¡¯m enjoying this. i¡¯ve never been on a boat before,¡± said alice. ¡°i think i would have found the rocking motion to be pretty nauseating if my [endurance] wasn¡¯t high enough, though. even now i find it a little unpleasant. i can¡¯t imagine how much worse it would be if i didn¡¯t have the [endurance] that i have.


    cecilia chuckled. ¡°that¡¯s a pretty common problem for children. plenty of kids get seasick when they¡¯re on boats. i hear some noble families actually have their kids sit on boats while they do other training in order to boost both [endurance] and [willpower] while still boosting other stuff.¡± the two fell into a comfortable silence as they watched the river. finally, alice was the one to break the silence.


    ¡°what gives for this river?¡± asked alice. even if she was swearing off spending all her time on research, now that she had seen the mana constructs she was curious. besides, this way she could mix socializing and research. it was basically a win-win in her book.


    cecilia snorted softly, seeming amused by alice¡¯s choice of conversation topic. but she still answered. ¡°back when southern illvaria was still firmly controlled by illvaria instead of monsters, the area was altered to better suit human habitation. a lot of this region is naturally pretty dry. no water, no crops, so the area was only sparsely populated by illvaria at the time. the [king] hired an outside immortal to help create an artifact to change this situation. combined with a huge budget and the support of a bunch of illvarian mages, the crown succeeded in forging an artifact.


    ¡°the artifact changes the river, creating what you see here. a perfect irrigation system that doesn¡¯t need manpower or maintenance to keep it running. more importantly, unlike manmade irrigation canals, these rebuild themselves if monsters mess them up. which is particularly relevant here. it increased the region¡¯s prosperity by a massive amount after it was implemented, because the population was finally able to start growing its own food. combined with the rich mana of this area, the illvarian south produced far better quality and a much greater quantity of enchanting materials than the rest of the continent. with the population to actually exploit this, illvaria started to get far wealthier and more prosperous.


    ¡°of course, the high mana density comes with a pretty serious downside. monsters in the area are both more populous and more powerful than other lands inhabited by humans. we¡¯re just barely under the threshold for mana poisoning most of the time. when the war with the sigmusi happened several decades ago, the crown was forced to start dipping into the [guards] and mages in this region to support the ongoing war. the sigmusi took advantage of this delay and the illvarian troop shortage to attack this region. they marched an army all through this area, razing most major cities to the ground and enslaving or killing most of the population.


    ¡°after that the monster population no longer had any checks against their repopulation. they made a rapid resurgence. a bunch of different alphas rose up within the next few years, leading to a lot smaller monster attacks against human settlements.


    ¡°most of the inhabitants left the area within the next decade or two, leaving this region once again sparsely populated. for a while, the artifact regulated a river almost no one cared about or had access to. the previous king always wanted to take the area back, but the northern nomads got extra aggressive for a few decades and tied up too many troops. without the income provided by southern enchanting materials, it was difficult to scrounge up the money and manpower needed to really get recolonization going even after the war with the sigmusi colonia ended in a stalemate. until recently, of course. right now the nomads seem busy fighting among themselves, which freed up illvarian troops to cull the monster population here. after that the crown opened up settlements and provided noble titles to people who found towns and keep them at a certain population limit and certain other requirements, providing incentives for wealthy merchants to invest in the region and also help the crown gain some political advantage over the noble estate.¡± cecilia shrugged. ¡°there are probably other internal political reasons, but that¡¯s all i know or can guess.¡±


    ¡°does the artifact never power down?¡± asked alice, thinking back to her ideas about human mage cores and ¡®permanent¡¯ enchantments. as well as the weird mana constructs she had spotted along the river. they clearly weren¡¯t being powered by anything, as far as she could tell.


    ¡°i have no idea. i¡¯ve never seen a real artifact. i only know what this one does because it¡¯s a well documented piece of history, and most [enchanters]enjoy talking about famous enchanted items from time to time,¡± said cecilia. then she frowned, as she started to look thoughtful. ¡°you know, i suddenly realize that the lack of power is a fair bit more odd than i gave it credit for. i never thought too much about mana and power sources before, but after last weekend this really does make me wonder how ¡®self sustaining¡¯ enchantments actually work. say, have you ever taken a closer look at system enchantments before?¡±


    if we did something like this again, it wouldn¡¯t be so bad. she smiled as she went to sleep that night.


    * * *


    jek, leader of the old followers, stared at tents filled with [raiders], [nomadic warmages], and [nomadic archers] arrayed around him. despite how glorious everything seemed to be, he couldn¡¯t help but have a sinking feeling in his stomach. the upcoming battle would be hard. the old followers had been leading the new followers in a great circle, dodging the enemy army to amass whatever dregs of support they could muster from the local tribes.


    it never seemed like they had enough time or support to make things happen.


    he was higher level than feik in the [heir of the steppes] class. there was no way he wasn¡¯t ¨C his former friend almost never displayed any of the extraordinary perks jek had gotten from the class. feik seemed to lag well behind him in levels for [heir of the steppes], but that was the only advantage he had. feik had more troops under his command than jek did, and far better enchanted items for him and his trusted [raid leaders]. the level of the leader of an army could only make up for so much.


    ¡°are you worried?¡± asked one of his [raid leaders] as jek paced about in the tent.


    jek forcibly stopped himself from pacing. seeming anxious about the upcoming battle would be terrible for morale. a leader must appear confident. showing how worried he truly was about the battle would only give rise to doubts about his fitness for leadership. even if most of the old followers saw him as the rightful leader of the steppes and tundras, he couldn¡¯t have internal problems rising up with a major external threat already looming overhead.


    ¡°no,¡± said jek. ¡°we will win this battle, regardless of how many dogs feik has brought to his side. the average level of our army is higher. the system favors us, for our actions are right. with the system¡¯s favor, our advantage should outweigh our disadvantages. we are simply biding our time and waiting for the right chance to engage the enemy.¡± inwardly, jek scoffed at that statement. if they were in an advantageous position, would they need to flee from feik¡¯s army like injured rats, trying to find an opportunity to break the situation?


    ¡°yes. since the system favors us, surely we will emerge victorious.¡± said the [raid leader].


    ¡°naturally.¡± jek¡¯s voice was cold and collected. as a leader¡¯s voice should be. ¡°is there any news of the fallrin tribe?¡±


    ¡°they have given us a variety of excuses,¡± said the [raid leader], his lips curling into a sneer. ¡°i suspect they intend to sit on the sides and wait to see who wins, before aligning themselves with the victor.¡±


    jek repressed the urge to sigh. this was the greatest problem he encountered when trying to resist feik¡¯s army. if the other nomads put their foot down and rallied around him, crushing feik would be easy.


    jek couldn¡¯t help but bitterly think about how much things had changed in a short decade. when he and feik had first discovered the tomb of the long dead first leader of the nomads, he and feik had been filled with excitement. the system had validated their excitement, granting them a rarity ten achievement and a brand new class. at that time, the two of them had planned to unite the nomads together, reforming the great horde and finally avenging the humiliating loss their ancestors had suffered centuries ago during the invasion of the corellion empire.


    and then feik had sold the bow to an outsider. a strange immortal who travelled with a man that seemed half man and half metal, and offered them a great deal of enchanted items in exchange for the bow. as well as the demand that they let him inspect them with some special tools for a few days.


    the man had given jek a bad feeling. this feeling didn¡¯t come from a perk or a skill. it came from his then-thirty years of experience as a [raider]. he had declined the offer.


    feik had accepted. he had reasoned that the bow was merely a symbol ¨C it offered no tangible benefit. they had already gotten a class and an achievement for it ¨C they were only lacking money and weapons to properly lead an army. if they traded away the bow, they would be able to unite the nomads and lead them back to the corellion empire again.


    quietly, he sighed to himself. perhaps he was the fool for not accepting the offer. feik had taken the bow behind his back, sold it to the weird immortal, and then begun raising the army. nothing bad seemed to have happened to his former friend after selling off the symbol of the former leader of the steppes. he had fallen out with his friend over the matter, until things had come to where they stood today. a decade of rising tensions, of skirmishes, of conflicts had killed much of the feelings he used to have for his former friend. and soon one of them will die.


    ¡°even if the cowardly lesser clans refuse to join us, we will win. it just means they won¡¯t have a share of the loot when we gain victory. the system watches over us, and our forefathers will guide our arrows in this battle,¡± said jek.


    when the battle finally came, it might very well be the last battle of his life. or the decisive start of his legend. but with every clan¡¯s refusal to aid him, he felt his odds growing dimmer and dimmer.


    he took another long look at the tents spread around him, before he dismissed his [raid leader] and returned to his own tent.

 Chapter 64

    chapter 64


    alice and cecilia spent the rest of the boat ride relaxing and talking. after another day or two of sailing, alice decided to follow up on one of her earlier ideas. on the boat there was also a fairly high level [merchant] who had a storage perk. after talking to the man for a bit, alice was happy to find out that he was in the habit of stuffing random bits and bobs into his storage. this included some scraps of wood he hadn¡¯t been able to sell for several months now. after a few minutes of negotiation, alice managed to talk him into trading some wooden scraps to her in exchange for her vinebear bones. she was happy to have actually found a use for them.


    she considered the size and shape of the wooden scraps for a while, and then got to work. her goal was simple. she wanted to make some board game pieces.


    a few hours later, alice eyed her work. the results were... lumpy.


    that wasn¡¯t to say that her mechanical skill at carving the pieces was terrible. alice wasn¡¯t that great at using her kinetic magic to carve the wood into other objects, and had botched the first six attempts. however, with time and practice, she was getting better at it. now that she wasn¡¯t lifting up construction materials at the docks, she had a surplus of kinetic mana to dedicate to carving wood.


    the problem was that alice¡¯s artistic abilities were basically nonexistent. no matter what she tried to carve, the pieces just looked off. even after she started to get the hang of manipulating the wood, shaving and cutting it into the right size, she was rapidly realizing that she wasn¡¯t that great at translating her memories, materials, and mana into tangible objects.


    the only real upside was that she ended up getting another level in {woodworking}. alice had nearly forgotten about the {woodworking} skill entirely ¨C after all, she had used it literally zero times since arriving in cyra. it was more of a long-lost relic of her time in the wilderness than it was a meaningful part of her abilities.


    unfortunately, {woodworking} did not improve her artistic ability. it improved her ability to make a piece of wood stable. it helped her figure out how to transform wood into something useful.


    even the system was apparently unable to improve someone¡¯s art if they just bashed their head against it long enough, unlike literally everything else in this world. so the level in {woodworking} did nothing to help her with her current goal.


    alice had grown used to the system assisting her whenever she tried to do something. if at first she couldn¡¯t succeed, all she needed to do was look up the unlock condition for a skill and then practice. to actually need to resolve something by researching what she was doing wrong, and then try to figure out how to improve it, was an experience alice had started to forget. it also made her far more interested in developing her artistic wood carving skills, if only to show that she could still do things on her own without the system.


    apart from alice¡¯s exploration of her nonexistent artistic skills, alice and cecilia ended up talking a lot more. alice had grown used to talking with the other girl about research and the system, but even without research providing a common topic, cecilia turned out to be surprisingly interested in other aspects of earth culture.


    alice found that some of the technology from earth was very easy for the other girl to understand. artillery and gunpowder were surprisingly close to things that already existed in warfare, for example ¨C the only difference being that in this world a ¡®piece of artillery¡¯ was just a group of [kinetic mages], and ¡®gunpowder¡¯ tended to be pretty close to what a competent [kinetic mages] did with their surroundings in battle.


    cecilia pointed out that something similar to dynamite already existed in this world. in fact, the first time alice had gone to cecilia for help with enchanting, the other girl had been in the midst of trying to develop her own knockoff version of it. while the dynamite in this world was based entirely on kinetic mages and enchanting, and was also unwieldy and underdeveloped right now, it was still a valuable tool for mining. once the parallels were pointed out, alice was surprised to realize that she had missed some of them, even though many of them had been right in front of her the whole time she had been here.


    cecilia¡¯s comments gave alice another reminder that interacting with the outside world didn¡¯t necessarily slow down her research. on the contrary, holing herself up and focusing exclusively on her projects might end with her missing obvious ideas and points of interest that she might find useful. this world¡¯s version of dynamite, for example, seemed like something worth taking a peek at in the future.


    the rest of the boat ride passed by in much the same manner. while alice worked on her carving skills, and, by extension, her kinetic mana skills, the two took this as a time to relax and unwind. the boat kept sailing its way upstream, gradually sailing towards its destination.


    finally, the boat arrived. the river didn¡¯t directly connect to metsel, the capital of illvaria, but it arrived in a medium sized fishing town located a few hour¡¯s ride away from the capital. as alice and cecilia walked around, taking some time to get used to the ground no longer swaying, they saw [guards] and [soldiers] patrolling the riverbanks and city streets with much higher regularity than in the south. each of the patrolling [soldiers] made it a point to give the two respectful nods and a ¡®good day, lady mage¡¯ whenever they saw them. unlike in the south, where the address had always seemed more friendly than anything else, the [soldiers] and [guards] had a certain edge to their greetings. this caught alice a little off guard because it felt so different here.


    after thinking about it for a few minutes, she realized why people seemed so nervous near her in this fishing town. on the southern frontier, many of the people went there to make a new life for themselves. institutions like the five estates and the influence of nobles and magic academies were much weaker, since the towns were newly established and mostly founded by wealthy merchants. there wasn¡¯t any urgency to the acknowledgement of her status in cyra, and there wasn¡¯t any fear either. here in the north, the mage¡¯s estate and noble¡¯s estate had a much greater presence.


    alice didn¡¯t know how she felt about that. on one hand, it was nice to be treated well by random strangers. everyone was courteous and polite towards her the moment they saw her mage insignia. on the other hand, it felt unnerving for random people on the streets to be afraid of her. there was a strange sense of being divided from the other people she saw on the street that hadn¡¯t been present in the south.


    the two of them decided to cut their stroll short after a few hours, tired of the wary glances people gave them out of the corners of their eyes. they were starting to run low on cash, so they decided to look for a caravan they could guard on the way to metsel. if they could find one, it would neatly solve the problem of transporting cecilia¡¯s luggage, and also get them a little extra money. even if neither of them specialized in combat, they were still mages that could hold their own in a fight. most caravans would jump at having a mage or two reinforce their guards, just for the sheer intimidation factor.


    sadly, it seemed rather hard to find a caravan that was looking for more [guards] right now. the people in the north found the sigmusi threat to be very distant from their day to day lives, and with the amount of troops transferring around and dealing with monsters as they headed to the south, bandits were surprisingly rare in the area. therefore, most caravans were running light on [guards] right now.


    while the two of them couldn¡¯t find a convenient caravan to make some money during the journey to metsel, they did come across a friendly farmer. seeing the two of them carting around cecilia¡¯s luggage everywhere, he offered them a spot on his donkey-pulled cart. he claimed to have a farm pretty close to metsel, and was returning after selling his crops in the port city. judging by the amount of mana in the guy¡¯s body, alice was pretty sure he was higher level than she was by a fair bit, which was probably how a [farmer] had harvested and sold a batch of crops barely a month after the end of winter. it was nice to see that a some people maintained a friendly attitude towards them.


    they happily took him up on his offer, and hopped into the back of the cart after loading up cecilia¡¯s luggage. the cart smelled like wheat and strawberries, which was an oddly pleasant combination.


    ¡°thanks for letting us ride along with you, mister...¡± alice trailed off, realizing she didn¡¯t actually know the [farmer¡¯s] name.


    ¡°horton!¡± said horton, with an easy laugh. ¡°and it¡¯s no trouble. i don¡¯t mind a couple passengers, and neither to do bessie and honks,¡± he said, giving the two mules friendly pats. the two snorted at him, apparently less than thrilled at his assertion, but he just chuckled as they kept plodding along. alice decided she liked horton¡¯s attitude. instead of the visible uneasiness much of the townsfolk seemed to feel towards them, horton seemed happy to chat with them.


    ¡°it¡¯s not often i see young ones like yourselves wandering about, lady mages. if you don¡¯t mind me asking.¡±


    ¡°i¡¯m heading to metsel to enroll in one of the magic academies, if things go well,¡± said alice.


    ¡°i was not in my right mind at the time, master,¡± said the half-metal man with a nod. ¡°i am grateful for the second chance at life you gave me, and regret my less well-considered ideas when i was recovering.¡± the immortal smiled at that, giving his servant a simply nod of acknowledgement. then he turned back to the base.


    ¡°since a frontal assault is impossible, and some of the [hidden guards] have the ability to spot me if i wander in, what do you think my best course of action is?¡± asked the immortal, maintaining a relaxed and confident smile .


    ¡°hmm... given my knowledge of master¡¯s abilities, if you knock out the [hidden guards] who can potentially spot you, i don¡¯t think anyone else in the base would see you. so if i were master i would simply take a few ranged weapons and kill them, before walking in? there are a few piercers that i brought along, and they should be sufficient for taking out the ones capable of noticing master...¡±


    the immortal shook his head. ¡°stealth perks don¡¯t quite work like that. even if my stealth perks make it very hard to notice me, that¡¯s contingent upon the idea of people not realizing there¡¯s anything to notice in the first place. if i waltz into a nobleman¡¯s house, for example, as long as they don¡¯t have high level [guards] patrolling they usually won¡¯t notice anything wrong if i don¡¯t do anything easily noticeable. but if i stab someone in the face, they¡¯re absolutely going to realize something is wrong, and stop subconsciously overlooking me. as will everyone around them. shooting down the [hidden guards] that can see me would break my stealth perks and force me into a head on fight.¡±


    ¡°hmm... is there a quieter way to get into the base then?¡± asked the half-metal man, giving the question more serious thought.


    ¡°your thinking is improving, but it still has some way to go.¡± said the immortal with a sigh. ¡°give me these tools...¡± before listing several enchanted items. after that, he put on a few different items. first, he put on a necklace, which had the strange effect of redirecting mana towards it while shielding itself from being easily noticed. he also put on two bracelets, which began distorting the flow of mana in the air around them, before taking a small metal rod and stabbing it into the side of the enchantment surrounding the base.


    the metal rod started to disappear from his view. within a minute or two, it was completely invisible to the naked eye. the immortal and the metal man left the area and retreated several hundred meters away, keeping the area in view but making sure they were hard to spot.


    eventually, the enchantment surrounding the base began to shiver. it didn¡¯t look like anything unnatural was happening to it ¨C it just looked like the area wasn¡¯t being powered properly. if one hadn¡¯t seen the immortal place the metal rod there, it would have been very hard to realize what was happening was unusual.


    a few hours passed as the ¡®unpowered enchantment¡¯ became weaker and weaker, until chunks of the enchantment started to totally lose its effect. instead of a base that blended into its surroundings, chunks of the base were now visible to the outside world, with chunks of stone and metal seemingly floating in thin air. a few more minutes passed before a few [forbidden researchers] came to investigate the area. they quickly found the problematic area and began to dig into the soil. soon, they uprooted several spikes of wood, all of which looked like they were incredibly ordinary. unless one was able to observe mana, in which case they would notice that each spike of wood was continuously pulling several different kinds of mana out of a large attached container of monster cores.


    as the researchers dug out the wooden spikes, the [hidden guards] spread out, increasing their patrol area to make sure no curious passerby accidentally stumbled upon the base. since the enchantments keeping the base hidden were currently offline, they needed to make extra sure that nobody saw the area while they were repairing the enchantment.


    the number of [hidden guards] in the area rapidly thinned out. the immortal and his companion quietly shifted their position, taking advantage of their vastly superior [perception] attributes to track the [hidden guards] they wished to avoid. they skirted past them, weaving their way out of each problematic person¡¯s line of sight until the potential threats left the area.


    then, once the [hidden guards] weren¡¯t directly watching the enchantment, the immortal activated several perks.


    he quietly strolled around the perimeter of the enchantment, keeping a wary eye on the problematic [hidden guards], until he came across an area that was currently devoid of other people. he took a final cautious look around, before he began to fiddle with the enchantment. if the enchantment were still operating, it would have been incredibly obvious someone was working to subvert the enchantment. however, since it was currently not operational, the man¡¯s tampering went unnoticed by anyone.


    once the immortal finished, he strolled into the base. the localized part of the enchantment the man had subverted was now online again, although the mana flow was irregular. most importantly, the enchantment was now shielding itself from the view of the people who had originally built the enchantment. and the enchantment that was supposed to conceal the base now had a different function ¨C it actively shielded the man from people¡¯s eyesight, making it very hard to notice him even if one managed to get past all of his perks. this tampering would certainly be discovered eventually, but it would be hard to spot unless someone was very carefully examining it. it would do, for now.


    just like that, he walked into the base, strolling curiously through room after room. he saw a room filled with humans, some of whom were in various states of agony as they went through forced mana baptisms while instruments at the sides recorded the state of their bodies. mildly curious, he picked up one of the research logs.


    experimenting to see if it¡¯s possible to increase the success rate of human mana baptisms?it seems the [organic mages] of the society of starry eyes have some interesting projects they are working on. the immortal nodded to himself before putting the research log back down.


    he left the modified humans to their fates, completely indifferent to their suffering. he saw rooms filled with experiments on dimensional mana. in these rooms, he sometimes took another look, sometimes shaking his head in disappointment or nodding in wonder. even though he didn¡¯t understand all of the experiments at a glance, at least some of them were close enough to his own research and interests for him to make a few rough guesses about what he was looking at.


    finally, he came upon a room filled with records. unlike the other rooms, which were in the middle of active experimentation, this room seemed innocuous. it was filled with maps, as well as discussions of anomalies found across the world and discussions of what they might mean. this was the reason he had come here.


    he rooted through stacks of papers, reading them in seconds as various perks boosted his reading speed to ridiculous levels. he scanned stack of paper after stack of paper, until finally, he found what he was looking for. he grinned, placed all of the papers back exactly the way he had found them, and strolled out of the base. he had perfect memory, so he had no use for the physical copies of the notes.


    at the edge of the visibility blocking enchantment, he paused to undo his little modification. the metal rod he had used to force the enchantment to leak would dissolve into oxygen over the course of the next few hours. there would soon be no evidence he had ever been here.


    he beckoned to the half-metal man, who nodded when the immortal returned. the two of them walked away from the base.


    ¡°did you find it, master?¡± asked the half-metal man.


    ¡°i have a much better idea where it is now,¡± said the immortal. ¡°in hindsight, it makes a great deal of sense. i would have tried looking in those areas earlier if i had realized the mana density couldn¡¯t possibly be natural. even monsters don¡¯t produce quite so much broken mana, and i should have narrowed the search to those areas instead of focusing on total mana density. oh well ¨C there were a dozen different possible places it could have been, and each of them is infested with monsters. best to double check other¡¯s work instead of risking our lives trying to check each one.¡± the immortal sighed, before he shrugged. ¡°i am more than a little frustrated my original train of thought seems to have been a dead end, though. i was really expecting dimensional mana to play a bigger role. i wonder if perhaps their ideas are going in the wrong direction, and the areas i pulled from their notes are dead ends?


    ¡°in any case, we have much more specific areas to look at now. it should be worth investigating them to see if we can find it. let¡¯s bring this to a conclusion, shall we?¡± he recovered his jolly smile, and led his assistant away from the base.


    within the base of the society of starry eyes, after the enchantment was fully repaired, everyone returned to their respective tasks. not a single person noticed the intruder who had strolled through their base and looked over their research, or the temporarily made modifications to the enchantment hiding everything.

 Chapter 65

    chapter 65


    after being ushered into a room on the second floor, the store worker poured alice a cup of tea and sat her down at a table in the center of the room. the woman gave alice a wink and a friendly nod, before she turned around and left. alice noted that the table she sat at was obviously expensive, even though she didn¡¯t know much about furniture. she couldn¡¯t tell what wood it was made out of, but it was clearly different from the tables she had seen in cyra. alice decided to take this as a sign that they were taking her visit seriously, which was an encouraging thought.


    alice spent a few minutes sitting at the table and sipping at her tea as she idly stared at the decorations in the room. at least half of them were enchanted, which was an impressive and ostentatious display of wealth that alice was willing to bet was lost on most of the people who sat in this room until they sat down and observed for a while. the seat she was sitting on, for example, was enchanted with some kind of red and blue speckled mana that seemed to be adjusting the seat temperature to make it comfortable for the sitter. it was working with a different blue-purple colored mana that alice didn¡¯t recognize, and couldn¡¯t figure out the function of at all. alice suspected the red and blue mana was probably thermal mana, and realized that she had almost no familiarity with the fourth major branch of magic in this world. which was something she should probably correct when she had some spare time.


    the rest of the objects in the room were similarly enchanted with a variety of enchantments, some of which alice could make out the purpose of and some of which she couldn¡¯t. however, even if she didn¡¯t understand everything she was looking at, being able to peruse high end minor enchantments proved to be surprisingly interesting for alice, making the minutes she spent waiting a source of fascination rather than tedium.


    finally, after seven minutes, an older gentleman who appeared to be somewhere in his early forties walked into the room. even though his physical age appeared to be around his late thirties, his chronological age was much harder to guess. based on the amount of rainbow mana present in the man¡¯s body, alice guessed he was aging quite slowly. he was fairly attractive for an older man, though alice guessed that was simply because he was a successful [merchant], and any successful [merchant] was bound to pick up plenty of points in [charisma].


    the man sat down at the other end of the table, before giving her a courteous nod. ¡°miss alice, yes? a pleasure to make your acquaintance. i am rupert, one of the higher level [managers] that work under abraham¡¯s various enchanting shops spread throughout illvaria. i have received a letter from lady illa, as well as a confirmation from her husband abraham, stating someone with your physical description would be arriving soon. however, simply for the sake of certainty, would you mind confirming that you are, in fact, alice verianna, who illa indicated would be arriving soon? just restate your name and identity out loud, please.¡±


    alice saw a few speckles of rainbow mana settle over the man¡¯s eyes. some sort of truth detection perk? she couldn¡¯t think of any other reason for the man to try to get her to restate her identity out loud. now that she could see system mana and was interacting with people enough to see system-human interactions, she was finding all sorts of interesting little tidbits she had previously missed.


    ¡°i am alice verianna. i spent several weeks working under illa while i stayed in cyra, and i have been told by her that if i seek out one of her husband¡¯s branch companies i would receive assistance in trying to find a patron during my time at the capital. this patronage is to assist me in paying for my time at a magic academy, since i would struggle to do so myself, and would need to either gather funds for several months or give up on the notion entirely if i need to work everything out on my own. i have also spent multiple weeks receiving instruction from illa, who taught me how to defend myself using magic. she has also given me some basic instruction in things relating to the theory behind magic and mana, but only in very practical areas,¡± said alice, making her identity as clear as possible. if the man was using a truth detection perk, she may as well be as detailed as possible to make verifying her identity easier. while there were some things she needed to hide, her past working for illa certainly wasn¡¯t one of them, and it was the only thing likely to concern him.


    the man smiled. ¡°that does indeed sound like lady illa. very practical woman. as far as i can tell, you are the person i was told to watch out for. then, once again, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, lady alice,¡± he said, chuckling as he extended his hand across the table to her and briefly shaking her hand. ¡°now, regarding your patronage, may i have some better information about what you want and what kind of patron you are looking for? illa mentioned you have a strong desire to do research, but i admit, the details were rather brief in her letter, and your introductory letter doesn¡¯t go into much further detail. may i ask what specifically you plan to research, and what your strengths as a mage are? tell me a bit about yourself and your future plans as well. treat this as something of a sales pitch for a noble ¨C it will help me figure out the best way to help you. of course, with me, it is also best if you are as open as possible about gaps in your knowledge or weaknesses ¨C it will help me figure out if there are quick ways to address those gaps, as well as what kind of patrons are simply going to be uninterested the moment they find those flaws. some things can¡¯t be hidden, after all.¡±


    alice thought for a moment, organizing her thoughts before she started to speak.


    ¡°well, i would say i¡¯m primarily researching two things. first, i am researching the nature of mana. there are plenty of scholars that have delved into the secrets of mana in the past, but much of their work was sadly unavailable to me while i was residing in the south, due to the limited population and lack of magic academies and knowledge resources in the newly colonized territories. i hope to use my time at the academy to synthesize what information already exists about the true nature of mana and use that as a springboard to further my own studies into the topic.


    ¡°second, i am researching enchanting, and how it can tie into the nature of mana. i have seen several things recently that make me wonder what better control of mana manipulation would look like. for example, i want to study why some enchantments seem to be able to sustain themselves indefinitely, whereas others cannot, and i wish to study this in greater detail and see if there is a way to replicate the self-sustaining aspect of some enchantments in wider use,¡± said alice, thinking about the artifact that apparently ran southern illvaria¡¯s river system. ¡°there are a lot of other topics i am discovering and interacting with involving enchanting, but they are a tad more specific and convoluted in nature,¡± said alice, thinking of some of her other experiments with the system. those topics did, indeed, involve mana, but alice didn¡¯t know if there was any practical value to these discoveries at all right now. she was definitely curious about these topics, and was personally willing to devote time and energy into the topic purely out of interest. however, trying to find a noble or merchant who would want to invest in her personal hobby might be asking a bit too much if she couldn¡¯t find a practical use for that information. at this thought, alice frowned a little bit.


    ¡°hmm...¡± the man frowned, tapping a finger against his chin. ¡°illa said you are primarily a kinetic mage, yes?¡±


    ¡°that¡¯s my primary mana seed. i have an organic seed that i don¡¯t have very much experience manipulating, and i also have a pure mana seed that i have a fair amount of proficiency with. while limited, i have already made some successful enchantments which i managed to sell in cyra, and i expect that i will get better and better at enchanting if given the time and resources to practice. i also have a fourth mana seed slot i haven¡¯t used yet, and if you think there¡¯s something that would extra valuable in that slot, i am willing to grab something new,¡± said alice, after thinking for a bit. if she really hated the seed, she could always replace it later, and then start using her organic magic seed as her ¡®experimental magic seed¡¯ slot. since she could swap around her seeds at will as long as the seed hadn¡¯t been enhanced by other perks, she didn¡¯t feel there was too much need to be hung up over the specifics about her mana seeds. being able to replace one seed every month meant that choosing a magic seed was still important for her, but it was nowhere near the potentially life altering decision most mages needed to treat every seed as.


    ¡°let¡¯s not talk about permanent decisions like choosing a new magic seed for now. you should be careful with those, because you might regret making a decision in the future if you don¡¯t think about it carefully. you said you have already made a few working enchantments?¡± asked rupert, his eyes brightening. ¡°what kind? what do they look like? do you have an example of your work that you can show me?¡±


    alice grabbed the ring that revealed mana in one¡¯s surroundings she had made in cyra and pulled it out of {sample storage}, before handing it over to rupert. ¡°this is a copy of a ring that i didn¡¯t manage to sell back in cyra. i sold most of the ones i made to [adventurers].


    in theory, if alice succeeded in copying and learning the mechanisms behind how the system worked, she could almost certainly advance this world¡¯s magic and enchanting decades or centuries ahead of its current state. but that was a very big if, and right now alice only had the ambition, with only a rarity nine achievement to her name to show for it. rarity nine achievements were impressive, but nowhere near ¡®overhaul the entire world¡¯s enchanting system¡¯ levels of impressive.


    in short, right now her research was like a bottomless abyss of resources with no concrete benefit for succeeding.


    ¡°hmmm...¡± the [merchant] frowned again after seeing alice fall silent for several seconds.


    ¡°i will tell you both your advantages and disadvantages in looking for a patron, lady alice. first, you are a kinetic mage that does not specialize in warfare. this is a disadvantage. while kinetic mages have plenty of routes to making money, nobles are primarily interested in the warfare and construction aspects of a kinetic mage. while illa did mention that you are above average at defending yourself compared to mages that don¡¯t try to learn at all, by her and your admission you are not really focused on violence. pure mana also isn¡¯t a very widely used magic seed, because its value is quite limited outside of a research environment, and you having taken a magic seed for it likely won¡¯t be seen in a positive light by most potential patrons. your research also seems like it is hard to put into practice as a viable method of generating money, political influence, military influence, or other resources.


    ¡°now, that being said, the fact you have a rarity nine achievement related to research is also quite impressive. especially given your age. you¡¯re what, nineteen or so if i make a rough guess about your chronological age? i recall mages get a natural reduction in aging speed, though i admit i do not recall the exact numbers. my work doesn¡¯t tend to deal with the nitty gritty details of aging.¡±


    ¡°i¡¯m sixteen,¡± said alice.


    ¡°you¡¯re actually the same age as you look? that is quite surprising. newly baptized? hmm. your achievement is quite notable, and borderline unique, but you are also fighting against some notable negatives. all right, i have a better idea what i¡¯m working with now. let me see...¡± the [merchant] drummed his fingers against the table for a few moments, before his eyes lit up. ¡°i have a few candidates in mind. tell me, how do you feel about having a mage as a sponsor who managed to acquire a nobility title through their own merit instead of a more established noble? they won¡¯t be comparable to someone like illa, and they also won¡¯t have the wealth of an established noble or merchant. however, they will have a lot more interest in pure research than either of the above, and they will still be able to pay for part of your schooling, even if they won¡¯t be able to pay for all of it. it seems like you would get along much better with that kind of person as well, if i¡¯m not mistaken, yes? we can also search for a more traditional patron, but to be honest i think you would have a harder time with that route.¡±


    alice only thought about it for a moment before she nodded. ¡°a self-made mage for a patron is fine with me.¡± it was much better to have half of a patron than no patron at all. she could do her best to find a way to make up for the rest of the money herself. it just meant she might end up becoming far more familiar with cecilia¡¯s shop than she had originally intended, but alice honestly didn¡¯t mind that. working on enchantments under cecilia¡¯s shop was something alice found enjoyable, and it was a good way to make some money as well. alice wasn¡¯t sure if it would make up the rest of her schooling yet, but it got her money and levels, and it was certainly worth investing her time into. the rest could be figured out when she knew more.


    ¡°that¡¯s fine by me. illa recommended i come here, and thus far lady illa has been nothing but fair with me in the time i have worked with her. since she recommended you, i¡¯ll go by whoever you think is the best choice for me,¡± said alice.


    the [merchant] grinned. ¡°good. where are you staying right now?¡±


    alice gave him the details of cecilia¡¯s shop, since the other girl had mentioned alice could stay there while she was getting her situation worked out. being near the place she would be putting her enchanted works up for sale seemed like a good policy anyway, and alice was quietly happy that the other girl was willing to help her out while she was getting settled.


    ¡°i¡¯ll start contacting people and get you a meeting with the mage i have in mind. he¡¯s known to be a fairly reclusive sort, but i think i can still get a meeting with him pretty soon. i¡¯ll send a [messenger] to let you know when i can get a meeting between you two set up. unless something goes horribly wrong, it should be within a week.¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°sounds good to me.¡±


    ¡°then i¡¯ll see you soon, lady alice,¡± said the [merchant].


    alice left after a few minutes of parting pleasantries, before she returned to cecilia¡¯s shop. if she was going to be facing a funding shortage, she would need to work much harder at converting her remaining time and materials into funding. with that thought, she decided that she would at least temporarily take cecilia up on her offer and start making enchanted items to sell in cecilia¡¯s shop. she had precious little time to work with, but she was determined to make the most of every moment.

 Chapter 66

    chapter 66


    when alice returned to cecilia¡¯s workshop, she started getting ready to work on enchantments. if she was going to make it into a magic academy, she needed to make the most of every minute she had left before the semester started. she had about a month left before registration started. registration would take another week, and she could sign up anytime during that period. after registration ended alice would need to wait another year before entering a magic academy. which would mean another year of bumbling along without the massive libraries and collections of information she would be able to access as a student. more importantly, alice wouldn¡¯t know what the people of this world considered ¡®normal ideas¡¯ about how magic and mana worked ¨C something that would be almost impossible for alice to discover on her own. these ideas might prove hindrances in her quest to get funding and resources for her projects, or might inspire her to take her experiments in new directions. either way, alice wanted get a better feel for what ordinary mages believed to be common sense.


    alice decided to be semi-optimistic with her plans for the future right now. rupert had told her that the mage he was planning to talk with probably wouldn¡¯t be able to fund her entire stay in the magic academy. alice had already done some quick asking around, and had learned that it would cost around 40 golden suns to pay for one year at the magic academy she wanted to attend. 40 golden suns was equivalent to 400 silver crowns, or 2,000 silver suns, which was equivalent to... quite a bit of money. a silver crown was usually enough to pay for someone¡¯s living expenses for a day, and magic academies did provide food and dorms for their students, meaning about half of her tuition would just go into food and housing. however, it was still a massive sum of money for someone to come up with at once, especially if they needed to do so multiple years in a row while spending their time learning instead of earning money.


    if the mage agreed to sponsor her studies, and he was feeling especially generous, maybe alice would be able to cut that price in half. in other words she needed to find a way to scrounge up 20 golden suns for her tuition, or 1,000 silver suns. if she was less optimistic, she might be paying for a higher percentage of her tuition ¨C she didn¡¯t know how much funding the mage actually had available to him, and how much he might be willing to part with, after all. that being said, alice doubted he had less than ten golden suns available as liquid assets ¨C after all, rupert had recommended him as a potential source of patronage, which meant he had at least some amount of funds readily available. otherwise rupert wouldn¡¯t bother putting her in contact with him in the first place. right now, she had around two golden suns if she put together all of her assets and sold them, or about one golden sun if she didn¡¯t sell off her spare enchanting materials. she had 19 more to go...


    alice wondered if it was even possible to make up the rest of the tuition cost on her own. with only five weeks left, getting together 19 golden suns seemed like a dream. patronage wouldn¡¯t be able to cover all of her expenses, after all. briefly, she wondered if student loans existed on this world. it seemed more than slightly absurd to her that even after coming to another world, she might still end up putting herself in debt to fund her time at a university. some things never changed, even on another planet...


    alice shook her head ruefully, before she decided to wait for cecilia to return before talking her plans over with the other girl. her friend was offering her temporary shelter and a place to sell her enchanted items, and alice¡¯s skills didn¡¯t really merit that treatment yet. even if plenty of [enchanters] either ran their own shop or worked for enchanting shops, alice was still a novice in the field. having a place to sell her items with no fees was incredibly generous of cecilia, and alice appreciated her friend¡¯s generosity in giving her a way to survive and thrive. the least she could do was talk her plans over with cecilia.


    it was around half an hour before cecilia returned. when she came, she was leading a few [laborers carrying different pieces of furniture. display shelves, glass displays, and so on were being carted around by people whose bodies were practically filled to the brim with system mana helping them move. all of it was furniture useful for running a proper storefront, replacing what cecilia had left behind in cyra. after cecilia instructed them on where to lay down their burdens and the [laborers] left, she gave alice a relaxed grin before she sat down.


    ¡°i¡¯m back! the shop should be ready to open up in a few days. how did your meeting with the [merchant] go?¡±


    ¡°good news and bad news. good news, the merchant thinks there is a mage who might be interested in sponsoring me, and he¡¯s working on setting up a meeting so we can talk. bad news, the fact that i¡¯m not particularly inclined towards making weapons and don¡¯t have a good way to convert my research into money is a big knock against my potential patron pool. having a rarity nine achievement related to my research is pretty good, and the ability to ¡®share¡¯ lower rarity achievements is also pretty good. however, they¡¯re ultimately not quite valuable enough for a lot of [nobles] and [merchants] to heavily invest into, since the rarity three achievement is more convenient than groundbreaking. the fact that my research is a bottomless pit of resources with questionable returns diminishes its value as well. patron interest shouldn¡¯t be nonexistent, but according to the [merchant]¡¯s assessment it won¡¯t be as high as i was hoping for, either. and the mage he¡¯s planning to contact won¡¯t be able to sponsor my entire stay at the academy,¡± said alice, frowning. ¡°so how much funding i can get from him is up in the air, if he even agrees to sponsor me. if that doesn¡¯t work out, i don¡¯t know what happens. maybe the [merchant] starts trying more traditional patrons in hopes of one sticking? or maybe i¡¯m just out of luck at that point. i get the feeling that patronage isn¡¯t exactly a common way to get the funding for a magic academy,¡± said alice, absently.


    cecilia frowned, before shrugging. ¡°from what i hear, the number of students that get through academy via a patronage is less than ten percent. most poor students just join the army and go through the crown¡¯s recruitment program to pay for magic academy, and rich nobles just pay for their time in the academy. those two types are the ones that most commonly enter magic academies, and while other sorts do join the academies they tend to be rarer.¡± then, after some thinking, cecilia frowned. ¡°i¡¯m sorry to hear your patronage prospects aren¡¯t as good as you were hoping for. a potential half patron isn¡¯t bad, but still... if you need or want it, my offer is still there. i could use some help while i¡¯m getting the shop up and running, and even if your enchantments aren¡¯t optimized, they¡¯re not half bad. owning a properly enchanted item, especially a rare or well made one, can be a pretty prestigious thing for most people. you have a penchant for picking weird seeds, and if you can find creative things to do with them i¡¯m sure you can create something people will be interested in.¡±


    the next couple days passed by in a whirlwind of enchanting. alice woke up, ate breakfast, and then enchanted objects until lunch. after that, her pure mana seed and newly formed healing mana seed were both usually tapped out. in the evening, she experimented with cecilia to try to get a working blast crystal model. if she had any kinetic mana left over at the end of the day, she would spend a few minutes here and there working on carving board game pieces, and her art gradually stopped resembled a picasso painting thrown into a blender.


    during the days of enchanting, alice¡¯s levelling progress slowed to a crawl in most of her classes.


    alice was finally starting to notice how big of a difference the buffs a teacher applied to student levelling speed really was. during the days of repetitious enchanting, she barely limped her way up one more level in [kinetic manabinder], finally reaching level 7. [apprentice enchanter] went from level 20 to level 22, which wasn¡¯t exactly bad progress, but was far from excellent. the perk she took from level five of [kinetic manabinder] did help a fair bit with alice¡¯s spidercrab core experimentation by reducing the risk of it blowing up in her face.


    mana''s binding


    requirements: kinetic manabinder level 5 or higher


    when creating an enchantment using kinetic energy, the enchantment will become much more resilient against wear and tear, and also makes your enchantments more resistant to damage from both internal and external factors and improves internal stability.


    apart from alice¡¯s progress in her levelling, alice also went to see a [tailor]. she was going to meet a potential patron, and while alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure what the customs were in this world, she figured having a semi-formal set of clothes to wear wouldn¡¯t hurt. dressing nicely for a meeting was never a bad thing. she ended up getting a formal custom dress made for her at the cost of two hours and one silver crown, a speed that probably would have been impossible back home.


    cecilia¡¯s shop finally opened for business after the third day, a product of the abnormal efficiency of this world¡¯s workers. alice had made a small stock of her mana-vision rings, and while they weren¡¯t exactly bestselling items, they seemed novel and interesting enough to get a few customers to check out the store and buy a thing or two. alice made back the money she spent on materials from selling the rings, and another few silver crowns besides. a small but welcome increase in her purse size. some of cecilia¡¯s enchanted items also started selling, partially due to the customers alice¡¯s unique enchantment brought in and partially due to cecilia¡¯s own talent and products. alice also used her vinebear cores to make some healing rings after several hours of experimentation, and made two successful products and one ruined core. at the end of the week, alice was seventeen silver crowns richer, and out of vinebear cores.


    on the fifth day the two of them finally managed to slap together a reasonable facsimile of magic dynamite. it was crude, but it was no longer at risk of blowing off the user¡¯s hand. it also did its job at breaking down chunks of rock and metal in the testing area, at least when the two tossed it at some boulders outside of the city. figuring out how to get the spidercrab cores to explode after a few seconds had been surprisingly difficult to figure out. however, eventually the two worked out the problems involved and created a working model. alice still had no intention of revolutionizing this world¡¯s warfare models, but at least in this case she felt she was safe. blast crystals already existed in this world, after all, and the biggest reason gunpowder had influenced warfare so much in her previous world was that guns had been cheap and easy to use. ¡®blast crystals¡¯ in this world were made by mages, meaning they were nowhere near as cheap and easy to produce as gunpowder had been in her previous world. it was fine... probably.


    the next day, a [messenger] arrived at the shop. alice was to finally meet her potential patron the following day for lunch at tannerson¡¯s monstrous meats, a local restaurant that made full use of the wide variety of meat available on this planet. it was neither cheap nor expensive, and had small rooms people could use for business meetings. alice swallowed down a hint of nervousness when she knew the day to meet her potential patron had finally come.no?vel binz was the first platform to present this chapter.

 Chapter 67

    chapter 67


    alice put on her new semi-formal dress before going to the meeting. the [waiter] confirmed her identity before moving her to a private room, where an older man was waiting.


    he had lower [charisma] than alice had expected. on earth, people were born with their looks, meaning that people¡¯s attractiveness tended to vary quite a bit. in this world, [charisma] was a stat that was easy to improve if one put effort into it, boosting one¡¯s physical attractiveness. most people didn¡¯t mind looking a little better, and since raising [charisma] required doing things most people already enjoyed like hanging out with friends, most people in this world were physical attractive. alice hadn¡¯t seen very many people her age or older with less than 100 [charisma], and alice wouldn¡¯t be surprised if [charisma] was the highest average stat on this planet.


    the mage alice was was meeting was certainly below 100 [charisma]. he still probably had 80 or 90 [charisma], but alice could very quickly tell that he didn¡¯t like socializing enough to raise it much. his teeth were slightly crooked, and his sitting posture wasn¡¯t great. he had black hair and blue eyes, but both features were slightly mismatched with his face. he looked to be in his mid-thirties and had average rainbow mana in his body for a mage, indicating an average-ish level. he was wearing a semi-formal set of clothes; though they had some care put into them, they were slightly creased, showing a certain lack of awareness and care towards formal etiquette.


    the man¡¯s physical body was far more interesting. the amount of rainbow mana actively operating inside his skull made alice think the man had six thinking perks active every second. since the man was only average level, it was obvious just how much time and energy he had devoted to acquiring and raising his research-related classes. the mage simply sat at the table in the center of the room, lightly drumming his fingers as he stared into space. when alice sat down, he seemed to jolt back into awareness before looking at her.


    ¡°ah, lady alice, yes? i have heard that you acquired a rarity nine achievement from your research. is that true?¡± the man asked, giving her an intense and focused expression.


    alice felt slightly taken aback before she started to think more carefully about the person she was meeting. she thought that she had a better handle on this man¡¯s personality now, despite having only seen him for ten seconds. at the same time, she was beginning to understand why rupert had recommended him as a potential patron. she felt herself relaxing a bit ¨C she might be able to get along with this person.


    ¡°yes, indeed. i¡¯ve put a lot of time into researching the nature of mana and the intricacies of its interaction with the human body. i¡¯ve looked into many related topics, of course, but i would say that my primary focus has just been trying to figure out the underlying principles of mana. at least in cyra, i couldn¡¯t find any books on the topic, so i had to start guessing and working on getting a baseline of knowledge myself,¡± alice said before frowning.


    she suddenly realized that the man hadn¡¯t introduced himself yet. alice was certainly happy the mage seemed interested in her research, but she felt that introductions were still improtant. right now, she didn¡¯t even know this mage¡¯s name, and a little bit of extra information about who he was and what he had worked on in the past certainly wouldn¡¯t hurt either. since the man seemed like a pretty direct person, he probably wouldn¡¯t mind if she just brought up the topic herself.


    ¡°in that case, what do you propose?¡±


    ezrien grinned at her. the smile was a little crooked, but it held a certain good-natured mirth. ¡°i want to see how you think and approach new problems and ideas. so i want to hear one thing you¡¯re working on as an experiment and see how you go about learning more about it. the experiment can take as much or as little time as you want, and i don¡¯t mind even if the results end up being ¡®boring.¡¯ what i want to test is how you think about problems and how you go about solving them. if you manage to impress me, i will make you an offer. i personally lead a team of mages and have made some small but valuable discoveries throughout my time as a [researcher]. if you are willing to work with me on some of my passion projects and less critical work for my research team during your spare time, i am willing to pay for half of your tuition outright. while my money is kind of tight right now, i am also willing to loan another 20 golden crowns ¨C on the condition that you are willing to work for me to pay for it during your time at a magic academy. one of the research assistants that i hired recently simply isn¡¯t meshing well with the team, and if i can replace him, i would be able to cut down on some costs over the next year and pay off the balance of your loan. as long as you can make up the last five golden crowns on your own, you would be able to pay for your tuition. are these conditions acceptable to you?¡±


    alice¡¯s brain kicked into gear as she tried to think about the current projects she was working on. replicating the system .... obviously wasn¡¯t suitable here. not only was that a distant goal, even by her standards, but she had strictly avoided discussing her research into the nature of the system. there was no need to cross one of the few genuinely problematic lines she could touch. alice loved learning about the nature of this world, but when it came to some of the deeper secrets of this world, she wasn¡¯t going to publicize her results until she had a way to ensure it wouldn¡¯t blow up in her face.


    however, that was far from the only thing alice had recently looked into. ezrien had said that he wanted to see how she investigated problems. in that case, what could she use?


    alice felt a grin tugging at the corner of her lips. she had recently been thinking about energy sources and perpetual enchantments, and during her conversation with ezrien she confirmed that the knowledge about ¡®how artifacts work¡¯ wasn¡¯t well-known object for most people. and nobody, at least as far as ezrien knew, had bothered trying to figure out how system enchantments worked through the lens of mana. she had found the time to briefly glance at some of the system-enchanted dresses for sale in one of the shops nearby, and she had confirmed that they were filled with rainbow mana, even if they had no normal-looking enchantments in sight.


    there was something to investigate there, right?

 Chapter 68

    chapter 68


    ¡°you said that it doesn¡¯t matter if i get boring results, right?¡± asked alice, turning to ezrien.


    ¡°indeed. it doesn¡¯t matter even if you discover nothing at all. the only requirements for my challenge are that you investigate something you find interesting, and that you must not have researched it before. ah, i say you can¡¯t have researched it before, but it¡¯s fine if it¡¯s directly related to things you have researched before ¨C i just want it to be something you don¡¯t already have results for. my apologies if that was confusing,¡± said ezrien. ezrien had a bit of a strange habit of swapping back and forth between formal and informal speech as he spoke, but alice was starting to get used to it. she nodded, grinning to herself. ¡°apart from that, if you need materials, i can supply up to three silver crowns of materials ¨C that¡¯s how much i brought with me, after deducting the cost for this meal and rounding to convenient numbers.¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°i know what i want to look into, then. i told you that i was looking into the specifics of the nature of mana, as well as perpetual enchantments and the human body, right? i have recently been meaning to see if i can figure out how system enchantments work. specifically, i want to see if i can figure out what¡¯s powering them, or if they need external power sources at all.¡±


    ezrien thought for a moment before he nodded. ¡°i haven¡¯t heard of anyone investigating that before, but it certainly sounds interesting. i could see the experiment being worth investigating, and it could produce interesting results. if you can actually figure something out, it could change a lot of how enchantments work ¨C at least, if it¡¯s cost efficient. at least assuming there¡¯s something new to discover in the first place. this would be an acceptable experiment,¡± he said. ¡°that being said, if you fail, or if there¡¯s nothing to discover, don¡¯t worry about it. i just want to see the process of you investigating a problem ¨C not the conclusion of that process.¡±


    ezrien paid for the food before the two left the restaurant. it took alice a few minutes of walking before they arrived at their destination ¨C the shop she had seen selling system enchantments while heading to the meeting.


    after alice got ezrien¡¯s permission, she used three silver suns to purchase an iron necklace. it was a simple braid of leather, meant to be hung around one¡¯s neck, with a small iron disc attached to the cord. the leather itself was irrelevant ¨C the only important part of the necklace was the iron disc at the bottom. to an ordinary passerby, the iron disc would have looked like an ordinary hunk of iron ¨C however, in alice¡¯s eyes, it was filled with rainbow mana.


    after quickly settling the payment with the shopkeeper, alice immediately left the shop. ezrien continued to watch her the whole time, curious about how she was going to investigate the item.


    alice moved to the side of the street, out of the way of any stray pedestrians or horses, and then put on the necklace while carefully observing the iron disc. the rainbow mana surged out of the iron disc, worming its way up the leather cord before it began sinking into her neck. while alice couldn¡¯t see her own neck without a mirror, she was able to see rainbow mana spread throughout her torso and into the rest of her body, connecting to each of her muscles in an extraordinarily intricate pattern. she took a moment to marvel at what she was seeing.


    this ¡®system enchantment¡¯ wasn¡¯t just increasing her strength by two. it was basically doing its best to mimic a human heart ¨C carefully pumping rainbow mana to the muscles around her body in order to strengthen them all equally, providing her body with a very slight increase in strength. while the actual effect was a measly two points in strength, the process of getting there was fascinating.


    at the same time, alice began to feel ever so slightly stronger. her stance became sturdier, her grip became firmer, and she felt that she would be able to lift ever so slightly more weight. in other words, it was the standard effect of gaining a few points of [strength].


    the entire process was done entirely with rainbow mana, meaning someone without her achievements wouldn¡¯t be able to see what was happening. however, alice could clearly see that system mana was now flowing out of the iron ring on the necklace in a neverending trickle.


    absently, alice noticed a fair amount of mana being filtered by system fractals before entering her body. she was probably getting experience points for [scholar], [explorer of magic] or [scientist]. or all three.


    alice checked the shop advertisement for the necklace she had just bought.


    ¡°iron necklaces of +2 strength for sale! recently, one of the longtime smiths of the shop has gotten to level 65 in [blacksmith]. to celebrate, we¡¯re going to be selling lots of system-enchantment equipment for the next month! custom orders are now available! up to +15 in any stat! +5 or more requires a custom order. upon request, up to one level five perk from a few specific classes may also be attached to an item of your choice, provided the item does not already have a system enchantment. a detailed list may be accessed in the shop upon request. buy during our special sale for this month, before prices increase again!¡±


    alice examined the necklace again, double checking the rainbow mana in the iron disc. sure enough, even though mana was continuously pouring into her body, there was no noticeable decrease in the disc¡¯s mana reserve. unlike the enchantments alice made, system enchantments didn¡¯t seem to chew through any sort of mana reserve as a power source. it just... worked.


    ¡°curious,¡± said alice. absently, she wondered how the necklace figured out when someone was wearing it. if there was one thing she had gotten used to during her time enchanting, it was the fact that enchantments needed pretty specific instructions to work properly. as far as she knew, system enchantments all needed to be worn by a human in order to work. how did they know when a human was wearing them?


    ¡°so what are you planning on doing to test the necklace?¡± asked ezrien, interrupting her thoughts. ¡°i¡¯ve never thought about investigating system enchantments as a way of looking into artifacts and sustainable enchantments. i always felt that they aren¡¯t really the same thing, personally.¡±


    alice felt a grin tugging at her lips as she looked at the iron ring at the center of the necklace. ¡°something i¡¯ve learned as i have advanced my own studies is that ultimately, everything seems to loop back around to mana. including this necklace. i intend to see what happens if i cut out the mana supply in its surroundings,¡± said alice. ¡°i can make a manaless box with some leftover sap pretty quickly, so i¡¯ll try starving it of mana to see what happens. if it turns off the enchantment, it would mean the necklace is powered by ambient mana. if it doesn¡¯t, i start coming up with the next test.¡±


    ¡°what do you expect the results to be?¡± ezrien didn¡¯t sound sarcastic. instead, he seemed genuinely curious.


    the second female appeared to be in her early twenties ¨C however, the amount of mana in her body was much denser than her colleagues, making alice suspect she might be the same age as the rest of them and just had a higher level than her team members. she was also a mage, but had a thermal and an electromagnetic seed instead of a kinetic one. she was one of the only mages alice had seen besides herself and cecilia that had bothered picking up a second magic seed.


    ¡°hey, team leader!¡± said the high-level and young-looking female mage, giving ezrien a cheerful wave before turning back to her work. the woman looked rather cute, making alice guess that she had a [charisma] of around 130 or so. the highest of anyone in the room, including alice.


    the other two mages ignored alice and ezrien entirely, too focused on taking measurements for a flat metal disc that alice had a hard time guessing the purpose of. it was covered in kinetic energy, and alice could tell that it was supposed to move objects in its surroundings under specific circumstances. however, she couldn¡¯t figure out what the conditions to activate it were, or what purpose the enchantment had without taking a closer look.


    ¡°good afternoon, anne. i¡¯m surprised to see you here today. isn¡¯t it your day off?¡±


    ¡°i figured i would stop by and chat for a while. besides, you can¡¯t get levels by slacking off, you know? it¡¯s important to be as diligent as possible if you want to lead a long and healthy life!¡± she gave ezrien a cheeky grin, before turning to alice. ¡°who are you? i don¡¯t think i¡¯ve seen you here before. nice to meet you! i¡¯m anne!¡± she said, holding out her hand for alice to shake.


    ¡°i¡¯m... basically auditioning to be part of your research team, i suppose? in the capacity of an [assistant] if i¡¯m not mistaken?¡± said alice, after a few moments.


    ¡°oh, is that so?¡± asked anne, turning to ezrien. ¡°are you finally replacing geralt?¡± anne¡¯s face wrinkled as she mentioned geralt¡¯s name, completely overturning her originally cheery vibe. considering how friendly anne seemed so far, alice had to wonder just what geralt had done to get such a bad response from the woman.


    ¡°hopefully,¡± said ezrien, uneasily. ¡°i¡¯m thinking of acting as a patron for her to pursue time in a magic academy. i¡¯m mostly planning on delegating some of the administrative stuff to her in exchange for 15 gold suns, paid up front in exchange for the next year of labor. and acting as patron for twenty coins, in hopes of furthering my research topics of passion in the future. the twenty coins are coming from my own savings, so don¡¯t worry about those.¡±


    ¡°isn¡¯t 20 crowns a little too harsh for her? i mean, it¡¯s a fair price for her labor for a year, but if she¡¯s acting as a student, she¡¯s already losing a lot of time every day. assuming she works for us as assistant, that chews through most of her spare time. she still needs to come up with five gold coins on her own, plus food, room, and board for herself for a year. i know academies usually give out uniforms, and if you¡¯re signed up for the military program they usually provide way more, but it doesn¡¯t sound like she¡¯s going into the military program if she needs a sponsor. just keeping herself afloat might be difficult, don¡¯t you think?¡± said anne, giving ezrien a dubious look.


    ¡°i already have another part time job of sorts lined up,¡± said alice. ¡°a friend of mine runs an enchanting shop, and i have a penchant for picking weird magic seeds. so i can dump my mana into enchanting every day and turn that into my living expenses ¨C at least, that¡¯s my current plan. it¡¯s not ideal, since a lot of my enchantments are a bit sub-par right now ¨C but my classes are also pretty low level right now, so it¡¯s easy to boost them higher. as i pick up perks my classes will get better, and i figure it¡¯ll be easier and easier to get. i just need to push through the hard part which is... now. it probably won¡¯t be pleasant, but i can do it.¡±


    ¡°hmm...¡± anne tapped her finger on her lips, as if deep in thought, before slowly nodding. ¡°if you¡¯ve thought it through and that¡¯s what you want to do, i won¡¯t stop you, i guess. pushing yourself can break some people, but it can also give you more levels and stats than anything else. just be careful not to push yourself so hard you shatter, all right?¡± she said. alice noticed that anne¡¯s look towards her had become more respectful than before. it wasn¡¯t by much, but the difference in attitude still made alice feel a bit better about her plans.


    ezrien simply smiled at anne, before giving alice a friendly nod. ¡°anne is the group mom. if things work out, be nice to her ¨C it¡¯s pretty hard to piss her off.¡±


    ¡°how did geralt did it then?¡±


    ¡°geralt is a total asshole,¡± said anne. ¡°he¡¯s competent enough, but he came to work drunk three times so far. then he rants about how he¡¯s a better worker than the rest of us, and how it isn¡¯t fair his level is lower than mine. excuse me?¡± anne snorted. ¡°he¡¯s said some nasty stuff to two of the others as well, so the team is getting kind of sick of his antics. he¡¯s both unprofessional and a jerk.¡±


    alice turned to ezrien, who was making a strained smile. alice took that as light confirmation of anne¡¯s words, and decided not to delve deeper into the topic.


    ¡°anyway, good luck on your test, new girl! i hope you join the team.¡±


    the other two researchers who were present simply ignored what was going on, continuing to take measurements while messing with the flat metal disc.


    ezrien nodded, and took alice into a separate room to begin her test.

 Chapter 69

    chapter 69


    alice first confirmed that the metal disc on the leather cord was what was providing her with a stat buff. even if alice could just look at the rainbow mana popping out of the iron disc, since others couldn¡¯t see rainbow mana alice was forced to prove the iron disc was what provided the system enchantment. she decided to treat this as good prep work for grounding her assumptions in reality, rather than just a nuisance, and went through the necessary steps to prove the iron disc was the source of her +2 strength buff. after that, alice moved on.


    next, alice put together more mana-blocking sap with leftover ingredients in {sample storage}, grabbed a wooden box laying around, used her kinetic mana to drill two small holes on the top, and then slathered the mana-blocking sap over everything. after that, she put the strength-boosting necklace inside of the box, pulled the strings of the necklace through the holes, and used her mana to drive out all of the mana and system mana inside of the box, forming a small net on one end of the box and then gradually dragging it out of the box. since system mana avoided other mana, it continuously retreated from alice¡¯s mana tendril web, leaving her with a totally manaless box.


    then, alice put on the leather cord while the iron disc part of the necklace was still inside of the manaless box. it wasn¡¯t exactly a perfect experiment ¨C after all, alice would have preferred to just drive out all of the pure and system mana in the room before starting the experiment. however, with other people involved in the experiment as well, alice needed to make sure the experiment wouldn¡¯t raise concerns with an ethics committee, which limited her ability to use herself as an experimental subject. while using yourself as a subject was fine if you were also the only person in the experiment, this experiment was unquestionably linked to ezrien, since he paid for the ingredients and instigated her to start the experiment. if alice then used herself as a test subject there was a good chance ezrien would end up in legal hot water, even if a bunch of people with lie-detection perks went over their statements.


    finally, everything was set up. alice watched as the necklace activated with no problems whatsoever, completely ignoring the fact that no system or pure mana was in its surroundings, as well as the fact that the iron disc should have had zero ways to detect whether or not alice was wearing it. rainbow mana travelled through the leather cord until it reached her neck and then boosted her strength by two. whether or not the necklace had access to outside mana seemed completely irrelevant.


    ¡°huh,¡± said alice, looking at the necklace. ¡°i¡¯ll admit, i kind of expected it to work even with no ambient mana, but i still can¡¯t help but feel surprised.¡±


    after that, alice pulled out a sheet of paper and began writing some observations down.


    ¡®iron disc does not need atmospheric mana to keep working ¨C it operates independently of external fuel sources.¡¯ of course, the notes were only for the sake of ezrien ¨C alice had the system¡¯s version of {photographic memory}, meaning that she didn¡¯t really need to take notes for herself these days.


    after that, alice started trying to narrow down whether the necklace used other fuel sources. while she strongly suspected it just ran on nothing the way her seeds seemed to, it was worth double checking whether it ran on heat, sunlight, etc.


    none of the above seemed to be correct. the necklace was just... creating mana somehow. alice, for the life of her, just couldn¡¯t figure out how this process worked. in fact, alice couldn¡¯t even figure out how the necklace knew when someone was wearing it. it just... knew.


    she tried suffocated the necklace of pure mana and only letting it interact with system mana, as well as letting it interact with pure mana but no system mana. neither stopped the enchantment from working, so she lathered the leather part of the necklace in mana blocking sap (along with some small wooden plates she wore underneath the sap-coated necklace to avoid making a mess). this also failed to prevent the necklace from activating, since the system mana began working out more and more convoluted routes to reach her, before it finally seemed to get frustrated and pushed its way through the mana-blocking sap. alice had never seen this happen before ¨C the system mana actively fought with the sap for almost a minute before it finally drilled a little hole in the mana-blocking sap enchantment and started boosting her [strength] again. alice quietly scribbled down more observations, making sure to just note that ¡®the activation was delayed¡¯ for ezrien¡¯s copy of her notes, before quietly making her own personal note that ¡®blocking mana¡¯ apparently wasn¡¯t as absolute as she thought it was. it was the first time alice had seen mana break through a mana-blocking enchantment. she found this process fascinating, and decided it was worth investigating later. finally, she tried to directly interfere with the necklace using her mana tendrils, just to see what happened.


    direct interference was also somewhat effective. it caused the rainbow mana to pause for a moment, as the system mana tried to avoid her mana wherever possible. then, it created a bizarre path that skirted around her mana and finished making its way towards her neck.


    whenever alice wore the necklace, the matrix of rainbow mana in the center of the necklace started creating mana again. since alice still didn¡¯t know how ¡®creating mana¡¯ worked, alice decided to use {mana construct modelling} to see if that got her any useful information. it was becoming increasingly obvious that blocking mana wasn¡¯t getting her any closer to figuring out how mana creation worked.


    {mana construct modelling}gave her the information that system mana, pure mana, and organic mana was used to construct the glyph in the center of the necklace. alice recalled the other time she had used {mana construct modelling} on a system glyph. that time, the fractal had also contained those three kinds of mana.


    curious, alice took a few sneak peaks at ezrien, quietly trying {mana construct modelling} on his class glyphs. every singleone of his class glyphs had system mana, pure mana, and organic mana inside of them, though about half of them were mixed with a fourth kind of mana as well. alice grinned. there was a point of interest here, if she had the time and energy to discover it. while that might be lacking in the immediate future, she was certainly going to file it away for further investigation.


    she turned her attention back to the necklace. she didn¡¯t know much about interacting with organic mana yet, and every time she tried to form a system magic seed the system blocked her. so for now, she could only experiment on the mana fractal with her pure mana seed. after a quick check with {safety analysis} that warned her of light but manageable danger, she started trying to poke at the mana matrix itself with her pure mana seed. it wiggled, squirmed, and avoided the touch of her mana, but after some struggling she managed to trap the system fractal and touch it.


    this was quite possibly one of the hardest feats of magical dexterity alice had done so far, and made illa¡¯s training feel easy by comparison. when alice finally managed to trap the glyph of rainbow mana, she extended a single mana tendril into the fractal. she wanted to pry apart the edges a little bit and see if she could observe it working. even if it was likely going to destroy the enchantment, alice figured she might learn something if she could observe parts of the glyph working. right now, there was just too much going on for her to understand anything, but if she took it apart piece by piece she might be able to figure something out.


    unfortunately, it stopped working much faster than she expected. she managed to poke something and the entire mana matrix instantly stopped working. mana immediately stopped flowing through the fractal, and alice¡¯s original goal of observing only part of the fractal working failed.


    the last dribbles of rainbow mana continued towards her, but alice felt something different about it now. it was less directed than before. it made its way into her body, and then alice felt a very faint burning sensation in her muscles. it started to get worse, and alice immediately used {moderate tissue regeneration} to fix whatever was going wrong. {moderate tissue regeneration} burned some of the calories from lunch, and the faint burning sensation in her muscles was healed away.


    meanwhile, the necklace fractal kept trying to create more rainbow mana. however, it was no longer going anywhere. it was like an engine leaking fuel. one minute later, it stopped producing any mana at all. the necklace fractal turned dim, and alice could no longer observe anything happening. while spamming {safety analysis} enough to start getting a headache alice tried injecting some pure mana into the fractal. however, it was now broken beyond repair. alice reviewed her memories of when it had worked (thanks to {photographic memory}) and then sighed. she couldn¡¯t quite figure out what each part of the fractal did yet, or how mana generation worked. there were too many fiddly bits to the fractal, and she wasn¡¯t even sure what caused the whole thing to break. on the bright side, alice was confident that if she observed enough system fractals breaking she could probably get somewhere with the whole endeavor. it would just require an unknown number of system-enchanted items, all of which were almost certainly going to become worthless in the process. and each system-enchanted item was bound to cost a fair amount of money, which alice currently didn¡¯t have.


    once again, it all came back to not having enough funds...


    ¡°the necklace no longer works,¡± said alice, turning back to ezrien. she tried to stop herself, but she was grinning madly the whole time. today she had confirmed that she had a chance to go in the right direction, and gotten some hands-on experience breaking the system. she had confirmed that it was possible to mess with the system, even if she barely knew what she was doing and needed to rely on her perks to keep her safe during the whole process. it felt great, even if it had broken an item worth three silver crowns in the process. for a regular [laborer] that was about three days of work if they didn¡¯t eat or sleep.


    ezrien looked shocked, as he gave the necklace a dubious look. he looked over the notes and observations alice had intermittently penned during her experiments, before he returned his gaze to her. ¡°you managed to break a system enchantment? but the iron disc is still intact! there¡¯s no other way to break a system enchantment besides destroying the physical object it was attached to! all you did was poke it a bunch with pure mana for some reason and-¡° ezrien stopped, completely lost in thought. then, he gave her a grin. ¡°i have no clue whether or not you¡¯re moving in the right direction for your experiments. to be honest, i don¡¯t know exactly what you did. however, nobody has ever managed to break a system enchantment like that before, at least as far as i know. even if i don¡¯t know whether you¡¯re heading in the right direction or not, you¡¯ve managed to stumble onto something interesting. a lot of your preparatory steps and double-checking methods that you used earlier in the experiment were decent enough that i have no major complaints with them. there are some minor issues with your documentation methods during the experiment that we¡¯ll need to talk about, but when you remembered to record stuff, it was decent. i don¡¯t know if you have a good memory or something, but even if you do, keep in mind that if you¡¯re part of a team other people need to be able to see your thoughts and what you¡¯ve done. but this can be fixed,¡± he said as he held out his hand to alice. ¡°welcome to the team.¡±


    alice smiled.


    once per month, you can reset the cooldown on a perk as long as that perk is related to magic.


    enhanced focus


    requireemnts: kinetic manabinder level 10 or higher


    while enchanting an object, you can focus more effectively. time will seem to slow down while you are working, improving your work speed by a significant amount.


    alice was extremely happy with her new perks. {improved multitasking} allowed her to control four mana tendrils at once without difficulty. {divided attention} and {folds of magic} had been picked by her because she had originally thought they would get her to two mana tendrils ¨C however, while the combination of the two had always been close to letting her control an extra mana tendril, they never quite got all the way there. eventually, she had simply given up and taken {split mind} to give her a second mana tendril. {improved multitasking} was also a perk that came from the [scholar] class, rather than her magic related class, meaning that alice could save her magic class perks for better options in the future. with the ability to focus on four things at once, alice¡¯s multitasking ability and self-defense abilities both rose by leaps and bounds. it was useful both in a crisis and when she was researching, so she was naturally happy to get this perk.


    {advanced mana measurement} was also very useful. because {precise mana measurement} didn¡¯t let alice measure broken mana, it had gradually fallen out of use for alice. while she did use it to confirm that there was no ¡®normal¡¯ mana in a given area during some experiments, and she occasionally used it for other experiments, alice dealt with system and broken mana a lot more than she had originally expected to. most mages weren¡¯t crazy enough to mess with a potentially poisonous substance that was likely to force a second mana baptism with a high chance of killing them, but alice was already immune to the problem, which meant there was a lot of unexplored territory in the subject. combined with the fact that it seemed increasingly relevant to her interests, alice was extremely happy that she could now measure broken mana. while she still couldn¡¯t measure the rainbow mana accurately, alice no longer had to buy or rent cumbersome instruments for this purpose. it was also a great improvement in her ability to contribute to the research team, since it let her measure how much mana various sub-enchantments spent per second much more quickly and effectively than the instruments the team previous used and how much broken mana was being produced by some sub-optimal enchantments. it went a long way towards endearing alice with the other members of the research team, some of whom hadn¡¯t been convinced of her value until then.


    {magic seed slot} was picked since alice had filled up her fourth magic seed slot with a healing seed. since alice had been seeing organic mana pop up in all of the system fractals she investigated, she wanted to keep the seed around and learn how to use it whenever she went to magic academy. that meant that she had no slots left to experiment with, and alice obviously wanted to keep investigating how seed formation worked. this magic seed slot was far worse than the other perks alice had gotten from classes like [explorer of magic], but considering the fact she was getting a magic seed slot from the [scientist] class alice wasn¡¯t particularly surprised. she decided to just be grateful for the fact she was getting a seed slot when she needed one. none of the other perks at level 35 scientist had been particularly exciting, so it ended up being a surprisingly easy pick.


    {reset} was picked because it let alice use {broken seed} twice per month, instead of once per month. alice had a lot of experiments she wanted to perform when measuring how the system and mana seed construction interacted with each other, and only being able to make one observation a month was really dragging down the speed she investigated things. {reset} would solve at least some of this problem.


    with alice¡¯s two chances this month to form a new magic seed, alice formed and then destroyed two flawed electromagnetic seeds and confirmed two new things.


    first, if a magic seed was formed without assistance from the system, there was a fair chance that it wouldn¡¯t work very well. the first electromagnetic seed alice formed was done in a new manaless room in cecilia¡¯s workshop, where she had driven out all of the system mana and then flooded the room with pure mana from her pure mana seed. the first magic seed made alice feel nauseous after a few hours. it was nowhere near as bad as the time alice tried to form dozens of failed seeds in a row. however, alice certainly didn¡¯t feel good after making the seed ¨C it was like she had come down with a bad case of the flu. in the process, alice also realized that she accidentally messed up several parts of the magic seed. several parts of the magic seed looked off when she compared it to the electromagnetic seeds she had made with the help of the system, and the new seed looked... sickly. patchy. alice had a hard time putting into words everything that was wrong with it, but it was definitely broken. this information opened up new questions about what had happened all of those months ago, when alice had tried to form a bunch of magic seeds based on physics from earth. why hadn¡¯t the system helped her form those magic seeds then? why did it help her form some magic seeds but fail to help her with others? alice was tempted to try forming a few seeds based on photons or other earth-physics concepts again, but the trauma from that time was still fresh in her mind. she decided that she would go back to the topic in the future, but she would wait... just a little longer. she would try again later.


    alice learned from this, and later that month, tried again. this time, the seed looked closer to okay. alice didn¡¯t get sick just from having the mana seed in her body this time. however, when alice gave the seed some time to generate mana and then tried to move a silver coin around, she started to feel incredibly sick. alice was forced to use {moderate tissue regeneration} and then destroy the seed with {reset} as she started to feel more and more ill. it was obvious that she had fixed some of the errors from her first attempt, but she certainly hadn¡¯t succeeded yet.


    alice took advantage of these attempts to start training herself in something new. anytime alice tried to make a ¡®system¡¯ magic seed, the system would actively interfere with her. alice had some guesses about the reasons for this, which were probably related to the reason system mana actively hid from other mages and avoided ¡®touching¡¯ human mana whenever possible. however, at the end of the day, alice was now a girl with a dream. she wanted to try seeing if she could interact with or replicate the feats of the system ¨C and for that, it seemed increasingly obvious that a system mana seed would be needed. if the system stopped her from forming a system mana seed, alice needed to form a mana seed in an environment where the system wasn¡¯t present. in other words, alice was now starting to consider the process of forming failed magic seeds and breaking them down to be training for when she formed a system magic seed in a room where pure mana was present and system mana wasn¡¯t. alice also started wondering if she would get another level in [survivor] soon. even though she had started to consider the class pretty useless during her time in cyra, it was surprisingly good at letting her use herself as a lab rat.


    the final perk alice picked was {enhanced focus}. it was alice¡¯s attempt to solve a problem she expected to kick in once she started her time at magic academy, which was lack of time and sleep. she was already aware that the schedule she had planned out for herself for the next year or two was going to be hard, and {enhanced focus} would lessen at least some of this burden by reducing the number of hours each enchantment took to finish. when alice tried it in practice, it seemed to shave off about 20% of the time it took her to make each enchantment, which would add up when her schedule started kicking into nightmare mode.


    at the end of four weeks, alice registered at the magic academy of her choice. after a fairly quick and painless signup procedure, alice was enrolled as a student of the magic academy for the advancement of mana and research. she was to begin attending classes next week, and was given five uniforms after signing up. and at the end of the week, she also finished making her first board game from home. it was time for ¡®the settlers¡¯ to make its debut on luliv.


    * * *


    as alice signed up for her magic academy, other people were also making progress. somewhere far away, there was a massive cloud of broken mana. the amount of mana here dwarfed almost every other location on luliv ¨C the mana was so thick here that even a normal person would have been able to feel it just by breathing it. or they would have figured it out from the horrendous pain of going through a mana baptism, since the environment would have forced any non-mage to start a baptism within seconds of walking into the area.


    and in the area, two people stood. one was an immortal, and one was a humanoid being partially made of metal. there were no other people around them ¨C it was just the two of them.


    ¡°is this it, master?¡± asked the half-metal man, looking at the massive cloud of corrupted mana.


    the immortal smiled. through his eyes, the cloud of broken mana looked like it could dwarf the size of most cities. of course, he could see far more than that.


    the broken mana that leaked everywhere in this area was astonishingly dense. however, he was able to see one other thing. something that, perhaps, only ten or fifteen other mages in the world could see. as one of the oldest immortals, he hadn¡¯t gained the right to see it until he had acquired an obscene number of achievements and perks, before finally lucking into one that let him see a whole new world.


    deep within the cloud of broken mana existed a very different kind of mana. a kind of mana that resembled a rainbow. and in this place, it was far, far denser than anywhere else he had ever seen. the immortal smiled. this... this might finally be it.


    of course, there was much work to do before he could start investigating in earnest. the monsters in this area needed to be cleared out before he could investigate further, if he didn¡¯t want to get surrounded and eaten. his classes weren¡¯t specialized for combat, and while stopping the monsters from sensing any mana leaking out of him might be possible, it was a very dangerous position to place himself in. he would need magic to investigate this place thoroughly, and he didn¡¯t fancy the odds of something noticing him, even if he tried to disguise himself. but even though there was still a lot of work to be done, he couldn¡¯t help but feel excited. this could be the end of his journey.


    ¡°i think this is the place. let¡¯s get started.¡±

 Chapter 70

    chapter 70


    alice looked at the table which contained her (questionable) rendition of the settlers. cecilia looked at the board game, before turning to the third player alice had managed to convince to join the group. she had invited most of the other researchers she worked with to join the game, but the only ones who had expressed any interest in the idea were ezrien and anne. ezrien was busy today, and since alice was going to start classes at her magic academy tomorrow, she expected to be busy in the future. sadly, this meant it was a three player game and not a four player game this time, but alice hoped that in the future she would get a chance to play other board games with more people. though, admittedly, that may take a while, since alice needed to make each game and carve the pieces out of wood, and she was going to spend most of her future free time in the library she had spent a ridiculous amount of money to gain a year of access to.


    anne gave cecilia a cheery grin. ¡°so you¡¯re the ¡®friend who owns an enchantment shop¡¯ that alice mentioned a few times? it¡¯s nice to meet you!¡± said anne, giving cecilia a warm handshake. ¡°i¡¯ve never been in your shop before today, but the enchanted items are decent quality. for someone so young, you¡¯re doing pretty well at managing a shop on your own.¡±


    ¡°it¡¯s nice to meet you as well,¡± said cecilia, who visibly brightened up at anne¡¯s compliment. ¡°alice has mentioned you a few times when talking about getting to know the research team. i hear you¡¯ve given her a bit of help meeting new members? thank you for looking out for my friend.¡±


    ¡°alice leaves a decent enough impression on her own. even if she¡¯s a bit quiet and spends a lot more time thinking than talking, she¡¯s at least passionate enough about the team¡¯s goals and her work as a researcher to make up for it,¡± said anne giving alice a mischievous grin. ¡°so this board game is from your homeland?¡± asked anne, giving the various numbered tiles a dubious look. alice was glad that she didn¡¯t need to explain what a board game was. this world, apparently, had a few board games already in place, as well as a few card games played with semi-standardized cards that [scribes] sometimes produced.


    ¡°yeah,¡± said alice, deciding to ignore anne¡¯s impression that she was ¡®quiet.¡¯ ¡°the rules are actually pretty simple ¨C every turn, you roll the dice. then, tiles with the same number as the dice produce resources, and every player with a settlement or city touching those tiles collects a copy of the resource. for example, if i roll an eight, all of ¡®8¡¯ tiles produce resources. if i have a settlement on a ¡®brick¡¯ resource tile that is numbered ¡®8,¡¯ i get 1 brick. you spend resources to build more towns, cities, and roads. the basic goal is to 10 points, which makes you win the game. every time you build a settlement, you get one point, and upgrading it to a city gives you another point. the player with the longest road gets 2 extra points, and loses those points if someone else beats their road length. the resource costs for everything are explained in the little panel at the corner of the board. there are more specific rules, such as the robber and rules about settlement placement detailed in the little booklet i gave you. any questions?¡± alice asked.


    ¡°so the objective is to win the dice rolls and acquire resources, thus building enough settlements to choke out your competitors and monopolize as much land as possible?¡± asked cecilia.


    ¡°that¡¯s... one way to put it?¡± said alice.


    ¡°i see,¡± said cecilia, nodding. ¡°the important thing to do is mess with the other players as much as possible. if they have no resources they cannot win. in the meantime, you want to monopolize as many resources as possible.¡±


    ¡°uhhh...¡± alice


    ¡°is it possible to trade with other players as well, or are we just working to screw everyone else over?¡± asked anne, giving the board a more careful look.


    ¡°you can trade, but only during your turn.¡±


    ¡°hmm... it¡¯s an interesting way to build up magic skills and [perception],¡± said anne, after a moment.


    alice had an ominous feeling about that statement, but decided to move on with her explanation for now.


    after a slightly more detailed explanation of some of the more specific rules, the three set up the board. alice had carved the board itself out of wood, before using cheaper colors made from plants grown in illvaria to dye different tiles and make it clear which tile produced which resource. sure, the ocean surrounding the continent looked a little funny when it was grey colored, but blue dye imported from the corellion empire cost almost a gold crown for a small quantity, while grey dye was half a silver sun for the same amount. the continent was also kind of lumpy and looked a little funny, but it no longer looked like a potato.


    in addition to the board itself, alice had made ¡®special event¡¯ cards out of smaller wooden slats, dice made out of a mixture of wood and iron (the iron being used to give the dice a proper weight and make it sturdier), and a variety of little wooden towns, roads and cities alice had carved herself. the settlements and cities that she had tried to make with exquisite detail also looked kind of off, but they were serviceable.


    once everyone roughly understood the rules and the board game, anne went first. she threw the dice into the air... and immediately stretched out a mana tendril towards the dice. then, electromagnetic mana shot out of her and swapped around the trajectory of the dice. the dice landed on eight. anne grinned. ¡°two sheep please.¡± she held out her hand at alice, who was managing the resources for the group.


    ¡°anne? what are you doing?¡± said alice, trying to resist the urge to glare at anne.


    ¡°what do you mean?¡±


    ¡°you changed the trajectory of the dice with magic!¡±


    ¡°and?¡± anne seemed genuinely baffled by the notion that she had done something wrong.


    ¡°that¡¯s cheating,¡± said alice.


    ¡°why would it be cheating? isn¡¯t the point of the game to boost your ability to manipulate mana? it seems like an ingenious way to train [perception] and kinetic or electromagnetic magic. its use for thermal and organic mages is a fair bit more limited, since the wood used in the dice is already dead, but it¡¯s quite a clever game. i do think the penalties for having weaker control than the other players is a bit harsh, since you only get resources when you force rolls on the right number, but it¡¯s a decent training method. isn¡¯t that the goal?¡± anne¡¯s genuine confusion made it hard to respond to her statements, and alice¡¯s bad feeling intensified.


    ¡°but- i mean, that¡¯s not-¡° alice felt a sudden headache. cecilia was frowning. alice turned to her, hoping that alice had another ally willing to enforce fair play in the game, before cecilia experimentally reached out a mana tendril.


    ¡°i see,¡± muttered cecilia, before she handed anne two sheep tokens and picked up the dice. she tossed them into the air before shooting out one of her mana tendrils. anne did the same, and the two immediately began struggling to control the rapid spinning of the dice in midair. cecilia, whose perks were much more focused on precise manipulation of mana and boosting enchantment quality instead of ¡®active¡¯ mana use, was only able to influence one of the two dice. meanwhile, anne tilted the other die to make it a 6 and tried to tilt the second die into a two. cecilia tried and failed to make it the second die land on four to give her a brick and a wood resource tile, but anne reached out another mana tendril and slammed the die into the table. after wobbling a few times, the die finally landed on five. the total roll ended up being an eleven. nobody had any towns or cities on tiles with the number eleven.


    ¡°no, cecilia, wait, that¡¯s not- i mean, aren¡¯t you also upset?¡±


    cecilia also gave alice a baffled look. ¡°why would i be?¡±


    ¡°you aren¡¯t ¨C i mean, that¡¯s not... using magic to change the outcome of the dice isn¡¯t in the spirit of fair play, don¡¯t you think?¡±


    ¡°why wouldn¡¯t it be fair? she used her own perks and abilities to change the outcome of the dice, right? and we¡¯re all mages, so using magic is pretty reasonable. if there were any non-mages at the table it might be a problem, but we can all influence the dice so it¡¯s pretty fair right?¡±


    alice felt increasingly baffled by anne and cecilia¡¯s attitude towards rigging the dice rolls. was she the crazy one here?


    ¡°what do you mean it¡¯s fair? isn¡¯t playing the game this way... odd?¡±


    ¡°isn¡¯t it just normal?¡± asked cecilia, frowning in concentration as she looked at anne¡¯s sheep and waited for alice to roll the dice. ¡°i mean, in the first place, it¡¯s similar to a [gambler] having their perks activate, right? it¡¯s just that the user needs to be a bit more conscious about what they¡¯re trying to do, and the outcome of the game doesn¡¯t have any money riding on it. which is a good thing ¨C [gamblers] only get experience towards their next level while gambling, but they don¡¯t actually learn anything in the process. this game instead trains a lot of different things, from {basic mathematics} to attributes like [perception] and [magic]. it even builds skills for a variety of magic abilities, like {mana control}. while it might not be terribly optimized for non-mages... ah.¡± cecilia finally seemed to remember alice¡¯s homeland didn¡¯t have magic or the system in it. she gave alice a sympathetic look, before shaking her head. ¡°i see. your games were actually just determined by luck. don¡¯t worry, here you can control the outcome of the games and play games determined by skill.¡±


    alice¡¯s bad feeling was fulfilled. not only did anne and cecilia not see a problem with using magic to rig the outcome of the game, cecilia, after realizing alice¡¯s circumstances, found alice¡¯s thoughts about fair play to be absurd. alice felt a headache begin to build up as she tried to figure out how to convince these two to play the game properly.


    wait, is this actually a problem? alice suddenly had a strange thought. if three mages were trying to control the outcome of each dice roll, the odds were probably pretty close to random anyway, right? and even though they weren¡¯t playing the game the ¡®original¡¯ way, it wasn¡¯t a terrible idea to use the game as a training ground. anne was a woman who spent her days off working on getting levels and stats. cecilia wasn¡¯t quite as obsessed with levelling as anne, but there was nobody in this world that minded getting a few more attributes and levels whenever they could. even alice wanted to level up as much as possible, because levels gave her new tools to explore this world, increased avenues to earn money, and reductions in her aging speed. all three of those appealed to her. if alice could have fun playing the game while getting some levels and attributes, wasn¡¯t it the best of both worlds?


    alice wrestled with this thought for a few moments as she looked at the dice in her hands, before she decided to give up and roll with the punches.


    she probably wasn¡¯t going to be playing a ¡®proper¡¯ game of the settlers in this world, given how different the culture was. so she instead decided to set up a few extra rules that she ¡®forgot to mention.¡¯


    first, one could only use magic to ¡®spin¡¯ the dice while they were in midair. they couldn¡¯t push the dice ¡®up¡¯ with their magic ¨C the could only rotate it. if they seriously altered the influence of gravity on the dice, they were disqualified from getting resources for that turn. this made sure that the dice didn¡¯t infinitely hover in midair as the three mages tried to contest the outcome of each dice roll, adding a fair bit of difficulty to the game and avoiding multi-minute turns. in addition, the group was forced to set an upper limit on how much mana each player could spend per second trying to manipulate the dice. this was mostly a technical limitation ¨C one of the dice slightly cracked when alice and anne were getting really into a battle to make one of the dice land on a one versus a six. from then on, the players all limited how much mana they could use at once to keep the dice from getting damaged.


    there were all sorts of other disputes in the rules, such as whether using more than two mana tendrils at once was fair, or whether there should be some sort of ¡®dropoff¡¯ point where players could no longer manipulate the dice (it was eventually decided that one could not influence the dice once they were ten centimeters above the table, which made it even harder to mess with the dice and, oddly enough, upped the speed [perception] increased).


    the game lasted for a total of thirty-seven turns, before cecilia threw out three once-per-day merchant perks and conned alice into trading away three sheep and a brick for one piece of wood, letting cecilia immediately win the game one turn before alice would have won. in that time, alice refined her control over magic in a way she had never expected to, learned why pretty people were always dangerous in this world, and realized that her interpretation of ¡®fair play¡¯ in a game was very, very different from the inhabitants of this world. at no point in time during the entire occasion did she find herself bored, and while she found the experience bizarre due to the cultural clash in rules, she had fun. the three played a few more games before anne decided to go home. alice returned to her inn room as well, before she started preparing for her first day tomorrow. it had been a surprisingly fun last day of freedom, though to be honest, alice was excited for tomorrow. soon, she would finally be able to access the academy knowledge bases and libraries.


    name: alice verianna


    age: 16


    strength: 106 (112 -> 122%)


    perception: 127 (155% -> 165%)


    dexterity: 105 (114 -> 124%)


    intelligence: 164 (128%)


    endurance: 119 (121%)


    willpower: 143 (108%)


    charisma: 127 (107%)


    magic: 138 (117%)


    primary classes: 6/6


    survivor: 41 -> 44


    faster mana regeneration (apprentice enchanter 20)


    skills


    academic skills:


    english (language proficiency): 100


    illvarian (language proficiency): 98 -> 99


    sigmusi (language proficiency): 0->7


    basic mathematics: 122


    intermediate mathematics: 78


    advanced mathematics: 18


    magic skills:


    kinetic manipulation: 48 -> 57


    mana control: 33 -> 41


    mana precision: 31 -> 43


    kinetic force: 29 -> 37


    projectile awareness : 9 -> 12


    divided attention: 8 -> 16


    basic enchanting: 6 -> 19


    broken mana purification: 0->12


    crafting skills:


    weaving: 27


    woodworking: 25 -> 28


    cooking: 12


    stoneworking: 11


    physical skills:


    spearmanship: 19


    sprinting: 18


    dodge: 18


    climbing: 9


    fishing: 9


    digging: 8


    stealth: 4


    basic medicine: 3


    magic seed: 4/5


    (unused seed: max 5% mana conversion ratio)


    kinetic seed (135%)


    organic seed (10%)


    pure mana seed (50%)


    healing mana seed (10%)


    achievements:


    outworlder (rarity: 10)


    seeker of truth (iii) (rarity: 9)


    baptized by broken mana (rarity: 6)


    survivor of winter (rarity: 3)


    monstrous encounter (rarity: 1)


    monster slayer (iii) (rarity: 2) (upgraded)


    well trained (rarity: 4)


    murderer (rarity: 4)


    bookworm (rarity: 3)


    kinetic manabinder (rarity n/a)

 Chapter 71

    chapter 71


    the magic academy¡¯s architectural design had obviously taken some level of inspiration from castles. even though it clearly wasn¡¯t actually a castle, each corner of the building was a turret tower made of stone instead of a more traditional building design. there were even crenels at the top of each tower, to allow defenders to shoot arrows or miscellaneous objects at invaders if need be. the sides of the building also had small slits in them near the top, giving defenders even more options to attack invaders without being attacked themselves. every single stone of the building was enchanted with kinetic magic ¨C alice had a hard time figuring out exactly what the enchantments were doing, but it looked like it made the building sturdier, as well as... something else? alice couldn¡¯t figure out the second function at all. it was too far removed from other kinetic enchantments she had seen before, but she assumed it was related to defense somehow.


    the building was located right next to one of the four gates that allowed entry to the noble quarter at the center of the city, and could clearly double as a military outpost to control traffic and lock down the city if need be. alice wondered if all of the magic schools in the capital were built like small fortresses. if so, were the buildings structured for defensive ability, or teaching first?


    perhaps both, she mused as she walked up to the school gates.


    ¡°student id?¡± a handsome teenager was standing just inside of the gate with a bored expression. alice wordlessly produced the id she had been given after registering for the school. rainbow mana activated near the gatekeeper¡¯s eyes, before he turned towards her. ¡°please repeat this statement. my name is alice verianna. i am the person who signed up for this id last week. i hold no intent to inflict violence upon any other people in this institution, no intent to sabotage this institution, no intent to interfere with the regular operations of this institution, and do not anticipate these intentions changing before i next exit this building.¡±


    alice repeated the statement.


    the handsome teenager relaxed a bit. ¡°good to see another first year. when is your first class of the day?¡±


    ¡°twenty minutes from now. why?¡± the teenager grinned at her.


    ¡°it¡¯s good that you gave yourself enough time to find your way around. some people get lost ¨C this building only has a few stairways, and they¡¯re all near the back of the building. which is pretty inconvenient for [students] trying to walk around, though it would buy a bit of time and create some nice choke points if a sigmusi army was trying to storm the school. anyway, head to the back of the first floor if you¡¯re looking for stairs ¨C a lot of first years get confused by that. good luck!¡± the boy opened the gate for alice, seemingly done talking to her.


    the interior of the school was quite different from the militaristic exterior. as if to flaunt the school¡¯s wealth and magical know-how, the walls were lined with a variety of globes, most of which floated in midair and well out of reach. alice took a step closer to one, before looking up and chuckling to herself.


    the first globes she saw were designed to sense the surrounding temperature, and then drop the temperature if it was too hot and boost the temperature if it was too cold. even on another planet, air conditioning was alive and well. some of the other globes were pure mana globes, and seemed to be in charge of regulating mana flow inside of the building. alice guessed it was supposed to keep areas with lots of experiments ongoing supplied with adequate mana. there were several other globes, many of which contained kinds of mana she had never seen before. she spent a few seconds looking at them, but was forced to give up because she couldn¡¯t figure out what they were doing.


    the globes were all encased in little lantern-shaped objects made of some sort of clear, thick glass. at the bottom of each lantern were a large number of monster cores, linked together in some sort of ingenious circuit that made it easy for them to supply the enchanted globes with mana whenever they ran out, and also made it easy to replace the power sources needed.


    finally, there were little metal hooks buried in the sides of the walls that were also enchanted. they seemed to be a kind of enchantment she hadn¡¯t seen before, but she was able to intuitively guess the use of them: they were enchanted as a ¡®pair¡¯ with the floating lanterns. the knobs themselves were only able to influence the object they were paired with, and the only thing they did was make the globes float in midair and keep them from moving around or falling down. alice grinned to herself when she observed the floating metal lanterns ¨C she could see where ezrien had taken inspiration for the device the research team was trying to build. while the two enchantments were very different in scale and purpose, they seemed to share a certain ¡®base¡¯ to them. ezrien¡¯s project was, essentially, a plan to make it easier and cheaper to produce the metal hooks she was looking at, and make the enchantment work without being a paired enchantment. she wouldn¡¯t have realized it if she hadn¡¯t seen the metal hooks, but after a month of working on the kinetic plates, there was no way she would miss the similarities between the two. she chuckled to herself, before she decided to look at the floating lanterns more closely later. she might get more ideas or inspiration from a more detailed examination.


    it had been less than a minute since she had entered the building, and she had already found a few types of enchantment she had never seen before. alice grinned to herself before she continued walking towards the back of the building. it took her a few more minutes before she found the stairs while she eyed her schedule.


    all students were supposed to sign up for anywhere between three and five classes for the year, based on student preferences. two of them were mandatory classes for first years: self defense, to make sure mages trained in illvaria had at least a minimal ability to keep themselves alive, and public morals, because illvaria felt the need to preach about public responsibility. or maybe the ruling class of illvaria wanted to make sure that mages, who had the highest average combat ability in the population, were less likely to run amok and wreak havoc on the country. alice expected both classes to be rather dull, but since they were mandatory in every educational facility there didn¡¯t seem to be a way to dodge out of the classes.


    apart from the two mandatory classes, alice had taken theory of mana (since it related so closely to her interests and based on the class description, it was also likely to be heavily related to pure mana), an introductory course to organic mana (because it was one of the three consistently repeating mana types she found in system fractals, and she had a seed for the mana type but couldn¡¯t use it), and biology of monsters (because monsters didn¡¯t have access to the system, alice deemed that they were interesting ¡®exceptions¡¯ to her primary topic of interest.) she wasn¡¯t actually sure if she would get anything useful out of the last one, but she figured it was worth a shot. apart from the fact that monsters ate mana, she didn¡¯t know much else about the species, and maybe she would get some interesting ideas or information from studying them. this lack of knowledge made her uncomfortable, so she wanted to correct it in case she was overlooking something obvious that might help her.


    her first class of the day was monster biology.


    alice finally located her classroom, before she stepped in.


    unlike in her high school at home, the classes weren¡¯t just rows of identical tiny desks shoved together in a room with a blackboard. instead, comfortable sofas were arranged throughout the room, all of which were surprisingly well made according to this world¡¯s furniture standards. floating in front of each sofa was a small wooden board. on the floor in front of each sofa were more of the paired metal hook enchantments that kept each board floating in exactly the same spot.


    lounging on the sofas and talking to each other were nine other students, most of which were somewhere between their mid teens and early twenties in age. however, there was one student who was noticeably older ¨C a woman who was in her early thirties was seated near the front of the room, completely ignoring others as she looked through a textbook for another class. near the podium at the front of the class, a teacher was floating in midair with his eyes closed, practicing balancing himself with kinetic mana. it was a highly impressive feat of magic, and one that alice had seen illa use and had tried (and failed) to emulate herself multiple times. the teacher was also in possession of an organic seed, making him one of the few people to bother branching into multiple magic seeds besides alice. the teacher looked to be in his late twenties, and was thus younger looking than the student in her early thirties. though, since he had denser mana alice suspected he was probably older than the woman and just had a younger body. the teacher had short black hair and a severe looking expression, and seemed a bit on the shorter side. there was an angry looking scar on his left hand, which made alice wonder if a vinebear had mauled him at some point in the past and he had never gotten the scar removed by an organic mage.


    underneath the teacher¡¯s desk, alice could also see a spidercrab trapped inside of a cage. there was some sort of enchantment on the cage that alice assumed was reducing the sound the spidercrab should have made, but it was still throwing itself against the cage over and over again as it tried to escape and eat the students. alice felt one of her eyes twitch, before she turned her attention back to the students.


    arsi, like alice, had been born a nonmage. he was a former kid from the slums, and while he was on the verge of starvation, he decided that it was better to gamble on the four percent chance of surviving a mana baptism than the much smaller odds of finding food for the next day. he managed to survive his mana baptism and became a mage, and was now on track to join the military. alice was slightly baffled by the fact he was present in the research focused academy and not the military focused one, but since arsi didn¡¯t mention it, she decided not to ask. if they got to know each other better in the future, maybe she would bring it up.


    finally, laila was the daughter of a wealthy merchant family. both of her parents were nonmages, but she had won the genetic lottery and ended up with a talent for magic. she didn¡¯t seem to be particularly passionate about magic or enchanting, or selling and buying things ¨C instead, she seemed content to drift through academy, never failing but never excelling as she did things at her own pace. but even though laila didn¡¯t seem particularly motivated or enthusiastic, she was pleasant enough to talk to for a brief conversation.


    finally, as more students streamed into the classroom, the total number of students in the class reached about forty. the teacher stopped levitating himself in midair and opened his eyes when the time for class came, before he took a good look at the classroom.


    ¡°so, you¡¯re here to learn about monster biology. i¡¯m professor esaiyas, and this is introductory monster biology. can anyone tell me about monsters? yes, you ¨C the tall girl with black hair.¡± he said, pointing to a girl near the front of the classroom.


    ¡°they¡¯re violent and universally hostile to humans.¡±


    ¡°all right, a good start. what else?¡±


    ¡°they eat mana.¡±


    ¡°they aren¡¯t very intelligent, and in the past the church has sometimes claimed they¡¯re manifestations of human laziness or evil.¡±


    ¡°they can eat broken mana, even though broken mana is usually dangerous for humans.¡±


    ¡°good. then why study monsters?¡± asked the teacher, once he was done collecting student responses. without waiting for anyone to answer, he launched further into his speech. ¡°we study monsters because doing so gives us a better idea of what we might encounter in the wild. there are a lot of other reasons why one might study monsters ¨C however, knowing what might try to kill you tomorrow is definitely one of them.


    ¡°humanity lives on two of the three discovered continents ¨C monsters live on all three. in mana-dense areas, monsters are strong. the species of monsters are so strong and numerous in mana dense regions that even an army of immortals would avoid those areas. south of illvaria is the great unknown, because human explorers don¡¯t live if they try to explore those areas. the western continent is even worse ¨C the number of humans who have successfully set foot on that continent and returned to tell the tale number less than twelve in all of recorded history.


    ¡°studying monsters pinpoints their strengths and weaknesses, and ways we can survive encounters with them. of course, they can also provide valuable insights into scholarly studies. studying monsters has given us valuable insights on how vital mana is to life, for example, and monsters can serve as valuable test subjects for experiments that we can¡¯t test on humans for ethical reasons. there are many reasons to study monsters.¡±


    the teacher walked over to the cage that held the spidercrab, before he opened it. the spidercrab leapt out of the cage, before it froze in midair. belatedly, alice realized that the man wasn¡¯t using kinetic mana on other parts of the spidercrab, nor had he been using kinetic magic on the hairs of the spidercrab¡¯s legs. he was just using kinetic magic on the spidercrab¡¯s skin, and paying for the massively increased cost and difficulty of using kinetic energy on a living being. it was the same thing he had done when levitating himself in the front of the classroom earlier. how big were his mana reserves?


    ¡°the lowly spidercrab is one of the most common monsters in the world. they are stupid, even for monsters, they breed quickly, and they have minimal fighting power. even a normal farmer considers a solitary spidercrab to be more of a pest than a real threat. the only exception is during spring, which is breeding season. during that time, spidercrabs group up around females and form packs, forming threats to solitary humans and children if they aren¡¯t dealt with. however, on the whole they¡¯re the most common and least threatening species of monster on the two inhabited continents.¡±


    the spidercrab that was hovering in midair suddenly tore in half. in two neat motions, the teacher¡¯s mana tendrils flooded the spidercrab¡¯s body with kinetic mana. with a neat twist, the spidercrab was ripped asunder in midair. instead of bleeding, all of its blood and guts hovered in midair, as the teacher carefully turned the halved spidercrab innards to face the students.


    ¡°in this class, i¡¯m going to show you what a variety of monsters looks like. we will observe them in their natural habitats, we will dissect them, we will discuss their strengths and weaknesses and how to neutralize them if you find yourself in a fight with them. we will discuss their uses in magical and nonmagical branches of study, observe their organs and innards in detail, and learn how to kill them. welcome to introductory monster biology.¡±


    the teacher gave the students a manic grin, as some of the students grinned or cheered. alice noticed, with some surprise, that there weren¡¯t any squeamish students who flinched from the monster guts frozen in midair. the effect of a completely different cultural mindset in this world, perhaps?


    the teacher spent the rest of the class going over a more routine syllabus ¨C it was something alice was used to seeing in her former high school classes. how grading was done, what classes would look like, etc. however, the floating spidercrab corpse, as well as the very brief display of where a spidercrab core was located, gave alice the feeling that the class might be very different than her expectations.


    after the class, alice had something to do before her next class started. she had three hours of free time before her first mandatory class of the day, self-defense, started. a short enough period of time that going back to her inn room or going to cecilia¡¯s workshop would be a waste since she needed to spend forty minutes walking to and from the academy, but a long enough period of time that she needed something to occupy herself while she was waiting.


    and luckily, she had something she had been looking forward to for a long time.


    it was time to visit the academy library.

 Chapter 72

    chapter 72


    before heading to the library, alice made a quick stop near another of the floating lanterns. she spent a few more minutes trying to observe how the metal hooks and the paired lanterns worked, before she finally nodded to herself and moved away. while she didn¡¯t get any new ideas for the metal plates, she at least got a better idea how linked enchantments worked. she might try to make a few of them sometime in the future, just to see if she was understanding the theory behind it properly.


    after that, alice reached the academy library.


    alice¡¯s first impression of the library when she stepped into the school¡¯s library was that it was filled with books.


    there were shelves and shelves of books scattered across the room. alice was big fan of libraries. even before leaving earth, alice had loved spending time surrounded by books, and had been inside public libraries many times in the past.


    the library she was currently standing in dwarfed the libraries she had seen even on earth. an entire floor of a building that took architectural design from a castle was a whole different scale from the libraries she was used to. and considering how expensive ink and paper were in this world, alice was seriously impressed by how dedicated the academy library was to storing and accumulating knowledge. this library must have cost a fortune to build.


    illa¡¯s ¡®private collection¡¯ of books had only amounted to a little over fifty books. this was the private collection of a woman who had founded a developing town, was well on track to getting her own inheritable nobility title, was a high level mage who had served in the military for years, and had a husband who was extremely successful as a [merchant]. alice hadn¡¯t been sure how optimistic she should be about the academy libraries, though she had figured it would certainly be worth checking out. what she found, however, outstripped her imagination.


    the library was filled with students. free access to the library was one of the bigger perks for students of the magic academies. it was one of the biggest reasons that alice had put so much time and energy into accessing the academy, and clearly, it had a hand in the actions of many other students as well. far from the partially deserted libraries she was used to at home, this library was busier than a market square. it also wasn¡¯t quiet, unlike libraries at home. the place was filled with quiet conversation. even though it wasn¡¯t loud, compared to the silence or low buzz of noise alice had been expecting, there was certainly a fair bit of background noise here.


    at the front desk of the library was a trio of people, all of whom were quietly watching the library, as well as the students inside of it. each [librarian] was filled with rainbow mana. the amount of mana each [librarian] had was comparable to illa, give or take a bit. there was even a small clump of rainbow mana that extended out of one of the [librarians] and filled the rest of the library with small doses of rainbow mana. alice had no idea what it was doing, since it wasn¡¯t as clear cut as something like a lie-detection perk. however, alice wasn¡¯t used to seeing perks influence an entire area at once, so she was still quite impressed by it.


    ¡°student id?¡± asked one of the librarians, upon seeing alice standing near the entrance in a daze.


    alice looked at the woman, not comprehending what she was asking for a moment.


    ¡°your student id. you do have yours with you, yes?¡±


    ¡°ah. yes.¡± alice quickly flashed her student id at the woman.


    ¡°please repeat after me. my name is alice verianna. i am the person who signed up for this id, and this id is my posession. the information about me on the id is correct and contains no false information or omitted information. i hold no intent to inflict violence upon any other people in the library. i hold no intent to sabotage the library. i do not possess a thermal magic seed, or, if i do, i have no intention of using it while near the books. i do not possess any enchanted items or other items which can produce a flame of any sort ¨C or, if i do, i intend to deposit them with the [librarians] at the front desk. i will not start any fires in the library. i will also fairly and accurate report any damage that occurs to the books as a result of my handling, and will pay the fines associated with damaging the books before i leave the library. i do not anticipate any of these statements changing until such time as i leave the library.¡±


    alice was even more surprised than before. the truth-detected statement was much longer than the one she had needed to repeat just to enter the building. after realizing why security was so high, however, alice repeated the statement.


    the librarian smiled at her. ¡°all right, you¡¯re free to enter. if you leave the library with any books, we will require a separate lie-detection statement, as well as a few documents for you to fill out. all right?¡±


    alice nodded. she wasn¡¯t intending to take any books out of the library today, though she would probably do so in the future. for now, however, she finally set foot in the library.


    she spent the better part of half an hour familiarizing herself with the library¡¯s organizing system. it was organized loosely by category, but the system was a lot more... loose than things like the dewey decimal system, which was what the libraries back at home had used. books that covered enchanting were in one section, for example, and books that covered kinetic mana were in another section. however, if a book focused specifically on kinetic mana enchantments, it seemed to be randomly sorted into one of two categories, without any real rhyme or reason. alice couldn¡¯t help but think that the organization system of the library kind of worked, but it needed a serious overhaul.


    luckily, the books did at least have a system that consistently returned them to the same spot each time. after observing the movement of the people around her for a while, alice finally figured out what the librarian¡¯s perk was doing. the rainbow mana covering the library seemed to notify the librarian at the front desk what was happening to the books at all times, and whenever a student placed a book in the wrong location or one of the return trays, one of the [library assistants] would be notified to grab the book and place it in the correct spot. alice doubted that was all the perk was doing, but considering how the mana lit up before one of the [librarians] dispatched an assistant to fetch the books half the time a student put a book back on a shelf, alice was pretty sure that was what was happening. the perk also seemed to make the books rather resilient against damage, considering the fact that the books felt oddly sturdy when alice touched them.


    she shrugged to herself, before she grinned and headed to the enchantment section. alice had a very, very wide variety of things that she wanted to investigate, from monsters to the system to the workings of mana to enchantments, but since it was her first day in the library, she decided to just explore what interested her the most. right now, that was paired enchantments. she had a year here, so it wasn¡¯t a big deal if she shopped around for ideas and ways to make money before doubling down on her primary focuses. after selecting a few books and walking over to one of the tables, alice buried herself in her book.


    ¡®hurting innocent people is bad. with the power of magic comes a responsibility to help others. don¡¯t get arrogant just because you¡¯re mages, and be a good person.¡¯


    alice quickly started to feel like the whole class was a waste of time. if her [willpower] had been any lower, she probably would have nodded off halfway through the lecture. some of the male students were still greatly interested in the class, but alice was pretty sure they were paying more attention to the teacher¡¯s looks than the content of the lecture. when professor eidwiss finally stopped talking, alice heaved a sigh of relief.


    arsi, perhaps seeing her bored expression, laughed at her as he walked over to her seat at the end of the class. ¡°nice and excited about this fascinating, riveting class?¡±


    alice just snorted.


    ¡°it¡¯s pretty commonly agreed that this class is the worst by most people, especially the ones who love magic and learning. don¡¯t worry ¨C we only have it three times a week, for two hours a day each time, any time you¡¯re attending magic academy for any reason...¡±


    ¡°it¡¯s not just a year one thing?¡±


    ¡°nope.¡±


    alice groaned, before she sighed and began trudging to the last class of the day. ¡°that is... unfortunate. are the test hard? if i fail them, am i going to get dragged away to the gulag or something?¡±


    through training, you have increased a skill!


    [email protected]#$%@# (language proficiency): 0->1


    ¡°that was actually worth a point in a language proficiency skill? seriously?¡± alice said, looking at the notification.


    ¡°i don¡¯t know what a gulag is, and i didn¡¯t get any points in a language proficiency skill yet. but if you aren¡¯t doing well in the class, that¡¯s honestly kind of... impressive. it¡¯s pretty easy to pass, just boring. half of the grade in this class is pretty much just attending it. well, if you actually do start to fail, the teacher has the right to pull you aside for some extra lecturing on what it means to be a good person. which is very exciting and may or may not cause one to consider the pros and cons of banging your head against the wall until you pass out. but it¡¯s not like there are any legal ramifications.¡±


    alice breathed a small sigh of relief as she and arsi walked out of the classroom. even if she had never failed a class before and had no intention of starting now, it was relieving to know that there wasn¡¯t much on the line. as she was preparing to ask arsi about self defense, her final class of the day, arsi bid her farewell. apparently, his classes were done for the day.


    alice arrived at the final class for the day. luckily, in this class as well she was able to quickly find someone she knew ¨C this time, it was luka frien and laila. since alice already had two people she knew in the class, she moved to them and started chatting with them until class started. since alice had people to talk to, she felt no need to introduce herself to more new people, as a natural consequence of her below average interest in socializing. it could be said that if alice had been born on this planet and not earth, her [charisma] probably would have never reached triple digits...


    the final class for the day, self defense, didn¡¯t end up drawing much of alice¡¯s interest. it was the first class to take place in an outdoors area, situated behind the school in a flattened area filled with weights, practice weapons, and other miscellaneous objects. the teacher was a man named professor tanmi. he was physically in his late twenties, and was much closer to the high level mage alice had been expecting to see ¨C although that wasn¡¯t all. his movements were fast and fluid, betraying his incredibly high [dexterity], and since he casually moved heavy weights around the training ground as students shuffled in, he clearly had quite a high level of [strength] as well.


    once class started, he introduced himself by displaying many different types of combat proficiency ¨C including swordsmanship, bare-handed fighting, and even competence with a bow, before he moved on to showing proficiency with kinetic and organic magic as battle methods. alice was more than a little bit surprised to see that the man used a combat style she had never seen before ¨C apparently, the man had taken perks that boosted the strength of his kinetic magic to extreme levels, but only worked when he was influencing objects very close to his body. if most kinetic mages could take objects and then fling them into the distance the way a cannon might, professor tanmi instead used kinetic magic as something closer to a supplement for his already incredible physical abilities. in exchange for giving up a lot of his long range abilities, however, he could do things with his mana alice had never seen before ¨C for example, he could slap a sword that was swung at him and break it in half with his bare hands safely and reliably. combined with the fact that he was using organic magic to boost his abilities even further, alice was pretty sure that this mage would be a nightmare to fight in close quarters combat. she had no idea if he had learned how to heal himself with organic magic, but if he did, he would be the nightmare of any [spearman] or [swordsman].


    alice hypothesized he had taken [kinetic brawler] as his class when he had evolved it from his lower-limit student class, or he at least had a similar class.


    after giving an introduction to the man¡¯s melee-magic proficiencies, he started getting the students to jog around the training classroom, before running through some other basic exercises. he then started... throwing objects at everyone while they ran, relying on his great physical strength and speed to make the soft objects hurt if one failed to dodge them.


    alice felt that professor tanmi would have gotten along well with illa.


    after two hours of jogging, dodging, and other magic exercises, alice crawled out of class completely exhausted. she had originally been debating going back to the library after class, but at this point she just wanted to go to bed. she dragged herself back to her inn room, before forcing herself to stay conscious long enough to spend her remaining mana enchanting objects to sell. then she took a bath, laid on her bed, and almost instantly fell asleep.

 Chapter 73

    chapter 73


    alice woke up the next day still tired, but at least she had enough mana and energy to get her day started. she absently wondered if this was going to be her routine, now that her academy had started up for the year ¨C ending each day horribly exhausted. still, she didn¡¯t hate the idea. she was working hard to finally build a proper baseline of knowledge for herself, and earn a living. while it was much earlier than it would have been on earth, even if she was exhausted she was still enjoying unravelling the mysteries of magic and the system.


    she spent the morning working with ezrien¡¯s team to create a cheaper and easier to produce kinetic plate, as usual. now that she had seen the lanterns at the magic academy and was taking another look at the enchanted plate, it was easy to see that the enchanted plate took inspiration from the floating lanterns. the primary differences were that the plate wasn¡¯t a paired enchantment, and instead tried to ¡®intelligently¡¯ sense whatever object was directly above it. combined with the fact that the kinetic plates were also supposed to be able to change what height they floated the target material at, the seemingly simple upgrade ended up incredibly complicated if one was trying to make them easy to mass-produce. alice wondered if this project was a little more ambitious than it should be. still, she did her best to record results, make suggestions when her opinion was sought, and make measurements, as usual. anne kept the team in high spirits and made contributions, ezrien suggested wild but interesting improvements to the design, and the other four did their work diligently. it was a team alice could be proud of working with.


    after her work with ezrien¡¯s team for the day, she ate a quick lunch at the inn before heading to class. after showing her id and repeating a string of phrases to make sure she didn¡¯t bear hostility towards the school, she entered the academy. she was a little early, so she headed to the library and formally checked out the book she had started reading yesterday. the book was worth almost one and a half golden suns, and alice would apparently be responsible for replacing it if she damaged it. since alice only owned about four and a half golden suns, this made her a little nervous since it could wipe out a third of her savings in one go...


    after that, she headed to her first class of the day, introductory organic mana.


    she looked around the classroom to see if she knew any of the other students, before sighing with regret. unfortunately, in this class she didn¡¯t see any of the five other students she knew. since she didn¡¯t feel like introducing herself to anyone new, she pulled out her book and read until the teacher started the class.


    ¡°my name is professor felissa. it¡¯s my pleasure to meet all of you,¡± said the teacher, a strict-looking woman in her early thirties. alice nodded to herself when she saw the professor for the class. the woman was a bit lower level than the teacher for monster biology, but she was still quite impressive. she was borderline unattractive for this planet, which was already unusual, and given how much mana was concentrated in her brain alice was sure she had plenty of [intelligence] based perks and classes. while that didn¡¯t necessarily equate to being a good teacher, it meant she probably knew her subject very well.


    ¡°now, a lot of teachers prefer to start out the first day of class introducing you to what the subject matter is going to be about. i don¡¯t particularly like long introductions, but i¡¯ll still introduce my class a little bit. introductory organic mana is a class about organic mana. specifically, the uses of organic mana, how valuable it is to humanity, and its history. many people believe it is the most powerful and advanced of the four basic mana types.


    ¡°what is organic mana? simply put, it allows you to influence the physical structure of anything alive. if it is alive, it can be influenced by organic mana. whether it is the most basic plant, a monster, or a human, it can theoretically be manipulated by an organic mage.


    ¡°of course, this also means that you¡¯re going to directly run into a major problem ¨C all life in the world has some innate resistance to other sources of mana. this is a universal rule, and the more mana a creature has inside of it, the greater its resistance to external mana intrusion. if you want to, say, heal someone¡¯s muscles after they¡¯re cut by a sword, the patient¡¯s body is going to try to stop you from changing it. if you try to stop someone¡¯s heart from beating while they¡¯re trying to kill you, the problem will be even worse ¨C your opponent will be continuously moving, making it hard to target the right place with your mana tendrils, meaning it¡¯s hard to do anything with your mana at all.


    ¡°how do you solve this problem? there are a few ways. the most common solution is to use perks. there are dozens of [organic mage] perks that let you find ways around this problem. the most well-known one is {patient¡¯s consent,} which allows you to mess with another human being as long as they don¡¯t reject the intrusion of your mana. if you want to be a healer, this perk or a similar one is practically required. a normal human being is complex enough and has enough mana inside that influencing it will be incredibly expensive and difficult, and so finding ways to reduce consumption is critical. {patient¡¯s consent} is a perk that only requires you to be level 20 in [organic mage] to take, and has no other requirements. it¡¯s very easy to access, and very effective.


    ¡°of course, that isn¡¯t the only way to resolve this problem. you can also take [organic mage] in completely different directions, such as focusing on healing yourself and increasing your physical abilities, because you yourself don¡¯t resist your own mana very much. there is still some resistance, of course, but it is significantly reduced. however, this is only really useful if you want to swing a sword around or engage in heavy physical labor. it¡¯s also almost impossible to do things like enhance your [willpower] or [intelligence] ¨C human brains are so complicated that most people who try to mess with them make mistakes and die, unless they have very high level perks backing up their actions.


    ¡°finally, you can just bulldoze the problem. mana density in a target increases the mana cost and difficulty of influencing them. however, if you just have better concentration abilities and more mana, you can overcome this problem by brute forcing it. you need very high [intelligence] and [magic] to pull this off, but it¡¯s technically a solution as well.


    ¡°most people just take the perks though, since most [organic mages] are healers.


    ¡°so how does one heal as an [organic mage]? how does one acquire the class, how does one level it, and how does one heal someone? simply put, you must know the human body. you must know it very, very well, because if you mess up you might accidentally drill a hole in your patient¡¯s heart, or cause their liver to malfunction and make them very sick or very dead. there are dozens of ways to mess up as an [organic mage]. this is why anybody interested in healing must pass a very strict set of tests to get a healing license. anybody who heals other people without a license better either have a very convincing case about extenuating circumstances or be ready to go to prison for several years. therefore, one of the focuses class is a study about the human body and its structures. your perks will eventually help you avoid the worst mistakes if you heal people in the future, but you shouldn¡¯t rely on them for everything. so the first part of this class is dedicated to learning what makes humans tick. organs, blood vessels, muscles ¨C we will cover all of these in great detail.


    ¡°but before we start studying the human body, a word of warning.¡±


    the serious expression of the strict woman tightened, and for a moment she looked positively furious. alice felt a shiver run down her spine as she saw the woman¡¯s expression.


    * * *


    alice¡¯s final class was theory of mana. in this class, she did spot erkki, the enchanter¡¯s son she had met in her first class. alice was more than happy to talk to erkki, because she had been learning about paired enchantments recently and none of her classes directly related to enchanting. which was a bit of a shame, but with the two mandatory classes and all the other classes she wanted to take competing for her time, she hadn¡¯t ended up having room for it this year.


    erkki was more than happy to talk about paired enchantments, and alice found herself learning bits and pieces about how to set them up through the conversation. most interestingly, she learned that the two components of a paired enchantment didn¡¯t need to be set up at the same time, and they weren¡¯t completely impossible to swap around either. a paired enchantment worked more like a radio channel than a direct bond between two objects ¨C it was, in theory, possible to make a new object correspond to the ¡®frequency¡¯ of a paired enchantment, if the original item broke or something. it was just difficult and time consuming, because once the connection between two objects was established they tended to stick to each other and reject new connections. it was also possible to create ¡®tri-enchantments¡¯ and ¡®quad enchantments,¡¯ or even create giant groups of enchantments that were all keyed in to each other. however, it grew increasingly complicated and hard to keep functioning as the group of enchanted objects grew larger and larger.


    after that, the teacher for the final lesson started the class. the teacher introduced himself as professor kosk, and seemed like a fairly affable man. he wore a casual suit, unlike the other teachers who either wore military uniforms or full-on formal wear, and seemed pretty average in level and strength. he spoke with a confident and relaxed tone, but alice quickly realized that he had an even bigger tendency to get sidetracked than she did.


    ¡°theory of mana is a class that i often wish was mandatory, though unfortunately, it isn¡¯t deemed important enough to be part of the mandatory curriculum,¡± said professor kosk. ¡°in this class, we deal with a lot of the theoretical underpinnings of magic and mana. where does mana come from? what is broken mana? what is the nature of mana, and why are only mages able to directly shape it? why is life reliant upon mana? does anyone have any guesses about any of these questions? i like to run this class with a lot of student ideas and feedback, because this is one of the classes that is most open to interpretation.¡±


    after some hesitation, a few students raised their hands. after some thinking, alice also raised her hand. while being wrong in public might be a bit embarrassing, it also served as an opportunity to check how much credence others would give her theories. it was worth answering, if she could.


    ¡°yes, the young lady with brown hair,¡± said the professor, pointing to alice.


    ¡°broken mana is mana that is produced whenever a mage uses magic imperfectly, right? and it also seems more like mana that has adopted a specific ¡®pattern,¡¯ or some sort of property from whatever mana was originally used. for example, if one uses kinetic mana to move a cup of water, a little bit of mana will get ¡®wasted¡¯ and escape into the air, becoming a small blob of broken mana. since mages can see different colors of broken mana based on the original kind of magic used, it implies that there are different kinds of broken mana, at least in my opinion. the history of the tragedy of allenheim further supports this idea. when humanity first experimented with dimensional mana, they attempted to connect two different points of space together. however, when they instead caused a massive spurt of broken mana to kill off most of the capital city and the city they were connecting, a bunch of people went through broken mana baptisms ¨C and, importantly, some of those people became ¡®infectious,¡¯ accidentally causing people they came in contact with to go through their own broken mana baptisms. since no other kind of broken mana causes it, it seems clear that different kinds of broken mana exist.¡±


    the professor frowned. he gave alice a curious look, as he rubbed his chin in thought.


    ¡°i don¡¯t think i¡¯ve heard anyone talk about that in detail before. may i ask where you heard that theory? did you read it in a book, or did one of your other professors discuss it?¡±


    ¡°i came up with the theory myself,¡± said alice, thinking back to the first time she had seen broken mana. it had been months since then, but it was the first time she got to seriously debate her ideas with someone. at the time, she hadn¡¯t had a good idea of what she was looking at, but the more she learned about broken mana and regular mana, the more she wondered what exactly set the two apart. it didn¡¯t seem like it was critical to her primary area of focus, which was the inner workings of the system and mana, but she still found it to be an interesting topic.


    ¡°i think it makes sense,¡± said the professor, with a bit of interest lighting up his eyes. ¡°most people don¡¯t pay much attention to broken mana, because it¡¯s considered harmful waste product of magic users. most mages learn to clean it up and then lose further interest in the topic. the answer i was looking for was just ¡®waste product of mana.¡¯ you took the answer well beyond that point, in a direction i¡¯ve never thought of. even if the answer doesn¡¯t seem very important, it¡¯s very interesting. well done, young lady!¡± the professor gave alice a cheerful grin.


    alice felt a smile tug at her lips. she was glad that her theory wasn¡¯t being tossed out the window ¨C and more than that, she was glad to hear someone seriously consider her ideas. based on professor kosk¡¯s statements, it sounded as if broken mana was a pretty underdeveloped field of study, except for those who analyzed its relationship to mana baptisms. though, given the potentially deadly nature of mana and broken mana poisoning, alice did kind of understand why people wanted to stay away from it as a field of study...


    instead of following up on some of his earlier statements, professor kosk began to lead the class in a totally different direction, trying to get other students to think of other historical incidents or experiments that proved or disproved the idea of different kinds of broken mana having different properties. other students began to raise their hands and mention other smaller experiments that delved into the nature of broken mana. alice was more than a little please to hear this discussion ¨C after all, she would never have known what to look for if she hadn¡¯t started this discussion. she had access to the library of this academy, and it was a wonderful resource she had fought to access. however, she also needed to actually know where to look if she wanted to make the most out of it.


    she quietly began filing away studies she wanted to look up later. most of the studies the students mentioned didn¡¯t explicitly focus on the nature of broken mana. instead, they focused on studies run by (mostly organic) mages that had tried to treat cases of mana poisoning that had occurred by accident and ways the attempts to treat broken mana poisoning differed from regular mana poisoning. such studies were very rare ¨C after all, any incident involving potentially fatal incidents came under heavy scrutiny from illvaria¡¯s experimental ethics committee, and so such cases needed to truly be random. despite that fact, random case studies sometimes came into illvarian libraries from accidents.


    after the students finished debating the topic, the teacher finally got the discussion back on track. he started talking about scholarly theories regarding why some areas of the world were almost covered in mana, while some weren¡¯t (in short, [scholars] had been debating this but had no real conclusions.) alice was also a little surprised to learn that mana density wasn¡¯t as uniform as she thought it was. there were all sorts of small regions that had higher or lower concentrations of mana ¨C for example, there was a small maelstrom of broken mana to the southwest of the central continent, between the sigmusi colonia and sigmusi imperia called the maelstrom that was known to be a massive shipping hazard due to the mana and monster density. there was also a region of exceptionally dense mana on part of the corellion empire¡¯s east coast, another (much smaller) broken mana zone in the nomad steppes to the north, and a few low-mana regions scattered across the shil confederacy.


    alice ended up realizing that the class ¡®theory of mana¡¯ was a bit different than what she was expecting. in this world, mana was literally everywhere, and it was almost a matter of philosophical debate rather than strict scientific debate because it was so omnipresent. or, at least, that was the way the class treated mana. for most of the questions the teacher raised at the beginning of class, the most correct answer alice could have provided based on the teacher¡¯s answers was ¡®nobody really knows, but here are some interesting ideas and theories that have been tossed around by [scholars] and [scientists] in the past.¡¯ still, the discussion between the teacher and the students gave her a lot of new ideas for areas of research to find in the library, from case studies about mana and broken mana poisoning to geographical studies about low and high density mana regions. even though the class wasn¡¯t quite what she was expecting it to be, by the end of the three hour class she was still happy she had taken the class.

 Chapter 74

    chapter 74


    after alice had adjusted used to her classes, life began to settle into a stable, but hectic, rhythm. the rest of the week passed quickly as she adapted to her new daily schedule.


    in mornings, she would work with ezrien¡¯s team to perfect the kinetic plates, slogging through different builds and ideas as they tried to make each plate easier and cheaper to make without losing any functionality. alice had originally thought that the team¡¯s goals were interesting, but a bit too ambitious. after all, it wasn¡¯t easy to make a better product with fewer materials, especially if one also wanted to make the product easier to make. also, producing a set of instructions to mass produce an object was a heck of a lot more complicated in this world, since everyone had a very different set of perks. this threw an extra layer of complications on the already difficult process of making more with less.


    however, surprisingly, the team was making progress. it was slow, but steady. alice had been part of the team for several weeks now, and the kinetic plates were still nowhere near becoming a viable replacement for kinetic mages in construction. however, at the start of her time in the team, it had been so incredibly far off that the kinetic plates barely worked at all if one didn¡¯t have a hefty amount of skills and levels backing them up. it would have been basically impossible to just hand the recipe to an [enchanter] and have then churn out working copies of the plate. it would take hours or even days of fiddling with the smaller components and enchanting materials to get a working copy, and a few mistakes might make the whole product totally unable to work.


    now, an average level 50 enchanter could, at the very least, probably make a functioning version of the kinetic plate within a day once they wrapped their head around the blueprint. the team had eventually decided to try making some of the enchantments that ¡®sensed¡¯ objects a little bit simpler. the product had a slightly higher chance to pick the wrong object to start floating around now, but the enchantments related to sensing objects became several times easier to make as a result. since the kinetic plates had a working ¡®off¡¯ switch by this point, it wasn¡¯t a big deal if they starting lifting up the wrong object: the operator could just turn it off, move the wrong object out of the way, and try again. even though the product was worse, it became far more easy to mass produce once the team starting cutting down small but complicated details like this one, which meant less time and effort for the average [enchanter] to make a copy of the product. which, ultimately, was the whole point of the team¡¯s research.


    after spending her mornings on enchanting the kinetic plates, alice would go to the library and study. she had decided that after she finished reading the book about dual enchantments, she wouldn¡¯t keep looking into ¡®random topics that interested her.¡¯ it was time for her to return to her major topics of study.


    which led alice to a startling revelation.


    right now, alice had way too many different goals and research topics. most of them still kind of complemented each other, but alice was starting to feel a pressing need to refine her area of focus down a little bit. for now, she decided to focus on a few directions.


    first, she needed to boost her enchanting abilities. right now, enchanting was the primary method she used to feed herself. she wanted to boost her enchanting skills more, so that she would have the money for new research projects. enchanting and research materials weren¡¯t cheap, after all, and alice was running dangerously low on basically everything. since she had started education, her free time had, rather inevitably, dropped to practically nothing, and she had been forced to temporarily abandon her newfound hobby of carving and making board games to play with her friends. she hadn¡¯t even gotten around to repairing the die she had cracked during her last game with cecilia and anne yet. she was also having a hard time keeping up with her enchantments for cecilia¡¯s shop. as a result, alice¡¯s funds were starting to shrink, albeit at a very slow pace. since alice didn¡¯t have much money to begin with, this concerned her. however, if alice didn¡¯t spend as much time as she could in the library and in classes, all of the time and suffering she had poured into getting admitted to a magic academy would have been for nothing, so alice was determined to find a way to make this work. she just needed to focus a little on boosting her funding sources in the near future, or she would run out of money to feed and clothe herself.


    second, she wanted to explore mana fractals and any historical changes to the system. she didn¡¯t see any mentions of the former in the library, but given its somewhat confusing organization system, alice was hoping maybe there was a mention of it somewhere in the shelves of books that she simply hadn¡¯t come across yet. regarding the history of the system, alice was able to find all sorts of historical studies detailing how and when the system had made specific changes. apparently, classes, perks, and skills were nowhere near as static as she had first assumed. sometimes, a class would change a little bit here and there, with the level requirement for perks going up or down by a small margin or a new class getting ¡®discovered.¡¯ there was all sorts of debate about whether these classes had always existed and were simply discovered by chance, or whether they were actively created by the system to meet people¡¯s needs, but there was no decisive conclusion. alice found this to be both fascinating and relevant to her interests, so she intended to read up on this academic debate when she had more time.


    third, she wanted to see if anyone else had explored topics related to how mana and the human body interacted. this was one of the bigger cornerstones of her research, and she needed to see if there were easy ways to boost herself past some of the awkward first experiments and tests she would need to do to establish a working base of knowledge for herself. she might still need to redo some of the experiments, due to her ability to see system mana while others couldn¡¯t, but that wouldn¡¯t make all of the experiments she might be able to find completely worthless. since she could share ¡®memories¡¯ with cecilia and cecilia was still interested in sharing alice¡¯s research, she would have a second set of eyes to go over her results, and that was good enough for her.


    finally, she wanted to learn more about magic seed creation. her failure to create a working magic seed without the help of the system was frustrating to her, and the cooldown for {broken seed} was nearly over. once that happened, she would have another two chances to try to make a magic seed on her own without accidentally killing herself in the process.


    unlike the study of mana and the human body, magic seed creation was very well researched. so much so, in fact, that one could find a theory that conflicted with nearly every other theory about how and why magic seeds were made.


    luckily, most of the mages in this world understood that theories without tests to back them up were often worthless, and the mage library had a fair number of studies on people trying out different methods of forming seeds for the sake of science. seed slots were precious, but plenty of bright mages in the past had tried ¡®improving¡¯ the technique of seed formation. some of them had even succeeded. and, for the sake of future mages (or because they wanted to boost their level in [scholar]), most of these attempts were recorded in great detail. alice was sure she could figure something out if she started looking through these studies.


    therefore, after alice finished reading her book about double enchantments, she temporarily shelved her study of double enchantments and other topics of personal interest. she only had a week and some change before her next attempt at forming magic seeds, and she wanted to be more prepared this time. she started reading through other people¡¯s attempts to improve the process of forming a magic seed, to see what their thoughts were.


    apart from alice¡¯s time with the academy¡¯s library, she continued attending her classes. she didn¡¯t make any new major connections with her classmates, because she was already starting to feel seriously stretched for time. however, she was at least able to make smalltalk with most of the students in her smaller classes and greet them if she saw them walking through the halls. she paid a bit more attention to her connection with erkki, arsi, laila, and luka, because they were fellow mages who had shown her some level of goodwill and alice wasn¡¯t opposed to getting to know them better. especially erkki and arsi ¨C alice was able to talk about bizarre and eclectic magic topics with them and have interesting conversations about them, which made her value their conversations a fair bit more than the smalltalk she shared with her other classmates.


    the lessons slowly, but surely, let alice start building a better idea of what ¡®normal¡¯ mages thought about mana, magic, and the world around them.


    in her organic magic class, they studied more about human biology, with the teacher promising that in a few weeks promising students would be allowed to test for special licenses that would let them treat basic, nonlethal conditions under the supervision of more experienced healers. professor felissa also promised that the top five [students] in the next test would be allowed to tag along while professor felissa visited one of her friends who ran a clinic if they were interested.


    in monster biology, they started learning about the weaknesses of monsters. vinebears and spidercrabs seemed to be the early focus of lessons, though the teacher did also briefly mention lurkers, a type of plant-like monster that crawled along the bottom of rivers and could influence ¡®weight¡¯ with magic. alice vaguely remembered that this monster had nearly eaten her during her flight to cyra, all those months ago...


    she also started to wonder how monsters got around the problem of influencing other living creatures with magic. monsters couldn¡¯t access the system, so they didn¡¯t have perks that let them ignore mana resistance. how did they deal with the problem?


    when alice asked the teacher about this question, professor esaiyas had no clue. alice mentally filed it away as something to check out in the library when she had the time.


    in theory of mana class, the class went on to discussing the theory of ¡®mana vents,¡¯ one of the current leading theories about why some areas of the world had much denser mana than others. it stated that some parts of the earth, for various reasons, emitted mana as a kind of... energy source that then slowly spread across the rest of the world. honestly, alice wasn¡¯t too impressed with the theory. it was overly simplistic, and seemed to have no idea whatsoever why there were a variety of odd little variations in mana density from area to area. she was, however, relieved to know that this world had at least put some effort into figuring out where mana came from, even if this theory didn¡¯t really seem like a good answer to that question.


    in morals class they did... nothing, really. alice considered this class to be a bigger and bigger waste of time every time she showed up to the class. she had never skipped a class before, but for morals class she was seriously starting to get tempted...


    * * *


    somewhere far away, a group of people sat in a research base. an immortal sat together with four other men and women, who were discussing something in hushed tones.


    ¡°so you mean to say that the oddities are increasing?¡± asked one of the women, looking at one of the other researchers.


    ¡°yes. the way that it¡¯s increasing is very... strange, as well. i can¡¯t quite put my finger on it. but the way that mana itself is behaving recently seems... odd.¡± said the other assistant, a male who looked to be in his late thirties.


    ¡°do you have any data to back that up? i haven¡¯t noticed anything in my day to day usage of mana.¡±


    ¡°if you take a look at the mana series of experiments, the recent studies of case 44, 46, and 47 have all produced abnormal results that don¡¯t seem consistent with any of our earlier hypotheses. furthermore, when we re-tested experiment mana-42 in a few different labs, the results were abnormal, diverging significantly from the first few times we ran the test. in the first tests we ran, people who suffered odd symptoms as a result of mana deprivation recovered almost immediately from the symptoms after being placed back into a normal mana-rich environment. however, as of now the streams of mana take a couple extra seconds to reconnect to their body properly. this isn¡¯t a big deal in and of itself ¨C in fact, if it were just one or two, we might have assumed it was just the result of a few perks screwing with things. however, for all of the tests to suddenly have slightly different results is very odd indeed.


    ¡°furthermore, i¡¯ve recently learned that one of the child test subjects we purchased from the sigmusi has unlocked the system despite only being four. children don¡¯t get access to the system until the age of six, but we have run him through seventeen different perks that all acknowledge the fact that he is four. this is the first time i¡¯ve heard of a case like this... ever. the child has acquired the [experimental subject] and [slave] classes already, and we have confirmed that after running more tests on him, his flesh is getting harder and his body is getting harder to injure. just like someone¡¯s [endurance] stat increasing. for a four year old to do this should be impossible, but it¡¯s somehow happening right now.¡±


    the immortal who was standing at the head of the table frowned upon hearing this news.


    ¡°a four year old with levels? have you checked to see if there¡¯s some sort of... odd discrepancy between his biological and chronological age? if he were born a mage, he could be 20% older than his biological age claims he is, which would still make this odd, but...¡±


    ¡°the child¡¯s biological and chronological age are confirmed to be four. the boy is a non-mage, and there seems to have been no particularly unusual circumstances in his upbringing up to the point where he was kidnapped and sold as a test subject.¡±


    ¡°bring in the boy to the primary labs for further inspection. also, we need to find some other four year old children and see if we can find out what caused this oddity. are there any good ways to acquire some human children on short notice?¡±


    ¡°we¡¯ve bought some from the sigmusi slave trade, but their supplies are running now,¡± said the other female assistant. ¡°apparently they¡¯re running into supply problems. a crackdown on the central continent is happening because for once the church of the system and the church of mana managed to put aside their differences and jointly denounced the sigmusi empire for practicing barbaric and backward practices such as slavery. they put some pressure on the republic to do a better job of maintaining their borders, and as a result [smugglers] aren¡¯t having an easy time kidnapping and selling people to the sigmusi imperia right now.¡±


    ¡°irritating,¡± said the leader, frowning. ¡°recently, dimensional abnormalities have also been increasing. we haven¡¯t quite gotten a centralized notification system up yet, but field agents have recently detected evidence of three dimensional cracks having appeared in the past twenty years. this is far cry from the original one we found that started the society of stars, and the one we found after uniting the society of stars and society of eyes. while it could just be a fluke, this isn¡¯t the time to lose our test subjects. how can we procure more?¡±


    ¡°i have a couple ideas, though most of them will have long term repercussions if something goes wrong,¡± said the final [assistant.] he stood up, before grabbing a piece of paper and pushing it to the center of the table.


    the other four members of the meeting grabbed the piece of paper, before they began to slowly pore over the contents. finally, the immortal spoke.


    ¡°i think raiding a few smaller groups in illvaria is for the best. their military is already starting to lack manpower, since they¡¯re trying to launch their recolonization effort and they¡¯re also trying to keep up the maintenance of their armies on the western front as well, in case the sigmusi are crazy enough to launch another war. they¡¯ve mostly relaxed their guard against the northern border, since the nomads are focused on their civil war right now, which means that there¡¯s a big opening in their norther territories right now. illvaria just doesn¡¯t have the population and wealth to cover all of their territory right now, and because their roads aren¡¯t in the best shape it will take them a lot of time to shuttle their manpower back north, even if they discover a problem. i feel that with their lowered security, we could probably procure some test subjects from there, as long as we are careful and stealthy. does anyone else have any thoughts?¡±


    ¡°i think that we could also target a few other countries in the shil confederacy. norwick and eldren are at each other¡¯s throats right now, and while two of the big five countries in the shil confederacy probably won¡¯t go to war while tensions with the sigmusi are ramping up, with those two countries it¡¯s never quite possible to tell. they¡¯re already starting to skirmish with each other again, and that will waste a huge amount of their manpower and military resources. i think those two are also good targets,¡± said one of the female [assistants].


    ¡°it¡¯s not an ideal long-term solution, since it might give those countries a way to actually attack us, but we need to be paying attention to changes in experiments and the behavior of mana right now. something about all of this makes me feel... off...¡± said one of the male [assistants]. ¡°i don¡¯t know, it¡¯s just a hunch. i know those aren¡¯t very reliable, but...¡± he shrugged. ¡°i feel like something big is about to happen.¡±


    ¡°i think it¡¯s a reasonable course of action to take,¡± said the immortal, after considering the input of the two. ¡°all right, start contacting the bases and manpower near the region to see if they can procure more test subjects. focus on the poor and criminal elements of society, wherever possible. they¡¯re the ones that won¡¯t be easily missed. if it¡¯s possible, disguise some of the disappearances as failed mana baptisms. plenty die to that every year anyway. the countries in question will catch on sooner or later, but we can maybe buy some time that way.¡±


    the meeting was adjourned as plans were set into motion.


    * * *


    somewhere far to the north, an immortal and his servant grinned. they hadn¡¯t finished clearing out all of the monsters in their area yet, but they were getting closer. soon they would be done.

 Chapter 75

    chapter 75


    on friday, alice finally got around to repairing the dice she and anne had cracked during the last game of the settlers, and reinforced the dice a bit with some leftover enchanting materials and some scraps of iron. it wasn¡¯t perfect, but it should resist any major mage-fights more effectively now. on saturday, she, cecilia, anne, and ezrien got together for another game of the settlers. ezrien got acquainted with the magically influenced rule set quickly, and the four of them enjoyed playing another round of the game. alice was starting to wonder if this would probably become something of a weekly tradition, based on cecilia and anne¡¯s newfound enthusiasm for the game. despite the fact that the rules were totally different from what they had been back on earth, alice was still gratified to see that one of her favorite games from home was popular here. besides, having some small amount of social interaction with her friends was an important way to maintain her social life, and considering how stretched for time she was already this was about all she could manage. whenever she had more time, she would like to carve a few more board games from home, but that was impossible right now.


    after friday, the weekend began. much like back on earth, weekends in the world of luliv were free from classes, so alice had enough free time to catch up on her enchanting. this helped restore some of her slowly dwindling funds. alice did some rough calculations and determined that, if things continued to sell for the same price and at the same rate, she could probably hover somewhere between three and five gold suns per week. it wasn¡¯t exactly financial stability, but it also wasn¡¯t as bad as she had been thinking it would be when she was looking over her finances earlier in the week.


    apart from that, alice finally picked up the 25th level of apprentice enchanter. because [apprentice enchanter] was a student/apprentice type class, it maxed out at level 25, meaning alice had her final perk in the class, as well as her second opportunity to go through a class evolution. she chose the perk fairly quickly, based on her continuously increasing need to increase the number of hours she could spend awake and productive in a day.


    speed-enchanting


    requirements: apprentice enchanter level 25 or higher, endurance 100 or higher, intelligence 125 or higher


    while working on an enchantment, you may spend more mana to produce the enchantment more quickly. this effectively allows you to trade mana for time, wasting more mana in exchange for producing the same product more quickly.


    in general, alice spent at least two hours and no more than five hours working on enchantments every night. this was becoming seriously hard to sustain, because she had so many competing objectives to sink time into. this might not exactly be an optimal solution for that problem, but it was about the best she expected to get from an apprentice class at level 25. it would require her to waste some mana to activate, but it was still less wasteful than doing nothing with the mana at all. then, alice turned her attention to her class evolution.


    this one only had three options, unlike her first evolution.


    class evolution: apprentice enchanter


    enchanter: an enchanter that focuses on having a balanced approach to the school of enchanting. they specialize in neither speed nor in rare but incredibly detailed enchantments. a jack of all trades within the enchanting profession, but also the one that holds the most versatility when it comes to selecting perks.


    unlocked as a result of: having the apprentice enchanter class at level 25


    increases effect of [magic] attribute by 10%. your ability to assess the effects of enchantments you have not encountered before increases significantly, and the speed at which you can produce an enchantment is improved by 20%. the quality of items you enchant will receive a small boost, especially when it comes to mana efficiency (other aspects of items will still receive a boost, just a less significant one).


    mass-enchanter: an enchanter specializing in producing large quantities of enchantments quickly. mass-enchanters often specialize in producing consumable enchantments, because that type of enchantment benefits the most from being able to produce multiple items at a time. the perks of this class reflect this bias, but do not restrict the class. most suitable for those that wish to produce large numbers of average-quality enchantments, or produce consumable enchantments


    unlocked as a result of: having [apprentice enchanter] class at level 25 or higher, produce at least 10 consumable enchantments, produce more than 20 enchanted items within a week


    increases effect of [magic] attribute by 20%. your multitasking abilities will become more easily applicable to enchanted items.


    careful enchanter: an enchanter who specializes in producing very specific, unique enchantments with a great variety of details, often at the cost of producing enchantments quickly. suitable for those who wish to one day forge artifacts for immortals to fight with... or for those who are simply very ambitious when they create new enchantments.


    unlocked as a result of: spend more than a month working on one specific enchantment or item, [apprentice enchanter] class at level 25 or higher, intelligence at least 150.


    increases the effect of the [intelligence] stat by 10% when planning the details of a new item. your enchanted items will receive a very noticeable boost in quality, but it will become even harder to apply your multitasking abilities to creating different items at once. at the same time, it will become easier to use multitasking abilities when all split focuses are working on producing the same item, and items will receive a further boost in quality for every division of your attention focused on producing an item at once.


    after some thinking, alice decided to take the [careful enchanter] class. one of her biggest problems remained the inability to get enough hours in the day to do everything she wanted to, but [kinetic manabinder] already seemed like a class that would provide perks that solved that problem, given enough time and levels. [scholar] and [scientist] also had some perks that helped her save time or improve the use of what time she had, and so she would just start hoping that the system gave her some options from those classes instead. after all, the system explicitly responded to what people wanted when choosing the perks people could take every time one of their classes reached the appropriate level, so alice didn¡¯t feel the need to devote another class to solving this problem when she could already solve it, given enough time and levels in her other classes.


    and instead of churning out mass produced enchantments, alice felt that it was better to make a smaller quantity of well-made enchantments. one of the reason cecilia¡¯s shop struggled to make a foothold in metsel, and the reason both she and cecilia had a harder time selling some of their work, was that their products just didn¡¯t quite match up to the quality one would expect from a professional enchanter shop. the two lowered the price of their objects to account for that, but it was still hard to get customers in the door sometimes, according to cecilia. one of the only reasons cecilia¡¯s shop still managed to get by was the fact that alice¡¯s enchantments tended to be based on weird seeds or weird ideas most [enchanters] didn¡¯t bother building enchantments around, meaning that her enchantments didn¡¯t have much competition in the market. and once customers were already in the door, cecilia could use her [merchant] perks to figure out what customers wanted and how much they were willing to pay, meaning she could usually get customers to buy a few more things once they were already there. however, this wasn¡¯t exactly producing buckets of money. if some sort of enchantment was needed by large numbers of people, [enchanters] would already be producing it, so the market cecilia¡¯s shop currently catered to was quite niche. if the two wanted to make enough money to feed themselves, their enchantments needed to get better so that they could expand their customer base.


    besides, alice also figured that once she finally made a proper system mana seed, she would want to be able to make enchantments with it. if for no other reason than the sheer curiosity of finding out what she would be able to make, since besides filtering mana alice wasn¡¯t really sure what else system mana even did. [careful enchanter] seemed like it would make that process easier and faster.


    apart from that, alice got a little bit of progress in her other classes over the weekend, especially in [explorer of magic] and [kinetic manabinder], as well as a bit of progress in her new [careful enchanter] class. grinding out enchantments wasn¡¯t the fastest way to level, but it was still slowly and steadily getting her some experience towards levelling her classes.


    however, once alice discovered a journal detailing one of the more successful ¡®innovations¡¯ to seed formation, she was more than a little surprised.


    the journal in question was from a mage about eight hundred years in the past. it discussed how, in addition to just concentrating on the concept one wanted to base a magic seed off of, one needed to work on filtering the mana in their surroundings. the author stated that it was best to use a pure mana seed in order to help ¡®straighten out¡¯ the mana in their surroundings while forming a mana seed. specifically, since atmospheric mana was usually mixed with small hints of broken mana here and there, the author proposed that it was best to help filter out all of the little bits of broken mana and use purer mana when forming a mana seed. the journal discussed, in detail, how this would make it easier for the human body to use and adapt to the newly formed seed, and even had a few diagrams helpfully drawn inside of it on how to set up a ¡®mana fractal¡¯ that purified the mana in its surroundings.


    and alice had seen parts of this fractal before. in fact, with her photographic memory, she was able to recognize with perfect clarity the fact that some of this fractal was present whenever she tried to form a magic seed with the help of the system. the system version of the purification fractal was vastly more complicated, but it was sort of like looking at a house and then looking at a mansion. even though the size, complexity, and decorations of a house and a mansion might be utterly and completely different, both were ultimately still buildings people lived in, and there were some similarities in how they were built if you looked closely enough.


    this puzzled alice. if the system already helped people ¡®straighten out¡¯ mana, how did someone make a name for themselves doing something that the system was already doing a much better job of? the reason alice had picked up the book was because one of the other journals she had read had discussed the discoveries made by the author of this one, and how they had revolutionized some of the theory of magic seed creation. but that made no sense at all, since this person was just doing an inferior version of what the system already did for free. something was wrong here.


    alice started searching through historical records of the time, and was able to find a book from 500 years ago titled ¡®records of major magical innovations and a brief discussion of their effects on society.¡¯ when she looked through it, sure enough, the discussion of ¡®filtered mana fractals¡¯ was listed as an important innovation that, for a time, had made a name for the mage who discovered it. even though an individual couldn¡¯t use the method in question unless they already had a pure mana seed and the ability to multitask, it was also entirely possible for a fellow mage to ¡®help out¡¯ during the seed formation process. this had, for a while, led to an explosion of popularity for a class known as [seed-boosters], a type of class that was solely devoted to helping mages and soon to be mages form their magic seeds in exchange for money or other services.


    however, this class had died out less than a hundred years after it started to gain popularity. the reason was simple ¨C mages had started to ¡®exhibit signs of assistance from a [seed-assister] even if they didn¡¯t purchase the services of one.¡¯ at the time, this had become one of the unsolved mysteries of mages and the study of magic, but since the end result was good and it was hard to make any discoveries about why [seed-boosters] had become irrelevant, most mages appeared to have eventually dropped the matter and forgotten about it over the course of the next few centuries. after all, when it came to the study of magic in the world of luliv, there were always new and interesting topics for [scholars] to study. an unresolved mystery would only remain in the limelight for so long before people found new topics to research.


    alice frowned when she learned about the history of [seed boosters] and mana filtering. even though it was just a guess right now, her first assumption after doing more research was that the system had ¡®copied¡¯ the help a [seed-booster] could provide and then just... automated the whole process. perhaps along the way, it had started to pick up other, more specific tidbits of information that helped it boost the strength of people¡¯s seeds in the process? or maybe the system had found other, better ways to go about making magic seeds easy to form and stable? whatever the case, it seemed unlikely that the system had always helped people build seeds the way it did now. or, perhaps, it had done so in a different way in the past, or... something.


    alice had no way of predicting exactly how the system worked hundreds of years ago when nobody besides her was able to see system mana. the fact that nobody else had even confirmed its existence (as far as she knew) made trying to guess when and how the system did things in the distant past an exercise in frustration and futility, after all. still, this historical tidbit seemed to strongly suggest that the system was more adaptable than alice had first thought. and, more importantly, it also gave her a much better idea of what she might be doing wrong when she tried to form magic seeds on her own.


    alice spent extra time poring over the journal, making extra sure to memorize the diagrams and the details of each diagram in as much detail as she could manage. she decided she would try it out this sunday, when she created another experimental magic seed.


    with her enchanting abilities coming along nicely, and her research on the system coming along nicely, no other major events happened during the week. the following weekend, alice invited the four classmates she was on good terms with to play the settlers with her as a way of boosting their friendship. erkki, laila, and asri accepted her offer. luka stated that he was going to attend a party on that day, but he would come next saturday if alice welcomed him.


    another game of totally-not-messed-up settlers passed by, and sunday came. after dumping a little over half of her mana on enchanting (as well as most of her morning and afternoon), alice asked cecilia to let her use a workshop room as a manaless room again. alice swallowed nervously after blocking mana entry into the room.


    it was about to be her fourth (and fifth) time trying to form a magic seed without the help of the system. maybe this time she would finally succeed?


    alice first spent almost three hours trying to replicate a working mana filter. she had assumed that the shape and complexities of the mana construct wouldn¡¯t be too hard to control ¨C after all, alice had the ability to split her attention into four different focuses right now. no matter how complex and detailed the mana filters were, it wouldn¡¯t be hard to control when she could split her attention in four, right?


    this assumption turned out to be incorrect. anytime alice tried to build a filter, whether inside or outside of the manaless room, she always found that she had messed up a few tiny details when constructing the filter, causing the whole thing to fall apart. however, at the very least, alice didn¡¯t think that she was totally messing up the whole thing, even though her attempts failed over and over again. it was simply that she was trying something very complicated for the first time, and if she messed up some of the smaller details the entire thing ended up not working. cecilia, who eventually came by to help look over alice¡¯s experiment and freeload some xp and achievements, ended up helping alice by pointing out a few of the smaller details alice kept messing up on, once alice shared her memory of the mana construct she was trying to make and cecilia inspected alice¡¯s attempts to replicate the mana construct. the ability to divide her attention into four different focuses wasn¡¯t quite enough to make the filter easily, but once she had the muscle memory for what she was trying to do down, it started to get easier and easier with each failed attempt.


    finally, when alice was almost completely out of pure mana, she managed to make a working mana filter with cecilia¡¯s help. when mana passed through the filter, it looked very subtly different than before. alice wouldn¡¯t have noticed the subtle difference in mana coloration if she hadn¡¯t been paying close attention, but the mana was easier to command and work with after it had been filtered once.


    after that, alice walked back into the manaless room and tried forming another electromagnetic magic seed, after going through her usual safety checks and precautions.


    the fourth attempt failed, as usual. something was still off about her electromagnetic seed, and {safety analysis} informed her that keeping the seed in her body for an extended period of time would be dangerous. alice spent an hour looking over the seed, taking note of which parts felt weird to her and comparing those to the mages with working electromagnetic mages she had seen, before she used {reset} and started her fifth attempt at making a seed without the help of the system.


    after making her set of filters, letting some more mana into the room before cutting it off from the outside world again, and preparing to form her magic seed, alice started drawing in mana again. she put to work her three months of failed attempts at magic seed formation, as well as her renewed understanding of the topic from the library and her now semi-functional mana filter, and started concentrating on what she knew about electromagnetics. not the fundamental force of electromagnetics that she was familiar with from back on earth, but the simple concept of electricity and magnets, as well as the way they worked. since that was what electromagnetic seeds were limited to on this world, alice didn¡¯t want to get too ambitious until she had a few control experiments to work with.


    the surrounding mana was filtered by her mana fractal before being absorbed by her body, and it quickly began to compact itself in the extra organ behind her heart. within a few minutes, alice¡¯s fifth attempt at making a magic seed independently was formed.


    alice frowned, as she ran {safety analysis} on the experiment of ¡®keeping the seed inside of her body.¡¯


    and, for the first time ever, she got a result indicating that the seed wouldn¡¯t harm her if she kept it inside of her body. even though alice¡¯s electromagnetic seed still looked a little wonky, and still seemed to be missing some of the shape and elegance most electromagnetic seeds possessed, it was the first time alice had made an electromagnetic seed that didn¡¯t seem likely to poison her if she held onto it for an extended period of time.


    alice tried to suppress a quiver of excitement as {safety analysis} gave her the most promising result she had obtained so far. then, she reached towards the door of the manaless room and prepared to take a step outside. had she finally succeeded in making a magic seed without the help of the system?

 Chapter 76

    chapter 76


    alice stepped out of the manaless room, and cecilia, who had been waiting outside, looked at her with hints of anticipation in her expression. mana started rushing towards alice, but for now, she ignored all of the system notifications that were popping up. she would deal with them when she was done with the experiment.


    alice tried to extend a tendril from her newest seed, before frowning. in her excitement, she had completely forgotten that new magic seeds tended to start out pretty empty of mana. right now, her newly made electromagnetic seed only had a 5% conversion ratio from her magic stat.


    my magic stat is currently 142, multiplied by 1.22 because the effectiveness of my magic stat is 122%. since my electromagnetic seed gets 5% of that... this thing has an absolute maximum of about eight and a half mariums? suddenly, alice felt a small headache. it seemed... surprisingly difficult to test her seed right now. she only regenerated 2.7% of her maximum mana every hour, and she would need at least a marium or two to start messing with metal objects in her surroundings if she wanted to get a good read on how well her new seed was working. previously, alice hadn¡¯t gotten this far in her seed production experiments. after all, the normal process of forming a seed without the system was ¡®form seed->realize something is wrong with it-> mess with it for a bit before breaking it with {broken seed}.¡¯ since this was alice¡¯s first potential success, she wanted to try it out. but since her seed was so ridiculously inefficient, it would take around four hours to get a marium of mana. assuming this seed regenerated mana as effectively as a normal seed, which was probably a pipe dream.


    alice sighed. it seemed like she would need to wait for a while before she could test her new seed out.


    ¡°did it work?¡± asked cecilia, seeing that alice was finally done thinking and musing to herself.


    ¡°i don¡¯t know!¡± said alice, grimacing. ¡°i want to test it, but i don¡¯t have any mana inside of the seed to try it.¡±


    ¡°but is the seed dangerous like usual? most of the ones you form make you sick if they stick around in your body for extended periods of time. did this one finally fix that problem?¡±


    ¡°it seems that i can keep the electromagnetic seed without hurting myself,¡± said alice, nodding. ¡°at the very least, {safety analysis} isn¡¯t giving me any warnings at all about this one, so i should be safe. if nothing else, that¡¯s a huge step up in quality from previous attempts. i just don¡¯t know if the seed actually does anything yet.¡±


    ¡°that¡¯s disappointing,¡± said cecilia, frowning. ¡°how long do we have to wait until you can test it?¡± she asked, impatiently shuffling from side to side as she looked at the mana in their surroundings.


    ¡°by my very rough math, about four hours,¡± said alice. ¡°but that¡¯s assuming the seed regenerates mana at the same rate as a normal magic seed. it¡¯s entirely plausible that i made a seed that doesn¡¯t hurt me, but doesn¡¯t work at all, or that the seed is super inefficient at regenerating mana. or has some other flaw like being unable to make mana tendrils or something. who knows whether this thing works or not?¡±


    ¡°that makes sense,¡± said cecilia, sighing. ¡°the last couple seeds you formed without the help of the system were all pretty messy, and most of them were downright dangerous. we don¡¯t know how many different ways there are to form a magic seed incorrectly, but i¡¯m betting there are quite a few ways to mess up. just because it¡¯s not dangerous this time doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s functioning.¡±


    alice sighed, wishing time would pass more quickly. since there was nothing the two could do for a bit, alice decided to check on her system notifications and see if the system had anything to say about her new magic seed. she ignored the level, skill, and stat notifications for now because she could deal with them later.


    you have gained an achievement!


    seed creator (rarity: 8)


    you have taken steps to create a magic seed on your own, without the assistance of the system. while some may argue that this is a waste of time, due to the fact the results are directly inferior to making a seed normally, it cannot be denied that a great deal of time, effort, and research were put into this moment.


    +75% class experience for all magic-related classes. +50% for all research-related classes. the cooldown time for {broken seed} or its evolved perks are reduced by 50%. you may now use the perk on other people if you make physical contact with them. (note ¨C you cannot break the magic seeds others without their consent. they must knowingly and intentionally allow you to break down their magic seed.)


    all magic seeds in your body (both current and future ones) gain 10% to mana conversion ratio.


    for a rarity eight achievement, the rewards seemed to be quite good, perhaps due to how difficult it was to actually acquire this perk. alice grinned to herself as she looked over the achievement, not just because of the rewards for this experiment, but because the system seemed to be confirming her experiment had been a success.


    she had, indeed, formed a proper magic seed without help from the system! even though her math was obviously wrong now, because the electromagnetic seed now had a mana conversion ratio of 15% and not 5%, alice was more than happy with the results of her experiment and the achievement. instead of waiting around 4 hours, they would only need to wait... somewhere between one and two hours now? alice¡¯s math was getting a bit fuzzy, but she was pretty sure it was around one to two hours before she could spend exactly one marium of electromagnetic mana on a test. she made a mental note to start keeping track of her new seed¡¯s mana available using {advanced mana measurement}.


    now that her experiment was over, alice took more time to process her new achievement and levels as she felt even more excitement start to bubble up in her thoughts. even the seemingly unimportant exp bonus from {seed creator} gave her a sizable boost to growth speed. she had 3 magic-related classes: her [enchanter] class, [kinetic manabinder], and [explorer of magic]. she also had 4 research-related classes: [explorer of magic], [scholar], [kinetic manabinder] and [scientist]. these got a 75% boost to exp and a 50% boost to xp, respectively. alice recalled seeing the holy church of the almighty system¡¯s holy book mention that most people who reached immortality had experience bonuses of at least 1000% on the lower end, and often more than 1100% or 1200% of an xp boost to their highest-level class. having a 125% experience bonus from her new achievement applying to [explorer of magic], coupled with her other experience-boosting achievements like {seeker of truth} and {baptized by broken mana} helped to really cement her class growth. alice originally hadn¡¯t been sure if she would ever reach immortality, but the closer she got to having the needed xp bonuses to counteract growth penalties, the more she felt her small dream of becoming an immortal materialize. if she had the choice, she would be more than happy to avoid dying of old age. she wasn¡¯t sure if she would actually reach this goal or not, but it had slowly changed from a completely impossibility to something actually achievable for her.


    she took a brief moment to look back through her status screen, trying to total up all of her experience bonuses to [explorer of magic]


    let¡¯s see... bookworm gives a 10% bonus to research-related classes... then another 200% from {seeker of truth}. then another 125% total bonus from {seed creation}. i still don¡¯t know what ¡®increased support from the system¡¯ means from the {outworlder} perk, but the rest of the bonuses from that achievement have started to fall off because they lose effect at level 50 for each class. {baptized by broken mana} gives me another 30% bonus xp to magic-related classes... the other achievements i have don¡¯t seem to be useful, at least for xp gain related to [explorer of magic]. finally, there should be a 10% bonus from kinetic manabinder for all classes related to magic? this class isn¡¯t related to enchanting, so none of the enchanting xp bonuses count. that brings up a total of 375% xp bonus for [explorer of magic]? so i¡¯m over a third of the way there. most of that number is coming from two achievements, while the more common achievements provide almost no xp bonuses. having the ability to see and experiment with system mana while no one else can really gives me a huge leg up when it comes to getting achievements... alice shook her head as she grinned to herself, before she moved on to perk selection.


    sadly, [explorer of magic] had yet to reach level 55, so she couldn¡¯t see her first perk fusion yet. however, [scientist] and [survivor] all had a new perk choice available.


    adrenaline rush


    requirements: survivor level 45 or higher, 2 or more perks related to perceiving the world around you have already been taken within the [survivor] class at an earlier level, perception 125 or higher, magic 100 or higher


    at any point in time, if you are highly likely to die or potentially die within the next five seconds, your perception of time will speed up significantly for five seconds. your dexterity, endurance, magic, and perception stats will have their effectiveness increased by 100% for these five seconds. this skill may only be used once per week.


    note: this perk consumes a fair amount of calories to activate. it is advised to eat a large meal whenever it is used.


    alice grabbed this perk because it seemed like a way to save her life if things went horribly wrong. coupled with {moderate tissue regeneration}, alice had the ability to dodge or heal from most injuries if they didn¡¯t kill her instantly. even though this perk could only activate once per week, it worked as a final round of insurance for the combat against monsters she would be taking part in next week, as well as another round of defense against surprise attacks from the society of starry eyes. the perk didn¡¯t specify that she had to notice the danger first, after all, and so if alice wasn¡¯t misunderstanding how the perk worked it would activate even if she was taken by surprise. she hoped that the perk would never be necessary, but it was never bad to have a plan b.


    not to mention, recently, alice had been feeling... odd. she had a strange gut feeling that soon, things were about to go terribly wrong. she wasn¡¯t actually sure if that gut feeling was correct, and she suspected she was just nervous because the class¡¯s battle practice outside of the classroom would start in about two weeks. however, she decided to work with a mentality of ¡®better safe than sorry,¡¯ just in case something actually went wrong.


    researcher¡¯s speed


    requirements: scientist level 40 or greater


    when you are working on an experiment, the pace at which you think, process information, and work will increase by a significant amount, allowing you to conduct experiments notably faster than before.


    there wasn¡¯t much to say about {researcher¡¯s speed}. it helped solve her problem of never having enough hours in a day, because it should boost her work efficiency while working on her personal projects and when working with ezrien¡¯s team. it wasn¡¯t exciting, but it addressed her needs well enough that she was happy with it. she would need a bit more time to assess how much work the perk was actually doing, of course, but at this point any perk that helped her save time was a perk she desperately wanted.


    alice grinned to herself, finishing her perk selections for this experiment. while the number of perks this time had been rather low, the real prize was clearly the achievement.


    ¡°any thoughts on why your seed seems so much weaker than the system version?¡± asked cecilia, bringing alice back out of her thoughts.


    ¡°i have a few ideas. first, the structure for my electromagnetic seed still seems off compared to a normal one. now that i¡¯ve managed to get a working model for an electromagnetic seed, i think i should start to copy more of the system¡¯s ¡®final products.¡¯ i¡¯ll see if i can invite some friends or pay some people to let me inspect their seeds for a while, and see if that gives me any ideas what specifically i need to look out for. besides that, maybe i can try forming an electromagnetic seed with the system¡¯s help next month? that would help me get a better idea of what the system is doing when it helps someone form a seed. i still don¡¯t know what the organic and system mana is used for in most system constructs, and those are obviously important parts of the final product. and i¡¯m pretty sure i¡¯ve only copied around a third or a fourth of the pure mana fractals the system makes for most seed formations, so i¡¯ve still got a lot left to explore in that department as well. so there are a bunch of avenues of improvement to pursue from here. which reminds me, i still want to make a system magic seed, and i still want to see if i can link everything to permanent enchantments as well. it would, finally, turn my research into something of practical value,¡± said alice, chuckling a bit. ¡°i figure that one will probably require me to learn a lot more, since right now i¡¯m not even 100% sure what i would need to learn to make a permanent enchantment possible. well, basically, there are lots of things i need to do better to make a better magic seed. but i¡¯m just happy i got it working, finally. i¡¯ve been tinkering with this for three months now, and finally having a working magic seed is a huge relief.¡± alice gave cecilia a grin, and the other girl smiled back at her.


    the two began to go over the more specific details of the seed-forming process, trying to see if they could spot any other problems or weaknesses that alice could fix to improve the next generation of magic seed. alice also began to put {shared memory} to work, letting cecilia look over alice¡¯s memories of magic seed formation with the help of the system, as well as alice¡¯s memories of forming her own seed without the help of the system. the perk was finally pulling its weight in a research setting.


    at the end of the discussion, alice had a few ideas for smaller improvements she could make to her mana filtration fractal, as well as a few other ideas of what might be wrong with her magic seeds compared to ¡®standard¡¯ electromagnetic magic seeds. it would take a lot more practice to make a ¡®high quality¡¯ magic seed, but she was finally on the right track. which meant that soon, alice would need to find another magic seed slot, for when she started trying to make a system magic seed. after all, she intended to do a lot of experimentation with that seed, and 15% mana conversion just wasn¡¯t going to cut it at that point.


    still, that was a problem to be solved in the future. for now, alice intended to spend the next two weeks making some defensive items for herself, just to appease the gnawing uneasiness in her gut, as well as help cecilia start working towards whatever watered-down version of {seed creation} she was able to get with alice¡¯s help in two weeks, if nothing went wrong. after that, the class¡¯s first battle exercise would start.

 Chapter 77

    chapter 77


    after alice¡¯s experiment, she went to sleep for the night. the next day, after working with ezrien¡¯s team, getting through her first two classes of the day, and visiting the library, her self-defense class began. this week, the class had begun having the students duel each other.


    ¡°so we¡¯re finally going to start practicing against each other?¡± said luka, grinning a bit as alice and the two classmates she knew stood in the training field. he was practically bouncing on the heels of his feet with excitement.


    ¡°it looks like it,¡± said alice as she pondered the value of learning to duel mages.


    thus far, most things alice had learned that were combat related were dedicated to surviving ambushes and keeping herself alive. dodging or deflecting projectiles were definitely key skills for mages, since the primary way mages died was being caught off-guard before they could get their magic seeds engaged in the fight. most mage classes had several perks dedicated to coping with exactly this scenario.


    however, there was much more to learn than just this. while most early self-defense training in this world was devoted to making sure a mage could survive the initial burst of fatal attacks when an [assassin] attacked them from the shadows, surviving that initial outburst of danger was nowhere near enough to survive an attack from a dedicated killer-for-hire, high level combatant, or even just a large group of people.


    and there was another threat to mages besides surprise attacks and high-level combatants. the threat of other mages.


    that was what the magic duels section of the class was dedicated to.


    and this was also the most relevant skill set for alice, since the biggest threat to her life was the society of starry eyes. since the society was almost exclusively made of mages who wanted to experiment with illegal and immoral types of magic, if alice ever got into a conflict with them she would need to know how to fight other mages. these lessons were exactly what she needed.


    ¡°all right, i will preface this lesson by saying that we¡¯re now fully investing our time into learning how to fight and kill other human beings. some of the skills we learned earlier were quite relevant against monsters as well as humans, but these classes will be based on the magic seeds of your classmates. monsters form very different magic seeds than we do, so the applications of these lessons against monsters will be far more limited than our previous lessons. now, i don¡¯t know how many of you have acquired the {murderer} achievement, and it¡¯s none of my business who has and who hasn¡¯t. for those of you that don¡¯t have it, killing another human being is... different.¡± professor tanmi looked solemn as he stood in front of the group of students.


    ¡°the military will make mages who enlist kill a bandit or someone of similar origin during their time in the military, as preparation for what a real battlefield looks like. it isn¡¯t the kind of training a regular soldier gets access to, because there simply aren¡¯t enough [bandits] and similar lowlifes in the country for every single soldier in the military to kill someone, but for a mage, this kind of training is vital.


    ¡°this is because you¡¯re blessed with magic. this is something almost everyone who isn¡¯t a mage envies. if you were born with it, you probably grew up hearing how lucky you were. if you survived a mana baptism, you¡¯re one of about four percent of people who survive the process. either way, you were lucky, and you¡¯ve doubtless had a much easier time in life as a result of being a mage.


    ¡°but being a mage isn¡¯t a one-sided benefit. for all of the financial leeway you get as a mage, as well as the newly opened perks, classes, and reduced aging speed all mages benefit from, there are also new dangers and temptations. some of them are simple ¨C the desire to experiment on humans, or start learning about other dangerous branches of magic such as dimensional magic. all of these routes of experimentation can, indeed, benefit the human race if the research into them was successful, which leads many well-meaning but easily tempted people into a twisted path of murdering innocent people for the sake of the ever-nebulous idea of the ¡®greater good.¡¯ aside from these more obvious temptations and dangers, you¡¯re also more likely to be targeted by people who want to hurt you. the sigmusi¡¯s attempts to assassinate mages in the south, for example, or the occasional attempts by the society of starry eyes to use mages as experimental materials. while they are rare, these new dangers exist, and if you¡¯re unlucky you may find yourself face to face with them.


    ¡°and that is why we require students to learn not only how to survive ambushes, not only how to survive monsters, but how to fight other mages as well. this is why you don¡¯t have the leeway to flinch if someone is trying to kill you, and why the crown places such great importance on you being able to defend yourselves.


    ¡°the dueling portion of the class is meant to teach you how to deal with these new threats to your life.¡± professor tanmi gave them all serious looks, and alice heard laila gulp beside her. alice spared a quick glance in the usually lackadaisical girl¡¯s direction, and saw that her expression was surprisingly stern for once. far from her usual indifferent or relaxed expression, the other girl looked nervous.


    ¡°now, pair up with someone nearby and stand together. whoever you¡¯re standing with will be your partner for the lesson.¡±


    alice looked at laila, who also looked at her. they shrugged, before standing closer together. alice wasn¡¯t as close with laila as the other three students she was familiar with, but she didn¡¯t mind spending time with the other girl. luka paired up with another boy, and the other students in the class were also quickly getting into pairs. after the students in the class were paired up, professor tanmi continued.


    ¡°now, first thing to note. as a teacher, i have a special perk called {student dueling} that makes it much easier for me to react to any dangers my students create for each other. in short, this perk helps me keep you safe if one of you would actually harm the other. however, for the perk to work, you must first announce that you intend to fight a practice round and raise your hands for a few seconds while standing within five meters of me. are any of you above level 75 or in possession of any incredibly noteworthy classes, achievements, or perks? you don¡¯t have to tell me what they are, just tell me if there¡¯s something i need to be super cautious of.¡±


    nobody raised their hand.


    ¡°good. sometimes i get a student or two who¡¯s just sticking around for the experience bonus for learning under a [teacher]. i get it, and more power to you if you decide to do that in the future. however, i¡¯m only a little above that level, and a level 75 fighting at full power against a [student] that might only be between level 20 and 40 is incredibly unfair, and it¡¯s honestly not great practice for either of you. and on a more practical note, it makes it much harder for me to keep you guys safe if something unexpected crops up during the duel. i have excellent perks for fighting, and i can use those to keep any lethal blows you guys might strike from hurting each other, but if you¡¯re at level 75 it starts to get dicey with some perk combinations or combined perks, and i don¡¯t play games with the lives of my students.


    ¡°now, one pair after another, i¡¯m going to give you guys the opportunity to come up next to me and duel each other. you must first raise your right hand and announce that you will be dueling the other person. then, you must wait until i give you the signal to go ahead. if you attack before i give you the go-ahead, i will personally drag you to an after-class lecture about safety for a few hours and then deduct all of your grades by ten percent for the rest of the semester for flouting my rules about safety, and i¡¯ll kick you out of future duel practice as well. final rule, you can use any amount of practice weapons and enchantments in the duels, but you need to show them to me first, and i can veto an item if it seems too powerful for the fight. this is to train each other, after all, and in a real fight people are going to be throwing around enchanted items left and right if they¡¯re wealthy enough. but safety is still more important. you can also start the duel with no weapons if you prefer ¨C i personally recommend this. especially if you¡¯re a [kinetic mage], it¡¯s a good way to simulate what to do if someone catches you off guard and you survive the initial volley of attacks. now, are you guys ready?¡±


    seeing most students nod, professor tanmi grinned.


    ¡°good. now, you two ¨C the girl and boy standing closest to me. do you two want to be the first ones up?¡±


    ¡°i don¡¯t mind,¡± said the girl casually. the boy, who seemed a bit shyer, hesitated for a moment before he also nodded. alice noted with some interest that the girl had an organic seed, and the boy had a kinetic one. the girl was also holding a wooden sword. the boy carried no weapons with him.


    ¡°stand closer to me. now, raise your right hand and announce you¡¯re dueling...¡±


    the two went through the cumbersome starting procedures to activate professor tanmi¡¯s perks. finally, he nodded. ¡°remember, fighting continues until i say the fight ends. you may attack each other with full force until then, but the moment i say stop, you stop. if you keep going after i tell you to stop fighting, you get a safety lecture and have your grades penalized. you can start now,¡± he said, waving his hand in the air to let them start attacking each other.


    the girl immediately sent organic mana swarming through her legs, strengthening them until they reached levels humans on earth would never be able to achieve. she dashed towards the boy, bringing down her wooden sword in an overhead cut to ¡®kill¡¯ the boy.


    the boy extended two tendrils of kinetic mana towards the girl. before she could respond, he grabbed her clothes with both and tried to shove her to the ground.


    ¡°stop!¡± said professor tanmi, reaching out a mana tendril and stopping alice¡¯s projectile volley. laila¡¯s ring spewed organic mana into the girl, doing... nothing in particular, as far as alice could tell. she wondered what the item did, but professor tanmi was already starting to break down the fight. he gave alice a measuring look.


    ¡°you... aren¡¯t very talented at fighting, but you still managed to put on a good show. you must have trained pretty hard to reach a point where you can manage all of this even with your lack of talent. were you trained before?¡±


    ¡°illa taught me for a few months,¡± said alice. ¡°she only taught me basic self defense, but with my new perks and my hard work, i¡¯ve managed to grow some as a fighter. i¡¯m not very talented at fighting, but i¡¯ve tried to make up for it.¡±


    ¡°illa, huh? haven¡¯t heard that name in a while. if you learned from her, just follow her teachings and you¡¯ll be fine. that woman was always talented. anyway, do you know what you did wrong in the fight? even though you won, there were many places you could have done better.¡±


    ¡°hmm...¡± alice frowned, running through her memories of the battle. what had she messed up on during the battle? besides the attempts to use the grass and soil. neither of those had been very effective... though, admittedly, part of that was because of the ridiculous number of enchantments laila was carrying around on her.


    seeing her pause, professor tanmi began speaking again.


    ¡°i saw that you sped up for about five seconds, and you lost control right afterwards. whatever perk you used for that, get more familiar with it. life-saving perks are amazing, but you need to know how to actually follow up after using them. right after the perk ended, one of laila¡¯s beads whizzed right by your face, and you didn¡¯t notice it at all. in the future you might not be so lucky. also, your idea of using the ground from the training field as a shield was pretty good, but you need to pay more attention to soil types if you want to use that kind of tactic in the future. this dirt in the training field is pretty loose, so it¡¯s not very good to use it as a shield. you should have used another mana tendril to tighten up the soil a bit, or abandoned the idea entirely. the attempt at using grass to trip your opponent was also kind of dubious. that kind of tactic is super effective against melee fighters, but laila was attacking you with ranged magic. it might mess up some novice mages, but most proper combatants will have enough [strength] to tear up the grass if you don¡¯t reinforce it. i expect you were inspired by the way vinebears fight, but keep in mind that vinebears aren¡¯t just commanding the plants around them ¨C they also strengthen them to make them into actual threats.


    ¡°and, i¡¯m sure you¡¯ve heard this multiple times today already, but i recommend you start carrying around ammunition on your person or in a storage perk if you have one. not something you could have fixed today, but in the future it¡¯s a good idea. you learned some from my suggestions to other students, and i commend you for trying to take that advice into account when you started running towards the practice weapons. however, it¡¯s also important to keep in mind what you should do when there aren¡¯t nearly as obvious weapons in your surroundings.¡±


    alice nodded. now that professor tanmi was pointing out her mistakes, she felt that she could have done better during the fight. still, that didn¡¯t take away her exhilaration at winning the fight. she had won a combat encounter with someone of around the same age group as her! she felt like it was proof of how hard she had worked to correct her deficiencies during her time in self-defense classes, as well as an affirmation of the time she had spent learning under illa.


    ¡°as for you, laila... i don¡¯t really know what to say. your fighting skills are a complete mess. is your fighting plan just to bury your opponent in enchantments? i mean, i get that your family is wealthy, and you definitely have excellent enchanted items. an inexperienced fighter who is below level 40 or 50 will probably usually lose to you as long as you just throw enough items at them. but still, try to at least competently use one mana tendril in a fight, okay? i don¡¯t think you used your own magic a single time during the entire duel. at least try to follow the purpose of the class. it¡¯s your life that could be on the line here. enchanted items have limited amounts of mana, while you yourself regenerate mana every minute. and an enchantment will never be as flexible as a competent mage, because they can¡¯t adjust their instructions on the fly unless you have some incredibly high-level [enchanter] perks.¡±


    laila blushed and nodded. professor tanmi gave her a final nod, before he dismissed the two of them. alice frowned in thought after the end of the battle. having seen all of laila¡¯s enchanted items, she had a few new inspirations for items of her own to make. just in case she needed them in the future. professor tanmi had said that laila would be able to bury an average combatant between level 40 and 50 under her enchantments? in that case, alice might be doing even better than she thought at learning some combat skills.


    as professor tanmi moved on to the next pair of students, alice found her attention wandering for the next two fights. she kept replaying the fight over and over again in her mind, trying to figure out ways that she could have improved or changed. she had won this time, but what if laila had a pile of enchanted items and was good at fighting? if she ever fought with the society of starry eyes, she doubted her opponents would be as inept as laila with their personal mana control.


    finally, her attention was drawn to luka¡¯s fight. he was also a kinetic mage, and was able to summon four tendrils as well. however, he was far more natural at fighting than alice was. he used his environment, already carried ammunition, and had a few small but effective enchantments. altogether, it took him less than twenty seconds to trounce his opponent, earning him a rare ¡®well done¡¯ from professor tanmi¡¯s mouth. of all the [students] in the class, luka was probably one of the top five fighters. alice was fairly certain that if she fought against luka she would lose, even luka didn¡¯t use any of his enchanted items.


    alice sighed, before deciding that she really needed to get working on some enchanted items for herself. fighting with laila had given her some ideas for kinds of items she could make, and she only had two weeks left until the extra lessons started. she wanted to be ready by that time. she didn¡¯t have enough time to make any preparations besides that, but seeing how powerful the enchanted items of some of her classmates were inspired her to take her enchanting in new directions. since alice wasn¡¯t that talented at fighting, maybe she could just compensate for it with a pile of items?


    you have leveled up!


    survivor: 46 -> 47


    through training, you have increased an attribute!


    dexterity 107->108, perception 128->129, magic 144->145


    through training, you have increased a skill!


    projectile awareness 17->20, divided attention 19->23, kinetic manipulation 63->64, kinetic force 40->41


    * * *


    far to the north, an immortal and a half-metal man grimaced as they looked at the corpses of various monsters scattered around them.


    ¡°master, are we almost done? this monster layer is... really something. they seem to keep coming whenever we deal with the last layer,¡± said the half-metal man.


    ¡°the area keeps getting flooded with mana every time the monsters dry up,¡± said the immortal, frowning. ¡°i was expecting there to be some defenses here, but to think that the first layer of defense is to intentionally lure in waves of monsters to kill invaders. i wonder why the monsters don¡¯t flood the insides. it seems like a dangerous design choice, since the monsters inside would probably break things beyond repair if an error occurred, but the defensive layer clearly hasn¡¯t ever malfunctioned. hmm...¡± the man frowned as another group of monsters stepped into an area.


    immediately, an enchantment buried under the earth exploded with kinetic mana, hurling fragments of metal into the bodies of the monsters and killing them instantly.


    ¡°this is really just impossible for us to deal with if we keep trying to clear out the monsters. i¡¯ve spent too many enchanting materials on this, and at the end of two weeks of work we haven¡¯t made any progress. if it¡¯s going to keep doing this, we might need to try to sneak our way in instead,¡± said the man, grimacing. ¡°i don¡¯t feel that great about it, but i¡¯m not willing to give up. one way or another, we¡¯re going to get in.¡±

 Chapter 78

    chapter 78


    two more weeks passed in relative quiet. apart from being ludicrously inefficient, alice¡¯s new electromagnetic seed didn¡¯t harm her in any way. alice spent a few minutes every morning just running through whatever variants of ¡®is this dangerous¡¯ she could feed into {safety analysis}, as well as using her once-per-day usage of {moderate tissue regeneration} to make sure that there were no problems. after that, she would run some basic tests with the seed, moving coins around, producing little sparks of lightning, and generally just trying to compare and contrast her electromagnetic seed with a more ¡®normal¡¯ seed made with the system¡¯s help.


    apart from messing with her new deformed seed, alice went to work on ezrien¡¯s kinetic plates every morning, went to classes, and read at the library. now that alice had made some progress on her research into the system, she was able to redirect her attention to learning more about enchantments. her research into the subject was nothing groundbreaking, but since alice¡¯s finances were barely stable she felt that stabilizing her income was a good use of her time. in the evenings, she tested out her new ideas, making slow but steady progress in reducing the broken mana production and energy waste of her enchantments and boosting the effect of her healing stones and dynamite. apart from making money, alice had decided she was unlikely to make any major breakthroughs in her research in the next two weeks since most of her perks were either on cooldown or being kept for the sake of her safety. her bad feeling was also getting worse and worse as time passed, so alice decided to prepare for the worst, just in case her bad feeling was correct.


    since alice had seen a variety of other enchanted items, especially laila¡¯s giant pile of enchanted items, alice had felt quite a bit more inspired about what enchantments she wanted to carry around for herself, and had made three new enchanted items.


    first and foremost, alice had grabbed a ring, stuffed it with a few blue rocks that could interact with organic and healing mana effectively, and enchanted it with her healing magic seed to heal whoever was wearing the ring upon activation. this ring suffered severely from wasting huge amounts of mana due to the fact that it was using alice¡¯s healing seed instead of her organic seed, as well as the fact that alice¡¯s enchantments were still far from optimized, but it was an extra layer of lifesaving protection if alice needed it in a pinch. even if the enchantment would probably break in a few years, and would waste almost half of each monster core by turning it into broken mana instead of making it do something useful, it got around the fact that {moderate tissue regeneration} could only be used once per day. alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure whether this ring would come in handy, but it only cost one and a quarter golden suns to make and she definitely felt that it wouldn¡¯t hurt to have around.


    the second enchantment alice made was a bracelet similar to laila¡¯s bracelet she had used during the duel. trying to power each bead had stumped alice for a while, but eventually she came across the idea of taking monster cores from smaller monsters and melting down an enchanting material, specifically a type of stone, before hardening it around the monster core. this basically made the stone beads into consumable enchantments, and needed some help from a [blacksmith] who specialized in more unusual materials, but it got the job done.


    upon activation, all of the stones attached to the bracelet would fling themselves at a target via a burst of kinetic mana. alice had gotten some inspiration from her organic magic as well, and had done her best to add a special function to the stone beads. after touching anything ¡®organic,¡¯ the stones in the bracelet would try to ¡®rip¡¯ all of the flesh around them, making a wound significantly worse than it otherwise might have been. since the enchantments were already basically consumable enchantments, alice figured she might as well go all out in using up the mana from each bead, which would hopefully let the beads overpower the natural mana resistance of whatever she shot the beads at. it probably wouldn¡¯t work on anything that was too strong, but it would do the job against weaker monsters or humans. hopefully.


    the only real reason alice added the second enchantment to the bracelet was because cecilia ended up buying a bunch of two-instruction stones that accepted kinetic and organic mana for a fairly cheap price, and so alice ended up buying them from cecilia for pretty cheap as well. since the enchanting material could hold two instructions, it just seemed like a waste to leave an empty instruction slot laying around.


    the third thing alice made was a little hoop of... monster sinew. which was kind of gross, so alice wrapped it in leather with the help of a [tailor] to turn the monster sinew into a necklace that she could wear without touching monster guts with her bare skin. at the bottom, she got a [blacksmith] to make a little metal container with a lock that could be easily undone, but wouldn¡¯t come undone unless she undid the contraption keeping the lid shut. inside of it, she planned to store a few monster cores to feed the necklace as needed.


    the monster sinew itself was given the ability to, when activated, stop all kinetic motion within about ten meters of the necklace. it would ignore living creatures with a high enough amount of mana inside of them, which was a slightly tricky instruction that alice took a few tries to get right, but at the end of the day she had created a good second layer of defense for herself if more than four projectiles were about to hit her and {adrenaline rush} didn¡¯t save her.


    alice wanted to make more enchantments if she could. even if she had no clue how she might make something like a flying enchantment, and her ability to keep herself airborne with just her kinetic mana was dubious at best, it would have given her a mobility option if she needed it. however, by the time alice was done making her first three tools, she was flat broke again.


    on the bright side, even if alice was now basically penniless, she had gained quite a few levels and skills from her enchanting spree.


    you have leveled up!


    kinetic manabinder 14 -> 19, careful enchanter 3->13, scholar 38->39, student 1 -> 2


    sadly, explorer of magic didn¡¯t level up during the two weeks. alice was beginning to really appreciate how heavy the growth penalty was for a class above level 50. the class gained levels more slowly than it had in the past, and even two weeks of steady work wasn¡¯t enough to gain a level. even with a 375% bonus to growth rate, she had barely managed to get [explorer of magic] to level 54. it was no wonder people found it hard to reach immortality. thinking about it another way, it was actually incredible that she managed to push the class to such a high level despite having a massive ¡®late start¡¯ in this world. alice was a little disappointed she couldn¡¯t see her first perk fusion yet, but she knew she would be able to see it sooner or later. with another major experiment or enough slow but steady work, she would get there.


    for her three new perks, alice was delighted to start getting more options to improve the quality of her enchantments and improve her control over her kinetic mana.


    vastly improved kinetic vision


    requirements: kinetic manabinder level 15 or higher, {improved object control} perk, {projectile awareness} skill 20 or greater, perception 100 or greater


    you gain the ability to see in all directions at once, as well as drastically enhanced perception of any and all kinetic energy or objects in motion within your surroundings.


    note: vision of your surroundings created by this perk is different from your regular vision. you will only be able to see in black and white, and will not be able to see mana in your surroundings without using your real eyes.


    cecilia nodded, before leaning against the wall and stretching out her other hand towards alice and letting alice break down the faulty healing seed.


    cecilia sighed. ¡°darn. i was hoping it would go faster, since you were helping me along the way and you even had the mana filter set up in advance for me. i guess there are more problems in the seed-making process than just mana filtration... how much time did it take you to make a seed without system help?¡±


    ¡°three months. and the best result i got is that terrible electromagnetic seed. but since i¡¯m helping you out, it should hopefully take less time than that. we can also do three tries a month instead of two, since my perk cooldowns are getting shorter and shorter.¡±


    cecilia sighed again. ¡°i don¡¯t mind working for it, i guess. good achievements take time to earn. i¡¯m just starting to feel a little bad ¨C i know you probably have other experiments in mind and i¡¯m using up your perk activations instead.¡±


    ¡°i don¡¯t mind helping you,¡± said alice. ¡°this isn¡¯t useless to me. and you¡¯re my friend. i can forego a little bit of progress to help you out, especially considering all of the help you¡¯ve given me since i came to this world. just having someone i can talk to about earth when i¡¯m feeling nostalgic or lonely is a huge help, honestly.¡±


    cecilia smiled at that. ¡°i¡¯m glad. since we¡¯re both on our own, i like having someone to talk to as well.¡¯ she paused, as she looked at alice. ¡°say, what do you plan to focus on, once i get my achievement squared away?¡±


    ¡°i want to see what a system magic seed looks like. and i really should try forming a seed based on earth¡¯s knowledge again, when i finally work up the nerves to do it. if i can figure it out, i also want to link it all back up to self-sustaining enchantments, and maybe turn that into a source of revenue. but i don¡¯t actually have a seed slot free for use right now. my {experimental seed slot} is probably fine for testing earth stuff, but for system magic i need a useful slot ready. i really wish my last couple {careful enchanter} perks had offered me a new magic seed slot, but i haven¡¯t gotten an option for it yet. maybe at level 15 or 20?¡± alice shrugged.


    cecilia chuckled. ¡°if you can find time in your schedule, the church of the system almost definitely has a perk list for [careful enchanter].¡±


    ¡°finding time is the problem,¡± grumbled alice, absently. then, she shrugged again, before smiling to herself.


    even though today was a failure, they could keep trying. the two spent an hour or two just chatting as they made a few more enchanted objects. every so often, a customer would come in and look around, although they usually left without buying anything. the day drew to a close, and eventually alice returned to her inn room for the night.


    as she went to sleep, alice tossed and turned as she thought of tomorrow.


    the next day was the first day the self-defense class would do its ¡®extra¡¯ activity. she would be hunting monsters fairly close to the capital, along with many of her classmates.


    she had made three new enchantments just to keep herself safe. she had practiced how to use {adrenaline rush} with the help of her self-defense teacher during her classes, gotten a handle on how to deal with the sudden loss of extra [agility] and [magic] when the perk ended, and had boosted her skills and stats by small but useful amounts during the two weeks of duel training. she would even be going to the extra training sessions with the classmates she had come to know better, minus laila who wasn¡¯t interested.


    it was just a routine program the crown had initiated, in order to deal with increasing manpower shortages and safety concerns in wake of the southern recolonization effort. but even though alice intellectually knew that this was an important step towards keeping herself safe in the long run, she was nervous.


    * * *


    somewhere far to the north, two people finally reached their destination. an immortal and his servant, a man who seemed to be half-made of metal. after sneaking past the monsters surrounding their destination, they snuck through the outer layer of protection and finally reached the place the immortal had been looking for.


    however, their entrance was imperfect. both of them missed something. they might not have cared about it, even if they had noticed it. after all, in many ways, it wasn¡¯t their problem.


    the outer layer of defenses had the ability to flood an area with mana whenever the monster population got too low. using monsters as a defense mechanism had a very obvious drawback, which was the fact that the monsters might make a mess if they got inside of the place they were supposed to protect. the place the immortal had been investigating had a very well-made enchantment embedded in the metal walls, insulating the rich mana inside of the area from the senses of the monsters outside. since monsters were universally stupid and mana-hungry, most of them bumped into the incredibly well-made, regenerating physical wall before ignoring it completely. when the immortal and the half-metal man snuck past the monsters, they left a small crack in those defenses.


    and as the two laughed and began walking into the area they had sought for so long, a monster began creeping towards the crack. it was a relatively small monster, difficult to notice if one wasn¡¯t paying attention. it looked like a spider, but had thirteen eyes instead of eight. it was a creature specialized in stealth and manipulation of shadows.


    before the wall finished rebuilding itself, it found the little crack and wriggled its way in.

 Chapter 79

    chapter 79


    after alice got through her regular classes for monday, she went to the classroom professor tanmi had set aside as a meeting location. there, she met up with erkki, arsi, and luka, before she quietly sat next to them. while she was much more familiar with cecilia, the three were still friends she enjoyed chatting with, and she had come rather early. there was plenty of time left before the actual meeting and hunt began.


    ¡°how are things going for you recently, alice?¡± asked luka, giving her an encouraging grin after he saw her sit down. ¡°you¡¯re always so busy that it¡¯s hard to see you outside of class. the only relaxing activity you seem to make time for is playing the settlers with us from time to time. i worry a bit about you. it¡¯s not good to spend too much time working, okay?¡± alice noticed that luka had put on some levels since the last time she had seen him. perhaps he had gained a new achievement that helped him level faster? she was glad to see her friend doing well.


    alice thought for a moment, before shrugging and grinning. ¡°maybe. i really enjoy working on my personal projects though, and i¡¯m making decent headway as an [enchanter] and a [scientist]. i had a breakthrough in one of my personal research projects two weeks ago, and i¡¯m trying to help cecilia get a related achievement. i¡¯m also super excited to see what new directions i can take my research after all of my miscellaneous tasks are done, and between that and managing my financial situation, finding time to relax is hard. i just don¡¯t have enough hours in each day yet. once i get a few more levels and a few more time-saving perks, i should have more free time in my schedule.¡±


    luka frowned, before sighing. ¡°i mean, it¡¯s your life, so do what you see fit. but as one of your friends, i hope you don¡¯t exhaust yourself too much. make some time to relax a little more occasionally. life is about more than money and levels.¡±


    alice fell silent. she couldn¡¯t really retort to luka¡¯s statement, but her financial situation didn¡¯t really give her much wriggle room. and she enjoyed her research, so she wasn¡¯t willing to give up on it either. but after luka mentioned it, she really did feel bad about making so little time for her friends as well... alice began to sink into her thoughts, trying to figure out if there was anywhere else she could scrape away some time to make room for other things.


    ¡°is it your first time actually fighting a monster in the wilderness?¡± asked erkki, allowing alice to escape from the awkward situation.


    ¡°no, i used to do it a lot,¡± said alice. when she had first come to this world, she had nearly been eaten by a spidercrab. now that she knew just how low spidercrabs were on this world¡¯s food chain, she found this fact rather embarrassing. ¡°for a while, i needed to rely on spidercrab meat to survive because i ended up lost in the wilderness some time ago. i also went on an expedition to deal with a group of vinebears led by an alpha in the south. i don¡¯t know if the second one really counts as fighting a monster in the wilderness though. the group was led by an immortal. she pretty much removed every strength vinebears have before the fight even started, and took out nearly a quarter of the group on her own. the rest of the group was just there to mop up the survivors, really. but i have some experience fighting monsters, even if i can¡¯t really say it¡¯s a huge amount.¡±


    ¡°you actually saw an immortal?¡± asked erkki, seeming shocked. ¡°which one?¡±


    ¡°it was allira, immortal of song and shadow.¡±


    ¡°is she as beautiful as the stories say she is?¡± asked erkki, leaning closer and closer to alice as his eyes shown with curiosity. ¡°i¡¯ve heard that she¡¯s one of the prettiest women in the kingdom, and that her singing voice is enough to make one drunk on the sound alone...¡±


    arsi rolled his eyes, before knocking erkki on the head. erkki frowned, looking at arsi, who simply snorted. erkki finally seemed to realize that he had made a mistake, before blushing slightly. ¡°erm... sorry. there aren¡¯t as many stories about allira as other immortals, like the sun knight, but i¡¯ve always wanted to see her in person. and the other immortals of the kingdom, too. meeting one of them in real life would be amazing, you know? and allira¡¯s most well known trait besides her singing is her beauty, so...¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°honestly, she¡¯s very beautiful. however, there¡¯s a certain...¡± alice faltered, trying to find the right word. ¡°oddness to her beauty, perhaps? a certain sense that she¡¯s not... hmm... it¡¯s kind of like a dream. if you¡¯re asleep, you can see all sorts of absurd things in a dream, right? but when you wake up, your memory of your dreams seem hazy and fragmented, and you start to realize that the contents of your dreams don¡¯t really make sense after you wake up. her physical features are kind of like that ¨C they¡¯re so beautiful that they seem unnatural, and when you look at her you get a sense of how unrealistically perfect she looks.¡± alice shrugged. ¡°well, she actually seems pretty nice and down to earth when you talk to her. at least, that was my impression of her. i haven¡¯t spent much time with her, but she didn¡¯t have her nose in the air the way i was expecting.¡±


    ¡°that¡¯s fair,¡± said erkki, nodding to himself. then, seeming to realize that he had led the subject astray, he focused back on alice. ¡°if you have a lot of experience in the wilderness, do you have any helpful tips to share? it¡¯s my first time hunting in the wilderness. i have the {monster slayer} achievement at tier two, but i got the achievement entirely from caged spidercrabs. my mother and father never let me fight one for real, so i¡¯ve only ever attacked ones that couldn¡¯t fight back before now.¡±


    ¡°hmm... i mean, always keep your eyes on your surroundings, i guess?¡± alice frowned. ¡°to be honest, i relied a lot on my perks to keep myself safe at the time. i can sense monsters in my surroundings within a certain range, so i should hopefully be able to keep an eye out for any problems. but i¡¯m sure the [scouts] have even better options, so if they miss something i¡¯m probably not going to spot it. just don¡¯t get too careless.¡±


    luka put an arm around erkki¡¯s shoulders. ¡°don¡¯t worry. i¡¯ve got a lot of experience fighting monsters in the wilderness. i¡¯ve got some extra items on me and some pretty high-level perks to deal with unexpected problems, and as long as you don¡¯t get too far away from me i can probably cope with most situations we would find in this area. and since this is the first hunt and plenty of the people here are new [students], i doubt they¡¯ll pick a group of monsters that¡¯s overly strong or hard to deal with. it¡¯ll probably be something big and slow, or something that isn¡¯t too hard to deal with in groups. that way the [knights] accompanying us can keep us safe if worst comes to worst. the academy should be prioritizing our safety over everything else in this exercise, because the political backlash of getting some [students] killed in these exercises would be frustrating to deal with. i am willing to bet the academy will do everything they can to make this exercise safe before making it effective.¡±


    ¡°makes sense,¡± said erkki, quietly. the enthusiasm he had displayed when talking about allira seemed to fade away, replaced with a certain somber focus and nervousness. ¡°accidents can still happen, though. thanks for bringing along a bunch of extra items and offering to help out. i hope nothing goes wrong, but having more layers of backup is never a bad idea.¡±


    ¡°yeah, we appreciate your presence,¡± said arsi, grinning. ¡°i¡¯m probably the most nervous of all. truthfully, it¡¯ll be my first time even seeing a monster. when i was still a poor kid from the slums, i know some kids were desperate and tried to hunt monsters outside the city, as a way of making up for the lack of food and money. some of them even managed to hunt a monster or two and make some money with the help of some luck and some... well, mostly luck. it was always a throw of the dice for them, since nobody from the slums had the money to buy a map labelling mana pockets and monster territories. i¡¯ve never come face to face with a monster before.¡± he gulped. ¡°i¡¯ll try my best not to hold the group back.¡±


    luka chuckled and patted him on the back. ¡°don¡¯t worry too much. everyone struggles until they get a few achievements and levels backing their actions. even if you hold us back this time, just treat it as a learning experience, okay? keep yourself safe, contribute when you¡¯re able to, and get what you can out of this exercise. we aren¡¯t people who will complain if you mess up a few times. just make sure not to hit us with any stray attacks and we¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    the four of them fell into a comfortable chat, with luka and erkki debating what kind of monster they would hunt while arsi and alice occasionally chimed into the conversation. as the group of four chatted, other [students] started to trickle in. eventually, a group of adults also entered the room.


    alice took a moment to analyze the adults who had joined the group. there was a group of seven [knights], all of whom were probably above level 75. they all wore well-made metal armor, and each one had a few pieces of enchanted equipment on them. while none of the [knights] had their entire suit of armor enchanted, they had a minimum of two enchantments, and the highest level [knight] had six different enchanted items on him. most of them were physically in their late forties, though there was one [knight] that looked to be in her late thirties instead. her level was also a bit lower than the others, probably just barely beyond level 75. they walked with a fast, steady pace that belied their extraordinary control over their bodies and high levels of strength.


    the four of them began to activate their perks. rees used [unseen], [traceless], and [quiet] in quick succession, making it hard for unwary villagers to see, hear, or track rees¡¯s movements without hindering the ability for his teammates to see him. they wouldn¡¯t be able to talk, but they could communicate with hand signals. his companions activated their own stealth-related perks, before the four of them got to work.


    they slipped into the village, strolling past people who were carrying around equipment and crops to and from various areas. while strolling brazenly through the village in open daylight might have been risky in other circumstances, in this village nobody had the right perks or high enough levels to spot the four intruders. the intruders ignored the villagers as if they were decorations, and the [farmers] of the village didn¡¯t even notice that the four intruders were present.


    rees followed his companion, who was quietly scanning the crowd with his gaze, before he pointed to a few targets.


    near the outskirts of the other side of the village, near where the village ended and the farmland began, four very young children were playing together. one of the four was chasing after the other three, while the other children screamed and laughed as they dodged and wove around buildings and trees to avoid the child who was ¡®it.¡¯ the children all seemed to be between the ages of four and five.


    most importantly, there were no adults in the immediate area. perhaps it was a moment of carelessness on the part of the [farmers] of the village. perhaps the adults in this area were simply negligent in general. perhaps the children had snuck away from their parents to play in peace. either way, it didn¡¯t matter anymore.


    rees looked at his three companions, and then the three of them each chose one child and stepped up to them.


    [coma] was activated by four different people, and four children fell unconscious. debuff perks had a variety of restrictions ¨C they all universally required physical contact, and people with high enough stats and levels could just shrug them off. the young children had no way resisting these perks though, and so they instantly fell into a deep slumber.


    rees grinned at his companions, who also smiled back at him. this had been surprisingly easy. now they just needed to hide the evidence and they would be free to go.


    ¡°i have some bone chunks left over from my last experiment. i can use [speed-manipulation] and my organic seed to warp the chunks into bones shaped like a human child¡¯s. i¡¯ll add in some blood splatters from some livestock,¡± said rees, whispering to the other four. ¡°i was checking around, and for some reason the military missed a couple packs of wolves in the area recently. we can just ¡®stumble¡¯ across a small monster lair and leave some ¡®human corpses¡¯ behind.¡±


    the only woman of the group, who appeared to be in her early thirties, nodded. ¡°i have access to [false trail] and [kidnapper¡¯s bag] from my time as a [flesh trader]. give the other three to me,¡± she said, as she opened a large bag and stuffed the four-year old child inside of it. the other three stuffed their own children into the bag, and the four of them reactivated their stealth perks which had fallen away while attacking the children.


    their actions wouldn¡¯t fool a high level [investigator] or [guard]. but there probably won¡¯t be anyone above 65 or 70 in the area, so it shouldn¡¯t matter. a group of kids getting too adventurous and then getting eaten by monsters happened from time to time, so nobody should pick up on anything suspicious from this incident. even if people started to notice that children disappeared more often in northern illvaria these days, it would probably just be attributed to the lack of available military manpower while the recolonization effort was in progress. monsters becoming more active when the military was tied up was nothing new, after all. in a way, the idea that this happened due to weakened military presence wasn¡¯t even wrong.


    rees grinned to himself as he and his companions began walking towards the woods outside of metsel. after years under the society of starry eyes, he didn¡¯t think much of kidnapping a few kids as test subjects anymore. once they dealt with the cleanup, they could smuggle the kids back to a more suitable testing site. as the three left earshot of the peaceful farming village, he started to hum a cheery little tune while his female companion hefted the [kidnappers bag] and made some adjustments to the perk, disguising it as an ordinary [peddler¡¯s sack.] then, after moving far enough away from the village, they dropped their stealth perks and slowed down, doing their best to appear like a normal group of [peddlers]. the best way to avoid suspicion from [guards] and [investigators] was to look like they belonged there, and rees and his companions were well versed in this art. they didn¡¯t leave any tracks behind them, but that was nothing unusual. [peddlers] had all sorts of weird perks to avoid getting hit by [bandit] parties, and while a perk to mess with tracks was a little weird even for a [peddler] it wouldn¡¯t seem too unusual. since rees had a very, very low level secondary class in [peddler], he should be able to trick most lie-detection perks with some careful wording. even if that would never work when trying to get into a city, it should let them get through any random encounters in the woods unless they were unlucky.


    the four kept a wary eye on their surroundings as they walked, while the woman left a [false trail] parallel to the group. the [false trail] looked like the remains of four kids running through a wheat field. as the four began to make their way to the nearest monster layer, rees gave his companions a more genuine smile. they hadn¡¯t seen a single [guard] so far. it seemed like luck was on their side today.


    * * *


    far to the north, a spider monster wandered through a world filled with mana. it had already evolved into an alpha.


    instinctively, the spider alpha tried to call other spiders to itself, the ability innate to all alpha monsters.


    the spider skittered past a trap, one which had already been dismantled. the spider did not know that the dismantled bits of enchanted wood and steel had been a trap once. all it knew was that there was mana everywhere, and it had been able to feast without fear ever since it had come to this place. not quite as much as when it killed a moving thing and ate, but it was still very easy to find more food here.


    since it had plenty of food and didn¡¯t have any other monsters of its kind to lead, after some hesitation, it began to lay eggs. these eggs had already been fertilized some time back, and it simply hadn¡¯t deposited them somewhere to hatch yet. although the temperature of this area wasn¡¯t quite perfect, it was good enough. the eggs were very nearly mature, and it needed to place them somewhere to hatch soon. the mana density here made it quite suitable as a hatching ground...


    the spider quickly finished laying its eggs. then, it continued down the corridor, heading towards the source of all of the mana. since the food was richer there, the spider naturally yearned to move ever closer to the source of the mana.


    instead of one group of troublemakers, there were now two.

 Chapter 80

    chapter 80


    once the group of [students] arrived at a relatively flat area, the [scouts] departed from the group to double-check the locations of various monster packs, scout for any abnormalities, and do a final patrol of the area. while the [scouts] were gone, the [teachers] had the [students] draw lots to determine which groups would do their hunts first, second, third, or fourth. alice¡¯s group ended up drawing lots for the fourth round of hunting, meaning they would have to wait until all the other [students] finished their hunts.


    after the group finished drawing lots, the [teachers] set up a resting area where the [students] could relax after their hunts. professor tanmi and one of the other [organic mage] [teachers] worked to build a very crude two meter high wooden wall around the camp from a mixture of organically manipulated plant life and logs professor tanmi cut down with kinetic magic. walls of this height wouldn¡¯t be enough to stop a relatively high level attacker, but they would get in the way of most local monsters and buy time if something unexpected cropped up. alice was once again impressed by the level of professionalism the group of adults showed ¨C even though this should be a fairly safe, low level excursion, they made sure each group of [students] not only had an adult with them at all times while hunting, they even went to the effort of fortifying the resting area just in case. and alice was also left stunned by how quickly a small group of high-level mages managed to whip together a fortification. even if it was unquestionably crude at some points, and had some occasional gaps or uneven parts to it, it only took the [teachers] about half an hour to put the whole thing together. afterwards, one of the [teachers] even pulled out a bunch of food and drinks from a storage perk and began setting up small tables of snacks, before letting everyone know that they could help themselves. some students even took over some of the stumps from professor tanmi¡¯s logging operation, and a small rest area with food and drinks was quickly prepared.


    the [scouts] returned after about an hour. seeing the newly-made wooden wall, none of them seemed particularly surprised, and simply walked up to one of the walls and waited for one of the [organic mages] to unravel the wall. alice wondered if this was a typical part of life in the army ¨C mages building crude fortifications in a short period of time, before deconstructing and abandoning them the next day. many of the teachers at the academy were former soldiers, and she couldn¡¯t help but feel that all of the adults seemed rather numb to the whole process.


    ¡°there aren¡¯t any new abnormalities in the area,¡± said one of the [scouts]. ¡°have you finished figuring out hunting order?¡±


    ¡°we have. when you¡¯re ready, you can take the first groups with you,¡± said professor tanmi.


    ¡°sounds good. we¡¯ll take a five minute break to get some water and sit down for a bit, then we¡¯ll head out. tell the first group of [students] to get ready,¡± said the [scout]. the scouts headed off to the side and began grabbing some light snacks and drinks, while the first round of [students] started getting whatever enchanted items they had ready, prepping any applicable weapons, and generally setting up for the hunt. a few minutes later, the first groups of [students] departed, each one led by a [scout] and a [knight].


    while alice¡¯s group waited for their turn, alice decided to kill some time by using her organic mana to widen and flatten out a tree branch before she fashioned it into a simple game board. she didn¡¯t want to spend any kinetic mana, since that was her primary combat resource, but alice had discovered through repeated trial and error in professor tanmi¡¯s class that her organic mana just wasn¡¯t useful in combat right now. if she had some perks to boost it up, that would be one thing, but without any perks it was easy to make mistakes and hurt herself if she tried to boost her stats with organic mana, and healing mid-combat just wasn¡¯t feasible for her without much better control. so for now, alice didn¡¯t mind wasting it.


    after making some slightly lopsided squares on her newly made game board, and then making some very ... artistically inventive depictions of chess pieces out of twigs and leaves, alice began teaching her friends how to play chess.


    and so the group of four spent a few hours playing chess while the first few groups departed and returned. after about half an hour of playing, a few other [students] came over to see what was going on, and by the time the first group of [students] had finished hunting a few other groups of chess players had sprung into existence around alice¡¯s group. since alice finally a bit of free time while waiting, she felt that she might as well bring another board game over from home, even if her bishops and pawns were so poorly made that they were hard to tell apart.


    as she played a few friendly rounds of chess with her friends, alice realized that she had gotten used to the high-speed dice manipulation and magical chaos of the settlers (luliv edition). now, she found the comparatively tame games of chess to be surprisingly dull. it wasn¡¯t very effective at training people ¨C after all, it didn¡¯t give users any opportunities to practice their physical or magical attributes at all. its usefulness for training [willpower] and [perception] was also quite limited, meaning the one and only attribute chess was able to train seemed to be [intelligence]. alice could use magic to lift up and set down her chess pieces, but she wasn¡¯t willing to spend much of her kinetic mana before a fight. the rest of alice¡¯s friends also didn¡¯t seem to find the game anywhere near as engaging as the settlers, and the game ended up being treated more as a way to pass time while chatting instead of something to really get into the way the settlers was.


    alice started to wonder if this world¡¯s obsession with being productive and training stats and levels had influenced her more deeply than she had realized. even she was starting to find chess, a game she used to love, surprisingly dull due to its lack of training value...


    finally, as the sun was beginning to set and paint the world a reddish-orange color, the third group of [students] returned from their hunts. after the [scouts] took their customary five minute water and relaxation break, it was finally their turn.


    ¡°all right, final group of the day before we can go home. are you guys ready?¡± asked arin, the [knight] who was in charge of protecting alice¡¯s group. he seemed a bit tired, which was only natural. there were fourteen groups of [students] and seven [knights] total, so arin had guarded another group of [students] during the first and third round of hunts, and had been standing guard around the small camp during the second hunt. even though the man seemed a bit tired, he still had a sharp, alert look in his eyes as he scanned the surroundings.


    ¡°we¡¯re ready,¡± said luka as he gave the other group members a few quick glances.


    ¡°let¡¯s go then,¡± said arin, giving them an authoritative nod.


    the group walked up to one of the [scouts] as he took several smaller sips from a water container, and arin also grabbed a few sips of water before waiting at the side. the [scout] finished stretching and resting up before he took a look at them and nodded. he pulled out a chunk of bark from his pocket. rainbow mana surged through his fingers and into the bark, and the bark quickly transformed into a rough map of the surrounding woods. the [scout] pointed at a few specific areas, which turned red.


    ¡°there are five areas where i can take you for your hunt,¡± said the [scout]. ¡°these are the locations we found earlier today where packs were located and where no [students] have gone yet. that being said, wolves do move around sometimes, so don¡¯t be surprised if we end up needing to wander around a bit before we find the pack. i can track them down, of course, but be patient. do you guys have any preferences for fighting locations or anything of the sort?¡± alice thought about it for a moment, before shaking her head and turning to look at her friends. to her, one location was basically the same as another location. luka and erkki shook their heads, and finally, arsi shrugged.


    ¡°somewhere with lots of open area, i guess?¡± said arsi. ¡°makes it easier to shoot objects at the monsters during a fight, and i don¡¯t think any of us benefit too much from specific terrains or need to level any terrain-specific classes.¡±


    the scout frowned, before turning back to the map. ¡°which of these two do you want? they¡¯re both in relatively clearer parts of the woods, but this one is close to a river,¡± said the [scout], pointing at two of the red marks. ¡°of course, if the wolf pack moves you might not end up getting your preferred area anyway. but we can at least try.¡±


    ¡°do you three have any preferences for fighting near a river or no river?¡± asked luka, scanning over the map. since nobody responded, he shrugged. ¡°this one is fine,¡± he said, pointing towards the red mark that wasn¡¯t close to a river.


    the [scout] gave them a cheery grin before he nodded.


    ¡°all right, let¡¯s go.¡± the group walked up to one of the sides of the camp, where one of the [organic mages] undid part of the wall.


    the [scout] and the [knight] led the four [students] into the wilderness. as they walked, alice noticed that the [scout] had activated some sort of perk that worked on the rest of the group. alice took a few moments before she figured out what was happening. the group seemed to subconsciously avoid tripping over underbrush and tree roots, and walking became easier and faster. in short, it seemed like it made the group walk through the forest as if they were more familiar with the area than they actually were.


    the group trudged through the forest in relative silence. the cheery laughter and relaxed atmosphere of the camp faded away, and alice quietly checked her status screen for two perks she hadn¡¯t used in a very long time ¨C {sixth sense} and {sense hostility}. one of them gave her information on the location of nearby monsters, and the other gave her the ability to sense when someone stared at her with bad intentions. neither perk had seen much use in several months, since she had spent most of her time in relatively peaceful areas, but now alice felt reassured by their presence, even if they were relatively lower-level perks. alice was bemused to realize that these days, [survivor] was used to keep help her stay safe while using herself as a test subject instead of being used as a class focused on wilderness survival, before she shook her head and focused on her surroundings again.


    after about twenty minutes of walking, the group came upon the den of the wolves.


    however, even as the group crept up on the location of the wolf pack, alice couldn¡¯t sense any monster presences with {sixth sense}. she frowned. were they farther away than expected? she gave the [scout] a confused look, but he had an annoyed expression.


    ¡°looks like they¡¯ve moved. let¡¯s head to the den so i can {track} them,¡± said the [scout] irritably as he led the group forward.


    when the group finally came to den, alice¡¯s eyes widened. there were no monsters there, but there was certainly something else.


    there, in the middle of the wolf den was a small pile of badly mutilated human bones, covered in blood.


    alice felt shaken as she looked at the bones. the size of the bones was very small... the owners couldn¡¯t have been older than six, at most, and had probably been younger. why were there a pile of children¡¯s bones here?


    the rest of alice¡¯s group had also stiffened, simply staring at the pile of mutilated bones in horror.


    {sense hostiliy} started going crazy, and alice knew that the four people in front of them were about to attack.


    the [peddler] raised his hands even higher and began to kneel down, as if he was going to comply. and at the same time, the purple mana seed in the woman¡¯s body activated, spewing mana into her surroundings...


    ¡°dimensional mana!¡± yelled luka, immediately activating his kinetic seed. seven tendrils of mana pulled out branches from the group¡¯s surroundings, flinging them at the female society member who was using dimensional mana.


    the mana in the area quickly twisted, breaking as a whirlpool of infectious broken mana started forming in the area.


    arin¡¯s body exploded into motion. alice¡¯s eyes somehow completely lost track of his presence for a moment, before he suddenly appeared in front of the woman and swung his sword.


    rainbow mana cascaded through her body, and she dodgedthe blindingly fast attack.


    the society woman charged her body with massive amounts of organic mana, and a second pair of arms ripped themselves out of the sides of her dress. the first pair of arms grabbed arin¡¯s sword arm and tugged, breaking his balance, while a dagger overflowing with rainbow mana sliced towards arin¡¯s side. at the same time, her final arm threw a dagger directly towards arsi ... before it vanished in a whirl of purple dimensional mana, teleporting directly in front of arin¡¯s face.


    arin activated rainbow mana, and his armor suddenly seemed to become sturdier and bigger. the two daggers clattered off of his armor, and he wrenched himself away from the woman¡¯s first pair of arms. he took a step back.


    this gave alice a clear line of sight, so she activated her bracelet. twenty-seven organic and kinetically enchanted beads ripped themselves off of her bracelet and flung themselves at the woman. six of them connected with her arms, and organic mana poured out of the beads and ripped away at the woman¡¯s flesh.


    her two right arms were ripped off by the impact of the beads, and she screeched like a banshee. she turned towards alice, eyes glowing with hatred while her three companions finished boosting themselves with rainbow mana and organic mana. the three of them dove towards arin, temporarily tying him up.


    another portal made of dimensional mana appeared in front of the woman and in front of alice, and then the woman threw two daggers through the portal and towards alice¡¯s face.


    {adrenaline} activated. alice activated her kinetic-energy stopping necklace. the two daggers froze in midair, before alice used her tendrils to pick up two ordinary stones and the two daggers and lobbed them at the three society members fighting arin. since he was the strongest fighter here, if alice freed him up they would win. one pebble tore a man¡¯s thumb off, but he snarled and kept attacking arin. the other three projectiles were blasted away by a burst of kinetic energy.


    arsi and erkki finally reacted, sending a shower of missiles towards the woman and forcing her to dodge. the [scout] turned to one of the three male society members before shooting one in the neck. one of the four enemies finally dropped.


    arin turned away from the two remaining people attacking him, giving one of them the chance to fire a pebble towards his left arm. iron armor crumpled under the impact, and he gasped, before his figure flickered again. suddenly, he appeared in front of the woman, swinging his sword at a nearly imperceptible speed.


    the woman turned towards him, her eyes widening in terror, before a final burst of purple dimensional mana flooded the area. before she could finish whatever she was trying to do, her head sailed away from her body.


    the woman¡¯s two companions, finally realizing that things weren¡¯t going their way, put all of their organic mana into their legs, turned around, and began running. the [scout] dropped his bow, gasping, and alice turned towards him before realizing he was covered in broken mana.


    erkki, finally reacting to the situation, turned to one of the two fleeing society members before he held up an enchanted necklace, pointed it towards the two fleeing society members, and activated it. kinetic mana flickered in far greater quantities than alice had ever seen a living mage command. something flew through the air faster than alice¡¯s eyes could track, propelling something grey towards the fleeing man...


    and one of his legs fell off. he shrieked, before growing a new leg on the spot and kept running. alice propelled another group of four pebbles into his head and he went down, dead.


    arin grimaced, rubbing his broken left arm before he changed his grip on his sword and turned towards the final society member.


    arin¡¯s figure flickered one final time, before he appeared behind the man and stabbed him in the stomach. the man turned to arin, howling as the sword lacerated his innards, and tried to reach out a hand towards arin¡¯s neck in a last ditch attempt to kill arin and save himself.


    arin¡¯s sword flicked out once more, and the man¡¯s arm flew off. then, arin delivered a heavy punch to the man¡¯s face and the man collapsed, unconscious as alice¡¯s {adrenaline} perk wore off. alice began gasping for breath, fear and adrenaline warring inside of her body. then, realizing it might be a problem if no one dealt with it, she fired a few mana tendrils at the area of broken dimensional mana, intending to purify it away...


    and realized that the [scout] was still inside of the cloud of broken dimensional mana. instead of calm, he was starting to become increasingly frantic, his fists scrabbling at the ground in desperation.


    alice realized what was happening a moment later. broken mana baptism.


    alice breathed heavily, adrenaline and fear still coursing through her body as she panted in exhaustion, not even having the time or mental energy to process the system dinging at her.


    she turned to arin, panicking as he brought the only living prisoner towards the rest of the group. ¡°is there anything we can do for him?¡± she asked, feeling desperate even though she was pretty sure she knew the answer already.


    arin turned to the [scout], before he sighed, uncomfortably. ¡°no. there is no way to treat a mana baptism. once it starts, you succeed or you die. and nobody can improve the odds or help at all. many, many, many people have tried to research a way. but nobody has ever succeeded. all we can do is keep watch over him and make sure monsters don¡¯t eat him while he¡¯s trying his baptism.¡± arin grimaced, before he raised his sword towards the prisoner again. ¡°do any of you have the ability to heal something?¡±


    alice frowned. ¡°i have a healing seed with some mana, but not much. i have a ring with a healing enchantment too. what are you planning?¡±


    arin raised his sword towards the prisoner, and then cut outthe mage core located behind his heart with his one good arm and his sword. ¡°heal him. but don¡¯t restore the mage core. and heal up the cut in his stomach, too. if we can get him back to camp we can interrogate him later. can any of you lift the [scout] out of the cloud of broken mana? also, please highlight where the broken mana is so i don¡¯t accidentally stumble into it myself.¡±


    luka nodded, using a few mana tendrils to lift the man out of the cloud of dimensional mana and then levitating him just behind the rest of the group, while alice healed the stomach and ruined spine of the prisoner. the group quickly grabbed the various objects the society members had dropped, including the bag with weird mana inside of it, before shoving everything they could into various storage perks and holding whatever they couldn¡¯t. there was no time to look over their spoils of battle right now, or even for alice to look at her system notifications.


    ¡°let¡¯s head back to camp. we need to tell the other [knights] what happened here, and report back to the capital. keep an eye out for monsters, if you can. we don¡¯t have a [scout] to tell us where they are yet.


    alice¡¯s group nodded, and as luka levitated the twitching [scout] behind the group they began to make their way back through the woods.

 Chapter 81

    chapter 81


    alice¡¯s group of [students], along with the injured [knight] and the convulsing [scout], made their way back towards the hunting camp in silence. alice decided to reveal that she could discover the location of monsters with the help of [sixth sense], since the group no longer had a [scout] and monster detection wasn¡¯t exactly rare in this world. since nobody else had a good method of tracking monsters, alice ended up taking the lead. she also took over the duty of levitating the [scout], since alice wanted to observe the process of a broken mana baptism. nobody else in this world had ever been able to make the process of undergoing a mana baptism any less dangerous during hundreds of years of research and failed attempts, but as far as alice knew nobody else could see system mana either. she could probably learn a lot from observing the process, even if she failed to improve the whole process.


    luka was more than happy to give her the duty of dealing with the injured [scout], and so alice was able to observe the [scout] with one of her four mental focuses while the other three scanned her surroundings with her regular human eyes, {sixth sense}, and {vastly improved kinetic vision}.


    every single second, atmospheric mana seeped into the [scout¡¯s] body through his skin. upon entry, the system would automatically convert the atmospheric mana into the purplish broken mana alice had seen the [dimensional mage] use during the fight. after being converted, some of the purplish mana looked especially odd, and was far less... pure than normal dimensional mana. whenever this mixed mana cropped up, the system would quickly put it through a second round of purification with slightly different mana glyphs, giving alice a few new insights about what the system thought was important to do during a mana baptism. since the system focused so much on keeping all of the mana similar to the kind that had started the baptism, perhaps it was safer to finish the process using the same kind of mana? alice wasn¡¯t sure if her assumption was correct, but it was all she had to go on right now.


    once the mana entered the [scout¡¯s] body, it immediately began heading towards his heart and brain, ignoring the rest of his body.


    however, the way the mana entered and interacted with his body seemed to cause a fair amount of damage to other areas, even if the mana used them only as roads to reach the important organs. as the mana came into contact with the man¡¯s skin, the skin seemed to deteriorate, developing strange lesions and injuries at times, and at other times bubbling up like accelerated tumors. alice was baffled when she saw this. she had never seen mana actively harm tissues and organs before. in fact, mana seemed to be fairly beneficial when it was below the threshold for a mana baptism. why was the mana involved in a baptism so different? alice had no idea, but she took note of her observation to make sense of when she had more information. she also wondered if this sensation continued inside of the man¡¯s body. right now, alice had no ability to see what was happening to the man¡¯s organs. she could observe the mana there, but she couldn¡¯t see the actual fleshy bits and observe them in any way, which made alice feel more than a little bit frustrated.


    however, the reactions of the mana inside of the man¡¯s body painted a disastrous picture. the mana passing through various areas in the man¡¯s body would occasionally explode, releasing little fountains of broken dimensional mana as they spun wildly out of control. the man¡¯s complexion was steadily getting worse, and at times his breathing began to sound labored as the group continued to walk. the strange lesions on the man¡¯s body also began to bleed occasionally as well. the sight was gruesome enough that alice very nearly lost her focus, but she did her best to push her thoughts and feelings aside for now. she wasn¡¯t willing to force someone to undergo a mana baptism against their will, so this might be the only chance she had to observe one up close. even if she sympathized with the man¡¯s plight and hoped he would pull through safely, she needed to learn what she could here.


    she redirected her focus to observe the system mana in her surroundings. system mana was naturally present during the entire process. it seemed to be doing two things. first, it was trying to help filter and guide baptism mana away from areas it didn¡¯t need to touch, which helped reduce and control the damage the mana did to the [scout¡¯s] body and (presumably) organs. second, the system mana was working overtime to try to mess with the mana near the [scout¡¯s] heart and brain.


    the mana in those areas was quite a bit more... violent than in other areas. in most parts of his body, mana seemed to damage it mostly by accident as it was passing through. however, near his heart, mana was actively and violently shuffling around, erupting towards the nearby organs as they built... something. and near his brain, it seemed like a few extra bits of mana were trying to fashion themselves into a new part of his brain that didn¡¯t currently exist. alice was guessed that the new part of his brain was what allowed mages to actually control their mana ¨C without it, they might have a mage core but no actual magic abilities, making the entire process a very dangerous and lethal accident with no upsides. she didn¡¯t have a way to verify this guess right now, so she added it to her mental list of things to search for more information for when she had the opportunity, but it seemed like a reasonable assumption. as for the mana near his heart, it was probably trying to form a mage core.


    this was also the place where system mana was mostactive in the man¡¯s body. right behind the man¡¯s heart, the system was throwing an obscene amount of organic mana at the man¡¯s body, trying to do... something? heal? keep flesh intact? alice frowned, trying to make out what was actually happening and what the system was trying to do, before she realized something.


    slightly behind the human heart, there was a rather important part of the human body. this was the spine, which the human brain used to relay commands to the rest of the body. mage cores were always, without exception, located behind the heart. even though they didn¡¯t touch the human spine, they definitely got kind of close to it. and unlike class fractals and such, the mage core was an entirely physical organ. if a new organ grew right behind a human heart, it wouldn¡¯t be surprising at all if it damaged the spine or messed up arteries or something in the process. even a light consequence might be the newly formed mage core pinching a few vital nerves, causing a newly baptized mage to lose the ability to move anything below their ribs or something. alice wasn¡¯t a doctor, and she wasn¡¯t entirely sure what would happen if a fist-sized organ was suddenly added behind the human heart, but she didn¡¯t need much medical knowledge to realize it would be bad.


    this gave alice a much better guess what the system was doing. even though she couldn¡¯t make out the small, specific details, most of the chunks of organic mana alice could figure out the purpose of were either rerouting the nerves in the man¡¯s spine so that they didn¡¯t get pinched or destroyed by the new organ, and at the same time, shifting the placement of the human heart ever so slightly so that the newly growing mage core and the heart didn¡¯t get in each other¡¯s way.


    there seemed to be some other, smaller details that alice couldn¡¯t quite make out, but she was pretty sure she at least had the gist of the system¡¯s purpose correct.


    the other area with the heaviest concentration of system mana was the man¡¯s brain. alice was pretty sure a small part of what the system was doing there was making the new part of the brain, linking it up to other parts of the brain, and keeping everything else in the man¡¯s skull working during the whole process. however, there were also about twenty different things going on with system mana, pure mana, and organic mana that, frankly, alice had no understanding of at all. the lack of quantity present near the [scout¡¯s] brain was more than rivalled by the sheer complexity of whatever was happening there.


    for now, alice just memorized everything she could see while throwing every fractal she could get a full picture of into {mana construct modelling}. even if she had no clue what she was looking at right now, she could look more closely at the other system fractals she didn¡¯t understand and try to interpret them later. it wasn¡¯t much, but it was a plan at least.


    and then something strange happened. the system fractals, which had previously been clearly working to guide and control the mana in the man¡¯s body, seemed to mess up for a moment. mana surged and spiraled out of control for about two seconds, and for a brief moment, the mana in the [scout¡¯s] body no longer had a guide carefully controlling the mana entering his body. the man arced his back and screamed in unbearable agony. the relatively minor lesions and bumps on his skin grew much worse, as if his condition had suddenly worsened over the course of a few seconds, before the system fractals reasserted control over the situation. alice stared at the system fractals in shock, trying to figure out what had happened. was this normal? did something happen?


    was the system mana messing up the reason why the fatality rate was so high when it came to mana baptisms? was this some sort of quirk related to dimensional mana? was this just a result of the man¡¯s unique biology? was it something else entirely? alice had no clue what was normal or a problem in this situation.


    she was sure that the [scout¡¯s] situation was becoming more and more dangerous. the system mana stabilized and got back to work. anxious, alice stretched out a mana tendril and tried feeding the man a bit of healing mana. after all, healing mana didn¡¯t have any major side effects even if one had no clue what they were doing. it was absurdly wasteful and often struggled to handle major injuries with the level of precision they deserved, but it was never bad even if it was strictly inferior to organic mana in most situations. which was perfect since alice had no clue what she was looking at right now.


    and then after alice tried to feed the man a little bit of help, alice¡¯s mana vanished into the whirlpool of broken dimensional mana like a drop of water thrown into the ocean. alice saw no results of her action, and the man certainly didn¡¯t heal. if alice hadn¡¯t been closely observing the whole process, she might have doubted whether she had even tried to heal the man in the first place.


    suddenly, alice had a better understanding of why mages struggled to make this process easier or safer. since the system converted all kinds of mana into the ¡®correct¡¯ mana for a mana baptism, and the man seemingly needed to stick with one kind of mana from start to finish during his baptism, trying to use any kind of healing-based mana during the healing process might be useless. since most of this world¡¯s complex healing procedures involved magic, that meant that every single kind of treatment this world specialized in would vanish directly into the vortex of mana and accomplish absolutely nothing.


    alice frowned, but didn¡¯t try to heal the man anymore. in fact, she was beginning to feel a massive headache as she tried to think about how to improve this process. anything she did with mana would have no effect, and without that alice felt surprisingly helpless. if she couldn¡¯t use her magic, how could she help?


    the system mana was still clearly doing something. maybe she needed to use perks or something? as alice wrestled with the question of what let system mana work here while healing mana didn¡¯t, the group finally returned to camp.


    ¡°open up! we have one injured and a prisoner!¡± yelled arin, at the top of his lungs, the moment the group came within sight of the camp. ¡°we ran into some members of the society of starry eyes! get me some organic mages! also, the injured has come in contact with what might have been dimensional mana. keep him quarantined.¡±


    alice heard professor felissa yell something she couldn¡¯t make out, and the wall of the encampment was almost immediately torn apart. four organic mages rushed out, before separating the group of six and quickly taking a look at the [students] first. meanwhile, two of the other [knights] took the seriously injured society member and dragged him away.


    ¡°you appear to be largely fine, student-lady alice,¡± said professor felissa, after giving her a quick checkup with a few perks and injecting a bit of organic mana into her. ¡°just some scratches and minor bruises. even if i don¡¯t do a thing, you probably won¡¯t even notice the injuries, but i gave you a heal anyway.¡± then, professor felissa ignored her and focused on the remaining people from alice¡¯s hunting group.


    [knight] arin¡¯s arm was quickly healed up by another professor. however, the [organic mages] simply took a look at the [scout] before one of them used kinetic magic to gently set him off to the side. they gave him a bed someone pulled out of storage, but otherwise didn¡¯t touch him or interact with him. an enchanted item was even set up to keep other people from getting close to the [scout], since nobody had confirmed whether he was contagious or not.


    ¡°how is he doing?¡± asked alice, once one of the [organic mages] finished checking up on the [scout].


    ¡°poorly. generally speaking, a successful mana baptism tends to be a faster baptism. the longer it takes, the worse his odds are,¡± said the [organic mage]. ¡°combined with how quickly his organs are deteriorating, and how much damage his body is suffering... i do not think he is going to succeed. he might pull out of it, because it¡¯s never too late to succeed a baptism until you¡¯re dead. however, at this point, i don¡¯t like his odds.¡± alice frowned, but nodded. she also wondered what a ¡®normal¡¯ speed for a mana baptism looked like. she seemed to recall that her own mana baptism had taken a much longer period of time than the [scout¡¯s], and yet she had succeeded...


    she shook aside her thoughts, refocusing on the [scout¡¯s] desperate struggle for survival as she ignored her system notifications. another hour passed as she watched in silence. the system mana in the [scout¡¯s] body never seemed to make another ¡®error¡¯ and lose control of the mana the way she had observed earlier, but the man¡¯s situation continued to deteriorate.


    the [organic mage] didn¡¯t heal the man, but he was more than happy to narrate the situation to alice in detail. his organs became more and more damaged by as time passed, his mage core continuously failed to form properly, and the system¡¯s frantic attempts to feed mana into his brain never stopped, but never seemed to finish whatever it was trying to do either.


    finally, his body reached its limit. the man¡¯s thrashing and screaming began growing weaker, and finally, his breathing stopped. the rainbow mana in his body seemed to give up, dispersing back into alice¡¯s surroundings, and atmospheric mana stopped flowing into the man¡¯s body. alice realized, with a small pang of sadness, that the man was dead. she didn¡¯t feel any great amount of grief at his passing ¨C after all, she had never met him before today, and she could count on her hands the number of sentences they had spoken to each other. she didn¡¯t even know the man¡¯s name.


    but alice still allowed herself a few minutes of silence for the death of the [scout] that had fought with her and the rest of the group. even if she had barely spoken with him, his death was worthy of a few minutes of silence and respect.


    finally, alice returned to her own area. night was beginning to set in, and the [teachers] began preparing to move the [students] back to town. a few of the [organic mages], led by arin, had returned from investigating the bones alice¡¯s group had stumbled across, and had reported that the bones weren¡¯t human ¨C they were just chunks of organic matter heavily manipulated with perks and organic mana to look like bones. this had set alice¡¯s heart somewhat at ease, because she had felt rather bad for the kids who had died earlier. with the investigation finished and the [scout¡¯s] fate already decided, there was no reason to stick around anymore. the [teachers] in charge of the hunting trip announced that they would leave in thirty minutes. which gave alice just enough time to look through her status screen and system notifications, and after that she should still have enough time to go to the rest of her group and figure out what to do with the items they found on the bodies of the society members. she started out by looking over her previously ignored system notifications.


    you have leveled up!


    survivor: 47 -> 50, explorer of magic 54-> 55, kinetic manabinder 19 -> 23, scholar 39 -> 40


    through training, you have increased an attribute!


    endurance 122 -> 123, magic 145 -> 146, perception 129 -> 130, dexterity 108 -> 109


    the reason alice decided to combine these two perks was simple.


    infusion of comprehension was a perk alice had taken quite a while ago, in order to try to understand more about the nature of mana. she had gotten a few interesting clues and ideas from activating the perk on her pure mana seed, some of which she still hadn¡¯t connected into her growing overarching theories about how the system and this world worked, but alice had only been able to activate the perk once. she had only gotten a 40% bonus to her pure mana seed, and while alice certainly had gotten plenty of economic value out of her 40% boost to pure mana capacity, alice now had {scholar of magic} and {seed creator} to fall back on for the sake of boosting her mana conversion ratios. she would still be losing some economic stability after losing her 40% bonus to her pure mana seed, but alice¡¯s levels in her enchanting related classes were becoming higher and her skills were all becoming better as time passed. her position on ezrien¡¯s team had also become more secure as she picked up new perks, and ezrien had become more and more willing to give her small bonuses for her work, even though he had already theoretically paid her for the next year of labor. alice felt that she could survive without her boosted pure mana seed now, even if she might need to cut down a bit on her already nearly nonexistent free time for a while.


    as for {reset}, alice was a bit more hesitant to lose access to this perk. she had started out by using this perk to let her use {broken seed} more often. however, {seed creator} had already drastically increased the flexibility and frequency at which she could use her {broken seed} perk. {reset} was still useful, giving her the option to mess with unusual seeds three times per month instead of twice, but alice felt that being able to ¡®see¡¯ more about the nature of various kinds of mana would ultimately be more valuable than a third seed experiment a month. if she was able to figure out more about the ¡®true nature¡¯ of things like pure mana, organic mana, and most valuable of all, system mana, she would be able to optimize her attempts at making enchantments with each kind of mana. even if she didn¡¯t get any concrete benefits out of it, alice thought that she might be able to learn new and interesting things with this perk. she did need to successfully make a system mana seed to maximize its value, of course, but alice was pretty sure she could make one with enough trial and error. her attempts to make a magic seed without the help of the system had already proven that she could make seeds without the system, it was just much harder, and that gave her more courage when she thought about taking this perk. and even while she waited to form a system magic seed, she could at least mess with her pure mana seed while she worked on forming a system seed.


    alice activated perk fusion for the first time.


    alice watched as rainbow mana flooded towards her brain. she lost sight of what was going on inside of her skull, sadly.


    after about a minute, alice felt something change.


    the {infusion of comprehension} bonus to her pure mana seed melted away. the sudden loss of 40% of her pure mana seed¡¯s mana conversion ratio felt... uncomfortable. it was sort of like being inside of a manaless room ¨C alice could feel the lowered amount of mana in her body, and it made her feel uncomfortable. however, soon, alice¡¯s new perk was formed.


    expanding comprehension (tier 2 perk, level 55 explorer of magic) (level 50 explorer of magic perk + level 40 explorer of magic perk)


    perk costs: infusion of comprehension + reset perk sacrificed to create this perk.


    once per two weeks, you may select one of your seeds. over the course of the next hour, you will gradually expand your understanding of the seed, as well as the concepts associated with it. the clarity will be lower compared to directly using {infusion of comprehension}. in addition, the mana conversion ratio of the seed may improve by small amounts with each use of this perk. at maximum an increase of 5% may occur. this perk may never improve the mana conversion ratio of a given seed by more than 50% in total.


    warning: you will be helpless during this time, so it is highly recommended you activate this perk only when your safety is assured and you are in an environment where you will not be disturbed.


    despite how depressing and long most of the day had been, alice almost felt the urge to smile now. no wonder people said perks made by combining perks were much stronger. {scholar of magic} was a perk that was subject to diminishing returns, like most other perks. alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure what those diminishing returns were, but the perk directly stated that the higher the mana conversion ratio of a seed, the slower its further growth would be.


    this perk instead had an upper limit on growth, but that upper limit was massive. even if each boost was only 2-3% every time, it would take four uses to directly outstrip the bonus of {improved seeds. and unlike {scholar of magic}, it didn¡¯t suffer from diminishing returns the more powerful a seed was, making it ideal to push high power seeds even further. alice had gotten a 40% bonus to one seed from {infusion of comprehension}, but this seed offered the chance of improving every seed by 50% as long as she had enough time, and scaled with every single new seed she formed for the rest of her lifetime. combined with the ability to get glimpses into the nature of a certain kind of mana, providing her with all sorts of information and research ideas to boost all of her research related classes, the perk was worlds beyond what many of her other perks from her classes were able to accomplish. it was basically a weaker version of {infusion of comprehension}, which alice had sacrificed, but it was now usable once per two weeks instead of usable once in her entire lifetime. it was a huge upgrade, even if it did slightly weaken her immediate financial situation and take some time to get working.


    after that, alice went through and grabbed her other three perks. these three were much less exciting.


    extended organics


    requirements: survivor level 50 or higher, endurance 100 or higher, magic 125 or higher


    the area which you will naturally apply resistance against magic to is extended by 3m. your body¡¯s natural resistance to mana is greatly enhanced. this can be turned off. this does not apply inside of other objects. this area is counted as ¡®inside your body¡¯ for the sake of other magic-related perks you control as well, allowing you to extend magic tendrils from anywhere inside of this space without the need to form a tendril and move it outside of your body, or use any point within this three meter range to form tendrils before moving them elsewhere.


    alice took this perk mostly because of the fight with the society of starry eyes. the woman with dimensional mana had teleported a dagger very close to her, nearly catching alice off guard and getting a hit in. alice wasn¡¯t sure if one dagger would have killed her or not, but the rainbow mana surrounding the dagger suggested some kind of perk was activated on the dagger, and she would rather not take her chances. even though alice didn¡¯t want to fight with the society of starry eyes due to the large risk of dying in the process, having the ability to turn off teleportation in her immediate surroundings could prove surprisingly useful in some scenarios. this also had a rather useful effect of suppressing a wide variety of monster abilities. after all, monsters that used magic needed to fight against mana resistance just like mages did. vinebears would almost directly lose the ability to use plants against alice as a result of this perk, since most plants couldn¡¯t reach three meters away very well, and lurkers would lose a lot of their ability to potentially drown and eat her. alice wasn¡¯t familiar with the massive variety of monster species in this world, but since the perk almost outright nullified the combat abilities of some monster breeds she was familiar with, alice suspected that the perk would be surprisingly valuable against a wide variety of monster types. even if the perk was utterly worthless against nonmages, alice felt that it was worth taking.


    lesser organic vision


    requirements: scholar level 40 or higher, perception 125 or higher, magic 100 or higher, organic magic seed present


    you gain the ability to spend some organic mana to temporarily look inside of people''s bodies, assuming they give you permission or are unconscious. the level of detail may vary.


    this perk solved a pretty immediate problem that alice had very recently encountered, which was the inability for her to see things besides mana inside of people¡¯s bodies. if she had gained her extra level in [scholar] before the [scout] had started to undergo his baptism, she would have been able to get more information about the process. sadly, the level in [scholar] had come from her observations.


    she wasn¡¯t entirely sure whether she would need this ability in the future, but the other options weren¡¯t that appealing this time. alice knew that not every single level in every class would have amazing perks, and since this one seemed like it might be useful in the future she took it and moved on. she had gotten {scholar of magic} just 5 levels ago from [scholar], so getting a weaker perk this time wasn¡¯t a big deal.


    overclock


    requirements: kinetic manabinder level 20 or higher


    for two hours, only while you are enchanting, drastically increase the speed and focus you have while thinking and manipulating mana. does not apply to any mental processes or magic-related abilities besides enchantments. only usable once per day.


    alice was finally starting stabilize her schedule a bit. however, she still often found herself cutting away time from her sleep, or time away from her friends in order to make everything fit together inside of a day. alice wasn¡¯t sure if this perk would totally solve the problem, but with every new perk related to time management, alice felt the growth speed of her classes and the stress of her schedule get better. even though alice was effectively working two jobs, acting as a very nearly full-time student, and stacking her own research projects onto her already overburdened schedule, with the sheer number of perks she had improving her efficiency and reducing her need for sleep, she was almost on top of her schedule now. maybe this perk would be the one to finally fix her time management problems, or maybe she would need another one or two perks or achievements to get there. either way, every bit of progress helped.


    after alice finished selecting her perks, she went over to the other members of her group. arin was now healed up, and the other [students] all had their various bumps, scratches, and minor wounds looked over and healed if necessary.


    ¡°what do we do with all of the stuff we got from the society mages?¡± asked alice, turning to arin. as a [knight] he probably knew the legal code better than she did, and asking him before she broke a law by accident seemed pretty reasonable.


    ¡°legally speaking, all of the stuff you scavenge from the society members belongs to you, as well as a small bounty the crown has issued for anyone who kills a member of the society. that might take a while to process, because the crown needs to verify that they were society mages, or at least very likely to be, but it should go through within a few weeks. you will also need to fill out some paperwork. i¡¯ll get back to you four on that tomorrow, after we have a nice rest.


    ¡°as for their items, the crown does first want [knights] or [guards] to check over the bags and such. just to make sure there aren¡¯t any illegal items inside. if any are found, you will get a small ¡®finder¡¯s fee,¡¯ although you¡¯ll need to read out some statements under the watch of some lie-detection perks to make sure you aren¡¯t involved in the operation first. any information or documents about the society¡¯s future movements are also legally required to be turned over to the crown, also rewardable with a finder¡¯s fee after some paperwork. so if any of the items you find have information we miss during this initial inspection, please report it to the [guard] immediately. if any of you end up with written texts of the society, you can look over them now, but i¡¯ll need to take them from you so that the [guard] can inspect them, and i¡¯ll return them tomorrow.¡± arin shrugged. alice nodded. even though most of what arin described sounded mildly irritating, most of it also sounded like pretty reasonable precautions to take. she would deal with that later on.


    ¡°as such, let¡¯s open the bags first and see what¡¯s actually inside of it. the [scout]... he also gets a share. i¡¯ll be sending that to his family. his family should also have a secondary reward issued by the crown soon, as is standard for those who fall in the line of duty to the country. but i¡¯m not going to steal from a dead man and his grieving wife and children.¡±


    nobody objected to this, and the group pulled out all of the various bags that they had looted from the battle. they started opening the bags one by one, finding a few miscellaneous research materials, (which nobody wanted, and so arin offered to handle selling it and divide the money fairly) some research records written down on valuable paper, (which alice took. she would never do unethical research on her own, but she had no problem stealing information from the society and using it to help make their society of unethical jerks obsolete) and a few random enchanting materials (which erkki mostly monopolized, since alice had already taken her share of everything). however, once they opened the bag with four weird mana signatures, alice was dumbfounded.


    she had honestly been expecting to see four slightly weird enchanting materials pop out of the bag. instead, four kids, maybe four or five years old, were sleeping inside of the {kidnappers bag.} alice finally realized that the fake children¡¯s bones the group had stumbled across were probably meant to cover up the kidnapping of the children, but that left a few rather important questions unanswered.


    first, the most obvious question was where these kids came from. where they orphans? did they have families looking for them somewhere? if they had parents, the group needed to figure out where they were so they could return them.


    however, alice also had another, very different question when she saw the four kids. what the heck is up with the mana in their bodies? the three kids who had pure mana bubbles deflecting most of the mana in their surroundings made sense to her. after all, alice had already learned that kids didn¡¯t unlock the system until they turned six, and she also knew that the system used mana to operate. the system helping the kids by forcefully keeping mana out of their bodies made perfect sense with that information.


    however, the fourth kid had no such ¡®anti-magic¡¯ bubble around him. instead, it looked like two different system fractals were jammed into the same space, both trying to activate at the same time, and neither of them was working perfectly. was this... a second system error on the same day? what in the world was she looking at?

 Chapter 82

    chapter 82


    the group of [students] and arin looked at the group of children they had found inside of the bag, dumbfounded.


    after a few moments, arin snapped out of his surprise, giving the children a closer examination while frowning. ¡°well, that is certainly... unexpected.¡±


    alice also stared at the children, especially the one with the weird system fractal, before she thought back to the fight. at the time, the group had stumbled across society members near a pile of children¡¯s bones. the [organic mages] who had checked the area while alice was watching the [scout] had reported that the bones were fake, which had left alice both baffled and relieved at the time. now that she could see the children the society members had kidnapped, she was finally able to make some guesses about what the society had been trying to do.


    ¡°if they were planting fake children¡¯s bones near the monster den, and they kidnapped these children, perhaps they were trying to cover up the acquisition of test subjects?¡± said alice.


    arin frowned, before nodding. ¡°the [scouts] sent to investigate the area also found some rather odd trails that appeared sometime within the last hour or two. they certainly weren¡¯t there when we started the hunt, and none of the [scouts] from the last round of hunts stumbled across the trails either. we thought that the society members just happened to have been sneaking through the woods right as the last group of [scouts] were bringing students back to camp and missed them because of that, but if they were trying to make it look like the kids wandered off and got eaten by monsters, perhaps they were using some sort of perk to make a false trail? the [scouts] did say that some of the tracks were off compared to the bodies, but we just figured they were trying to use a perk to change their own trail instead of disguising their trail completely and then making a totally new one.¡± arin sighed. ¡°i doubt we¡¯ll find much else out unless we can pry information from the prisoner. the bigger question is why the society is actively kidnapping children in this area.¡±


    alice frowned, before she turned back to the child with the strange rainbow mana glyphs. then, she went over everything she knew about the society of starry eyes. they had weird magic seeds, they were prone to unethical experimentation, and they often delved into branches of research most areas banned because they were either unethical or dangerous...


    was the society of starry eyes able to see system mana? thus far, alice had yet to see any evidence at all of someone else being able to see system mana. most people completely ignored it while they went about their daily lives, and alice got several high rarity achievements just by messing with system mana. since achievement rarity was dictated by the number of people who had an achievement and the difficulty of acquiring it, alice was sure that the ability was still quite rare. after all, while alice did do a fair amount of hard work and experimentation to get some of her knowledge, she definitely felt that the rarity of her achievements were inflated compared to the work she put in, meaning either no one or close to no one had the same achievements. however, if the society had a few higher ups who could see system mana, maybe they knew something about the messed up system fractals, and wanted to get more subjects to experiment with that?


    ¡°let me see if the research journal has any information,¡± said alice, popping open the book she had acquired from the group¡¯s spoils of war before thumbing through it. arin nodded, waiting to see if alice could dredge up any information quickly, while luka also leaned closer to hear more. arsi and erkki, though they looked concerned, were also beginning to look slightly uninterested in the conversation, perhaps because they had little ability to influence the situation.


    after giving the research notes a quick skim, alice found that the first parts didn¡¯t have much related to system mana. instead, it contained a great deal of information about subjecting humans to broken mana baptisms. the society member whose research she had stolen had approached the idea of experimenting with broken mana baptisms from a very different angle than alice wanted to. instead of trying to figure out what the system was doing during a broken mana baptism and then reduce human fatalities, the society member had tried subjecting numerous test subjects to different kinds of broken mana in order to... see what happened. when illa had discussed the tragedy of allenheim, the country that had basically destroyed itself messing with dimensional mana, she had mentioned that some people who got infected with dimensional broken mana became ¡®contagious,¡¯ subjecting other people to broken mana baptisms if they interacted with them for too long.


    the society member whose notes she was reading was apparently inspired by the tragedy of allenheim, and had started to wonder if mages baptized with different kinds of broken mana might have additional ¡®extra¡¯ properties. thus, they had captured a wide variety of people and forced them to go through broken mana, before trying to investigate whether or not the survivors had any ¡®interesting¡¯ properties, as well as investigating whether or not some kinds of broken mana had higher or lower survival rates. the known statistic for surviving a broken mana baptism was 0.8% in illvaria, while the society researcher claimed that the survival rate for dimensional and organic mana baptisms seemed to be lower, though the society member had also mused that this may have also been due to low sample size.


    the society member also discussed the value of having a ¡®broken mana¡¯ magic seed, allowing them to forego the need for others to participate in the... process of testing out different types of broken mana, giving alice a guess about the society mage they had fought with earlier who had an even weirder magic seed than the others.


    the other research focus of the journal was discussing whether it was possible to force humans into different body shapes that better conformed to various specific roles, seemingly as a method of expanding the society¡¯s knowledge of the human body and how it interacted with mana. this method of experimentation was primarily used on [slaves] the society acquired through either purchase from the sigmusi or kidnapping, and the owner of the journal seemed to have focused on trying to permanently enhance muscles and the skeletal structure and make test subjects better [soldiers]. this branch of research was apparently already somewhat developed in the society, and they had already created a way to turn [slaves] into more efficient soldiers at the cost of drastically reducing their sanity. the [slaves] that were ¡®enhanced¡¯ this way tended to lose their minds in the process sometimes, losing the ability to respond to external stimuli and instead performing pointless and repetitive tasks over and over again until they died of dehydration or exhaustion. the ones who survived this process semi-intact were sold to the sigmusi empire, and provided one of the primary sources of income the society of starry eyes used to survive and continue conducting research. alice started to feel sick as she read through the details of a few particularly horrific deaths caused by this vein of experiments, before she started to skim through the research notes more quickly.


    finally, near the end of the book, a note of a rather unusual experiment was recorded that shed a little more light on what was going on. apparently, one of the society¡¯s upper echelons had found a rather unusual boy a few weeks ago. the boy had signs of activating his status screen and beginning to acquire levels, stats, and skills.


    however, the boy was four years old. and children normally unlocked their status screen whenever they turned six, meaning this was a truly bizarre case. alice frowned as she read through the research data and notes about the boy¡¯s information. another system glitch?


    something felt increasingly off recently. alice had spent several months in this world, and had only encountered a few system ¡®errors¡¯ before today. the first time she recalled the system ¡®bugging out¡¯ was when it tried to figure out what language she was speaking. it had taken the system a day or two to straighten out the {english language proficiency} skill, and after that the bugged out skill name in her status screen had quietly been fixed. the second time alice remembered the system freaking out was the day she tried to create magic seeds from earth physics. the third time had been when she and cecilia had investigated the strange stone the expedition had found, back when illa and co. had gone to investigate the broken mana region where alice had been dragged into this world, and had almost certainly been deliberately caused by someone. finally, alice¡¯s {russian language proficiency} skill had also bugged out for a few days before the system got the name for the skill correct and stopped displaying the russian language as {[email protected]#$%n (language proficiency)} in her status screen.n?00v€l--?1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.


    and today, she had gone from knowing of four system bugs to seven. the number had nearly doubled in a single day. alice frowned, before shaking her head. she didn¡¯t know exactly what to make of this yet. she would think about it more when she was alone. she turned back to arin, before pointing to the experiment she had found at the back of the research log.


    ¡°i expect that this is the reason they¡¯re kidnapping children,¡± she said. arin leaned over before he also looked at the passage, before nodding.


    ¡°if the society found one weird case, it makes sense that they would try to see if they can replicate it. thank you for finding it, lady alice. if i were to take it back to the [guard] it might have taken several hours to discover, and during that time more children might have disappeared. i will bring this information back to my superiors. if they¡¯re targeting four year old children, we can alert the surrounding nations and take precautions in our own borders too.¡±


    alice looked back at the four year old child with the weird system fractals. she contemplated for a moment, debating to herself. should she reveal what she saw about the boy and his odd system fractals? if the society had found one kid with a status screen activated two years before it was supposed to activate, that meant it was possible for it to happen again. and given this child¡¯s weird mana fractals, alice felt a second case might be happening right in front of her.


    if that was the case, the society might already know something about the kid. out of all the children in the entire country they had kidnapped, this group had just happened to stumble across this child, who probably had a similar state as the original test subject? they also kidnapped three normal kids, so it could have just been sheer coincidence, or it could have been some sort of artifact or perk letting them know there was something interesting in this region without giving them more precise information. alice had no way of knowing what perks the society had access to, and even less of an idea what artifacts they might have and what they could do.


    what mattered was the fact that the kid might be targeted again. alice debated for a moment, before she decided to reveal a little bit more. even if she wasn¡¯t entirely sure whether the society knew something or they were just plain lucky, she wasn¡¯t going to let a four year old kid potentially die because of her inaction.


    besides, she had already revealed to arin that she had a rather unique set of perks and achievements that let her access unusual system-related information. specifically, alice had hinted that she could tell mages and non-mages apart with just her eyesight, and distinguish whether they were high or low level. if she revealed that she found something incredibly strange about the boy using the same mixture of perks and achievements, that should be enough. it would alert the [soldiers] and [knights] of the possibility that the boy was some sort of potential target for the society, and it shouldn¡¯t put alice in much more danger than she was already in. the illvarian government stood pretty firmly against the society of starry eyes and unethical research, so alice doubted they would turn around and make the boy a test subject if she revealed that there was something unusual about him. he might have some restrictions placed on his freedom of movement, but alice doubted his parents would prefer to have their child kidnapped and killed by the society of starry eyes if the alternative was just dealing with some restrictions and annoyances.


    ¡°[knight] arin, may i speak with you for a moment?¡± asked alice.


    ¡°you may, lady alice,¡± said the [knight], before the two of them walked away from the rest of the group. once there weren¡¯t any other people nearby, alice sighed.


    ¡°first and foremost, may i ask that you keep my abilities a secret if possible? i do not wish to be targeted by the society, and while i doubt they would target me over this, i still wish to avoid their attention wherever possible,¡± said alice.


    arin frowned for a few moments. he gave alice a very intrusivestare, and alice couldn¡¯t help but feel uncomfortable. she looked at him, wondering if he knew something.


    finally, he sighed, and nodded. ¡°i can understand your concern. i don¡¯t know if i agree with your concern over the matter, and i doubt this ability would make you a target of the society on its own. however, even if i don¡¯t agree, i will honor your choice anyway. though, i also want you to know that if you ever feel interested, illvaria would probably be willing to reward you handsomely if you use that ability for the crown. i¡¯ve never heard of anyone being able to check who is or isn¡¯t a magician with just eyesight, as long as they aren¡¯t wearing a mage insignia. since it seems that you can also check levels, it would allow the military to work with much greater safety during large engagements. a squadron of high level [soldiers] or [mages] appearing behind an army and ambushing the mages in the backlines has sometimes turned a battle against the army, and the ability to just look at the enemy side and see if all of their high level troops are missing would be invaluable. but your life is yours to live, as much as i wish i could recruit you into the army. is that all you wished to talk about?¡±


    ¡°no. i wanted to tell you that the same mixture of perks and achievements is telling me there is something... unusual about one of the four children that were kidnapped. i... suspect he might also have some sort of ability to access his status screen before he should be able to, although i am not entirely sure if that¡¯s what i¡¯m seeing. however, there is something... very odd about him. i don¡¯t know if the society has any ability that mirrors mine or not, but if they do, they might explicitly be targeting that kid for use as a [test subject]. i could be wrong here ¨C like i said, while i have my suspicions i don¡¯t know exactly what i¡¯m looking at yet, and i have absolutely no clue what the society is or isn¡¯t aware of. i just wanted to raise the possibility and let you decide how to handle it.¡±


    ¡°is that so? hmm... interesting,¡± said arin, frowning in thought. after a few moments, he turned back to alice. ¡°so you can at least potentially detect test subjects that the society might be interested in? i wasn¡¯t aware of that. yes, i can absolutely see why you would want to keep this information hidden. i will find another excuse to give the [guards] ¨C i will simply say that the society seemed especially interested in these children, and they may have some sort of reason for it. that is just true enough to avoid tripping a lie detection perk without exposing your involvement in the matter, and it will give me an excuse to place some [guards] around the child and his friends. i doubt i would need to read out a written prepared statement over something like this, so it should be fine. thank you very much for this information, lady alice. your willingness to help may have saved a few lives today.¡±


    alice nodded. she wasn¡¯t used to near-strangers giving her gratitude, so to be honest, it made her a little uncomfortable to have [knight] arin so openly express good feelings towards her. the fact that he looked kind of like a grandfather helped her shrug off her momentary discomfort, and she shrugged.


    ¡°i don¡¯t want my inaction to cause a kid to die. that¡¯s all i wanted to say here.¡±


    arin nodded, looking thoughtful.


    ¡°all right, here¡¯s what i propose. for now, we¡¯ll head back to metsel with the rest of the group and hand the kids over to the [guards]. they have [investigators] who are a bit more specialized in tracking down crimes like this, so they¡¯ll follow up the tracks we found in the woods and see where they lead to. if they find an illvarian village or something at the end of those tracks, we¡¯ll see if we can find the parents of the kids there and sort things out with them. if we find a base of the society or something, i will get a [messenger] to let you know that i will be unavailable in the near future, and will inform you whenever i finish cleaning things up. you come back tomorrow with the rest of your friends from the [student] group if i don¡¯t send you a [messenger], and we¡¯ll get you the bounty money, deal with paperwork, and get everything else sorted out. you can keep the research notes we found, but tomorrow i¡¯ll still need to borrow it from you so that we can do final checkups and make sure the book doesn¡¯t have any critical information. we can also get you to meet with the parents of the kids you rescued, if they have parents and we can find them. if you¡¯re willing to, you can expose your ability to see system information to help convince them that their kids are in danger and they should accept our help in keeping them safe. sometimes, people can be really stubborn, and i would appreciate the help, although since their children were already kidnapped once i imagine it probably won¡¯t be a problem. anyway, we can figure it out tomorrow when we know more.¡±


    ¡°sounds good to me,¡± said alice, after a few moments of hesitation. ¡°but i¡¯m a little worried. what if the society tries to take revenge against us, or something like that?¡±


    ¡°revenge?¡± for the first time that day, [knight] arin laughed. ¡°revenge? the society of starry eyes is a secret society. in other words, they hide, because they are not able to take over a plot of land or work their way into being an officially recognized institution by any government, and more importantly, they are weaker than most countries. not to mention the fact that they are almost universally reviled. if they weren¡¯t weaker than most countries, they would stop being a secret society and transition into something else. probably a country or part of one. if a secret society like the society of starry eyes decided to suddenly randomly throw [spies], [operatives], and mages at you just because you were part of a group that killed some of their low-level operatives, the entire society would need to expose a large part of its combat resources to do so. and in the process, it would risk losing some of those resources forever, or even being completely destroyed if things went poorly. any secret society that reveals itself in order to take revenge on a group of random [students] with no background is a society about to be tricked into an ambush, and will stop existing within a decade or two. any leader of a secret society who starts randomly trying to assassinate or kill you just over this is either an idiot or a traitor to the society they¡¯re part of.¡± arin shrugged. ¡°at least, based on what is known of you right now. if you¡¯re hiding other secrets, maybe if they discovered one of those and thought the gamble was worth it they might target you. but there¡¯s no way anyone with a brain would pick a fight with your group of friends over this. and the society has existed for decades now ¨C it isn¡¯t led by brainless fools.¡±


    ¡°is that so?¡± alice felt much more relived at that statement.


    the two of them ended their conversation for the night, and the group of [students] and [teachers] returned to the capital soon after. alice and the rest of her group split up with the rest of the [students] and [teachers] and helped carry the still-sleeping children to the [guard] station. the [guards] who received the kids were more than happy to arrange a few teams to investigate what they could, as well as arrange a comfortable place near the station for a few [guards] to take care of them and keep watch over them until the kids woke up.


    alice quickly let the other three know that arin wanted to see them at the guard station tomorrow to get some paperwork and information straightened out, and that if they wanted to they could tag along to see the parents if they wanted to. then she returned to her inn room and collapsed into bed, exhausted. she fell asleep nearly the instant her head hit the pillow, not even having the time or energy to use her newly acquired [explorer of magic] perk.


    name: alice verianna


    age: 16


    strength: 106 -> 109 (122%)


    perception: 127 -> 130 (165%)


    dexterity: 105 -> 109 (124%)


    intelligence: 164 -> 165 (128%)


    endurance: 119 -> 123(121%)


    willpower: 143 -> 145(108%)


    charisma: 127 -> 128(107%)


    magic: 138 -> 146 (117% -> 122%)


    primary classes: 6/6


    survivor: 44 -> 50


    explorer of magic: 51 -> 55


    scholar: 34 -> 40


    scientist: 38 -> 43


    kinetic manabinder: 12 -> 23


    careful enchanter: 1 -> 13


    evolved classes: 2


    blueprint (careful enchanter level 10)


    skills


    academic skills:


    basic mathematics: 122


    english (language proficiency): 100


    illvarian (language proficiency): 99->100


    intermediate mathematics: 78


    advanced mathematics: 18


    sigmusi (language proficiency): 7


    basic human biology: 0-> 28


    russian (language proficiency): 0->1


    magic skills:


    kinetic manipulation: 57 -> 65


    mana control: 41 -> 46


    mana precision: 43 -> 47


    kinetic force: 37 -> 44


    projectile awareness : 12 -> 23


    divided attention: 16 -> 25


    basic enchanting: 19 -> 24


    broken mana purification: 12 -> 15


    mana filtering 0->8


    seed formation 0->12


    crafting skills:


    weaving: 27


    woodworking: 28


    cooking: 12


    stoneworking: 11


    physical skills:


    spearmanship: 19


    sprinting: 18 -> 21


    dodge: 18 -> 22


    climbing: 9


    fishing: 9


    digging: 8


    stealth: 4


    basic medicine: 3


    magic seed: 5/5


    kinetic seed (135%) -> (145%)


    organic seed (10%) -> (25%)


    pure mana seed (50%) -> (21%) (dropped because infusion of comprehension was sacrificed for new perk)


    healing mana seed (10%) -> (23%)


    electromagnetic seed (15%)


    achievements:


    outworlder (rarity: 10)


    seeker of truth (iii) (rarity: 9)


    baptized by broken mana (rarity: 6)


    survivor of winter (rarity: 3)


    monstrous encounter (rarity: 1)


    monster slayer (iii) (rarity: 2)


    well trained (rarity: 4)


    murderer (rarity: 4)


    bookworm (rarity: 3)


    kinetic manabinder (rarity n/a)


    careful enchanter (rarity n/a)


    capable enchanter (rarity: 5)


    seed creator (rarity: 8)

 Chapter 83

    chapter 83


    the next day, alice woke up a little earlier than usual. since she had a bit of free time, she tried using her new perk to start building her knowledge of organic mana. this was mostly for the sake of satisfying alice¡¯s curiosity. the system primarily used a mixture of organic mana, pure mana, and system mana to do most things, and right now alice felt that her ability to mess with organic mana was much worse than her familiarity with pure mana. she didn¡¯t know how to mix the three, and she still had no access to system mana, but it was clear she would ultimately need familiarity with all three kinds of mana eventually. since that was the case, it didn¡¯t seem like a bad idea to occasionally use {expanding comprehension} on her organic seed as well as her pure mana seed. besides, she might come across some interesting realizations and ideas by using the perk on her organic seed this time. if it succeeded, she might be closer to figuring out what the system was doing behind the scenes, and if it didn¡¯t work she would only waste one use of the perk.


    after setting up a few quick enchantments to keep her inn door closed and protect herself, she activated {expanding comprehension} on her organic magic seed.


    after using the perk, alice felt her sight of the real world start to fade away. instead, her thoughts and vision were filled with images of... organic material. muscle fibers, nerves, neurons, organs, plant fiber... alice¡¯s thoughts were suddenly filled with a churning vortex of disconnected thoughts and images. unlike the time she had used {infusion of comprehension} on her pure mana seed, the images alice saw were much more comprehensible and easy to understand, since she already roughly knew how a lot of organs and tissues worked, at least in rough terms. nothing below a certain size limit appeared during her vision trip, but considering the fact that this world¡¯s knowledge of the extremely microscopic world seemed lacking this was within alice¡¯s expectations.


    towards the end of the set of images and ideas, alice finally latched on to a few more interesting tidbits. for a few minutes, alice saw something very different from regular flesh and blood.


    it was a muscle, but not made out of traditional physical materials. it was, instead, a lump of mana. unlike the mana alice saw in most of her surroundings, this mana was solid, and seemed very different from regular muscle fibers. alice felt that there was something else underlying the mana-muscle fiber that she couldn¡¯t quite understand. it was a sort of organic mana, but wholly different from the mana most mages produced when they use their organic magic seeds. it was some sort of... composite material made out of organic mana and system mana, separated by tiny layers of pure mana to keep the two from mixing together. and the feedback from alice¡¯s perk let her understand that this material was better than regular muscle fibers. it consumed mana to strengthen itself, but even without mana, it could vastly outperform muscles made out of regular flesh and blood materials...


    the visions faded, and alice¡¯s vision abruptly snapped back to the physical world. alice grinned to herself. she hadn¡¯t gotten much out of the vision trip this time ¨C after all, she had already theorized that when people absorbed mana with the help of the system, they were actually using that mana to rebuild their muscles, bones, and so on out of mana. however, it was also quite strange. in alice¡¯s first use of {infusion of comprehension}, she distinctly remembered seeing an image of herself, built entirely out of pure mana. however, in this vision she saw a muscle fiber built out of a mixture of pure mana, organic mana, and system mana. after a few moments of thinking about it, alice decided the perk was probably showing her ¡®possibilities¡¯ when she used {expanding comprehension}. things that were theoretically possible, even if they may not be exactly what she would find with a microscope if she had one available. however, this image of a muscle fiber felt more ¡®correct¡¯ to her.


    this was because when alice had sat in a manaless chamber for a long period of time, she would often feel that her attributes were lower than usual. in fact, alice had theorized this was why people believed that mana deprivation was lethal ¨C lowering one¡¯s [endurance] stat directly weakened one¡¯s physical health, meaning that in corner cases it could very well be lethal to have no access to mana. an elderly or sick person losing access to some of their [endurance] stat might very well have mana deprivation tip them over the edge and cause them to die, after all. with the image she had seen of a mixed-mana muscle fiber, alice had an underlying theory for why stats dropped without access to mana. if the strange muscle-fiber alice had seen at the end of her vision trip was what the system helped people rebuild their muscles and organs out of, it was natural for people accustomed to the system to have much stronger bodies than people from earth. however, it also meant that when the strange muscle fibers lost access to mana, they would lose some of their power. they would still outperform regular, nonmagical muscle fibers and organs, even with zero external mana to eat, but they would also face a reduction in their efficiency.


    she made a mental note to herself that, in the future, she wanted to experiment with the strange muscle fiber she had seen a bit more. she had seen two different possible variations for how a human body could be built using mana during her first use of {infusion of comprehension} and her first use of {expanding comprehension}. while the ideas presented from her vision trip this time felt correct, the essence of science was to test things she assumed were true.


    alice also didn¡¯t know why her perks lost some of their power without access to mana, but she could save that for a later test.


    after that, she went to get breakfast. after this, she would probably go back to using her new perk for pure mana until she built a system mana seed, but she was still glad she had tried out her new perk on her organic seed once. it had definitely given her some new ideas to look into.


    through perk usage, you have improved a seed!


    organic seed (25% -> 28%)


    through training, you have increased a skill!


    basic human biology: 28 -> 29


    mana biology: 0 -> 1


    after breakfast, alice quickly sped through the first section of her daily routine, as usual.


    she met with ezrien and his research team. recently, ezrien and his team had solved a lot of the smaller problems related to the kinetic plates, and had started to take the research for the remaining problems in a new direction. one of the biggest problems the research team still faced was making the movement plates figure out how much mana they should throw at an object based on its weight, since heavier objects needed more mana to stay afloat. ezrien and his team had no luck figuring out how to perfectly solve this problem, due to how overly complicated the whole enchantment was already.


    this had eventually led to the team¡¯s current research direction. instead of trying to throw everything together into one unbelievably complex enchantment that no normal [enchanter] would be able to copy, ezrien and his team were now trying to make a few smaller pieces of enchanted equipment that could be used together at the same time. one of the objects was a paired enchantment built around a kinetic plate and a... sticker, for lack of a better term. the first kinetic plate sensed the weight of objects and then applied a proper amount of ¡®upward¡¯ kinetic energy to whatever the ¡®sticker¡¯ was attached to, keeping it afloat the whole time. the second function of the ¡®upward¡¯ kinetic plate was to sense any other ¡®kinetic energy¡¯ input and amplify it based on the object¡¯s weight. the sticker itself was some sort of rubbery substance that kind of reminded alice of glue. if it was exposed to water, it would lose its sticky properties until it dried out again, making it fairly easy to attach and remove the rubbery object from items that needed to be lifted. it was a bit messy if one didn¡¯t use a bucket to collect and reapply the substance over and over again, but it took less than fifteen minutes to dry out, and a [thermal mage] could enchant the bucket to speed up the process a lot.


    meanwhile, the original kinetic plate was a separate object that was used to apply very small amounts of kinetic force to the floating object and gently nudge it in different directions. since the second enchanted was basically used to make weight less of a headache to deal with, the original enchanted plate was able to cut a huge amount of complex sub-enchantments away. this made the object no longer a nightmare to copy, and even though the material costs went up a bit, the mana costs to make the paired enchantments and the amount of man hours required to copy the plate went way down. the object still wasn¡¯t quite ready for mass production yet, but it was finally starting to reach a point where it could match the cost of hiring a kinetic mage. now that the base ¡®concept¡¯ of the enchantment was fully nailed down, the team just needed to optimize smaller parts until the cost dropped below the cost of hiring a [kinetic mage] before they accomplished their goal.


    after working with ezrien¡¯s team for the day, alice went to the [guard] station, instead of going to the library. she felt a slight tinge of nervousness as she did so. during her time with ezrien¡¯s team, she had been thinking over what she wanted to do in greater detail.


    alice had directly seen what looked like two system errors yesterday, and had received news from the society notebook that a third recent system error existed somewhere under the observation of the society. alice had a strong suspicion that looking further into this subject might provide her with a new direction of research to study the system. alice had no interest in conducting inhumane and immoral experiments, of course, but there was another way she could learn more without violating her morals. alice wanted to see if she could involve herself in protecting the kid, or find ways to check up on him regularly, or just find a way to observe him from time to time. she could even see rainbow mana and mana seeds while others couldn¡¯t, meaning she could actually be helpful in keeping the kid safe from society attacks if they tried to launch a sneak attack on the defenders assigned to the kid. anytime alice was nearby, mages wouldn¡¯t be able to hide unless they had perks that circumvented her abilities. there was a huge difference between being caught in a surprise attack and starting a confrontation before the other side was ready, and so alice would get what she wanted and would still be genuinely helpful if she managed to wriggle her way into ¡®helping out¡¯ the [guards] around the kid. therefore, what alice wanted was to talk with the parents of the children and see if she could get the right to help guard the little kid, in exchange for the right to observe his daily life from time to time. this was something alice hadn¡¯t thought of yesterday, but after a night of sleep she felt more refreshed and was able to think more clearly.


    arsi frowned for a moment, before he sighed. ¡°i think i¡¯ll also duck out. i¡¯m not bad with people, but i¡¯m pretty tired after yesterday, so i think i¡¯ll give this meeting a miss. i have a meeting with my potential patron for next year in a few hours, so i need to prep myself for that. sorry.¡±


    ¡°don¡¯t worry about it. thank you for helping out yesterday and coming today. tracking down people to deal with paperwork if they forget or skip out is always a pain,¡± said arin.


    with that, arsi also left.


    ¡°i¡¯ll stick around,¡± said luka, shrugging. ¡°it¡¯ll be good practice for my duties in the future, since i¡¯ll need to interact with commoners from time to time. honestly, my experience in that realm is a little lacking right now, and these people will probably be a lot more forgiving of any mistakes i make than others. there¡¯s never harm in practicing skills you need for the future, right?¡± luka flashed arin a mischievous grin.


    ¡°as i already discussed with you earlier, i¡¯ll also stick around,¡± said alice. arin simply acknowledged her statement, and the three began waiting for the parents to show up.


    the three [guards] excused themselves from the room since their duty was done, and about ten minutes later, the [scholar] finished flipping through alice¡¯s research notes and returned them to her, before excusing himself. arin and luka made small talk while alice ignored them in favor of looking over the research notes from the society. even if reading through the experiment log made her feel a little sick to her stomach, she wasn¡¯t going to waste one of her only glimpses into the society experiments that might prove useful to her.


    just as alice was finishing up reading through the second experiment recorded in the notebook, seven adults came into the room. there were three pairs of parents who were each holding on to their child, while the final kid only had one parent accompanying him. the child with only one parent was the kid with weird system mana.


    the first three pairs of parents gave alice, arin, and luka thanks for a few minutes, and one group of parents even gave the group some homemade bread as a thank-you gift. even though alice wasn¡¯t very used to talking to people outside of her social sphere, it felt nice to be sincerely thanked by people. the homemade bread was quite tasty as well. however, the mother of the kid with weird mana was the one alice paid the most attention to.


    ¡°thank you very much for saving him, lady mage.¡± said the mother, clasping her hands together and putting one foot behind the other for a moment as she dipped her body slightly downwards, as if she were trying to curtsy or bow. ¡°after his father died, he¡¯s all i have left. i was so worried when he didn¡¯t come home last night. if he had been taken away by the society, i would have never known that what happened to him. if you hadn¡¯t caught the society members in the act...¡± the woman shuddered, before shaking her head. ¡°i might have thought he wandered off and got eaten by monsters for the rest of my life.¡±


    ¡°may i ask what the half-kneeling motion is about? also, you haven¡¯t introduced yourself. what¡¯s your name?¡± asked alice. since she wanted to spend time observing the kid, she naturally wanted to get to know his mother better as well.


    ¡°ah, my apologies, lady mage. my name is natasha. the half-kneel is a custom where i come from. i was born in eldren, but i moved here with my child two years ago, because tension between eldren and norwick seemed to be spiking and we were sick of the constant war taxes and draft calls. not all countries rely on volunteer armies like illvaria, and we didn¡¯t want our son to be drafted into the army when he got older. as for the half-kneel... commoners are supposed to either do a half curtsy or clasp their hands while quarter-kneeling when speaking to a minor [noble], and in illvaria mages are essentially [nobles] here, so i felt it was appropriate. i learned from a relatively high level [tailor] in my hometown, so i¡¯ve occasionally interacted with [nobles] when my [teacher] made them some clothes. it¡¯s a habit he made sure to drill into me.¡± alice nodded to herself. the woman¡¯s level wasn¡¯t very impressive, and probably hovered somewhere between level 50 and level 60, but it also wasn¡¯t bad. if the woman had a high-level [teacher] and still only managed to get to this level, it was more than a little disappointing, but alice certainly wasn¡¯t going to make the woman feel bad by commenting on it.


    ¡°so you¡¯re raising him on your own now?¡± asked alice, looking at the kid with strange system mana. the child hadn¡¯t said a word during the meeting, unlike the other three kids who seemed more cheerful and lively. it seemed that they hadn¡¯t woken up until this morning ¨C meaning that the entire time they had been kidnapped, they hadn¡¯t been conscious for a single moment. perhaps due to that, the fact they had nearly been kidnapped didn¡¯t seem to have sunk in yet. at least, three of the kids were still rambunctious and squirmy. the parents, on the other hand, had short fuses with their children right now, the worry of having their kids go missing and the relief of finding them boiling over into a strange mixture of love and irritation.


    ¡°my husband died about three years ago in a construction accident while we were building a house with some of the other villagers. a beam that wasn¡¯t nailed in properly fell from the roof and hit him at a bad angle. his perks were mostly focused on boosting crop yields...¡± the woman laughed bitterly. ¡°i always told him that everyone should have at least one lifesaving perk, but he never listened. he always said that he would definitely pick one up by the time he reached level 60 in [farmer].¡± the woman sighed. ¡°idiot always was too stubborn for his own good. anyway, i can keep the house going on my own. i¡¯m a higher than average level [tailor], so we get by. if you want, i could patch up your clothes or make you something nice as thanks. i hear mages need to wear uniforms while they¡¯re attending an academy, but you can wear normal clothes outside of classes, right? if lady mage wishes for it, i would be happy to make you a nice dress or casual clothes to express my appreciation for your help.¡±


    since alice was pretty unfamiliar with how the shil confederacy worked and the woman had moved here from another member-country of the loose alliance network, alice started chatting with the woman about the differences in cultures between member-states of the confederation. she mostly wanted to keep the woman behind without letting the other three sets of parents know she wanted to talk in private. after all, letting anyone else know that the woman¡¯s kid was unusual would put him in more danger if the society somehow found out, and might bring alice into danger along with him. over the course of a few hours of small talk, alice learned that the about nine years ago, eldren had tried to call for a council to settle its borders with norwick, but norwick, sel¡¯thas, and kraelden hadn¡¯t agreed to the council, leaving the two countries locked into a stalemate of skirmishes and bickering for several more years. this had been a big sensation among the eldren peasantry at the time, because [messengers] had seen a sudden boom in employment (and levels) for several months while eldren tried to get everything in place. apparently, the two were fighting over a strip of land between two rivers which was particularly rich farming land, and grew some sort of unique berry used to make wine successful merchants favored. the strip of rich farmland also contained a few iron mines, and even though it also bordered the land with the nomads and the iron mines were nothing special it was still considered very valuable land.


    alice was more than slightly fascinated about how well informed peasants of this world were, compared to what she had expected. even though nothing so formal as a newspaper was in circulation, due to the high efficiency of [messengers] and the boost to productivity the system granted people compared to earth in the middle ages, most [farmers] had at least a decent idea what was happening in the world around them.


    finally, the other three families left, leaving alice, natasha, her son boris, and arin in the room. alice finally didn¡¯t need to stall anymore, so she got to the main topic.


    ¡°i¡¯ve been trying to hold you back here because there¡¯s something i wanted to talk to you about,¡± said alice.


    ¡°oh? what does lady mage wish of me?¡±


    ¡°i think there¡¯s a possibility that your child might continue to be targeted by the society. i¡¯m not 100% sure it¡¯ll happen, but just in case...¡± arin said, taking over for alice. ¡°i¡¯ve been looking over some information we captured from the society of starry eyes, and they were describing the kind of test subjects they were looking for. your son might fall into that category. so i wanted to know if you were interested in having a small [guard] detail attached to you and your son for a while. if the society targets him again, it would be much safer for both of you if you were had some help...¡±


    ¡°and if you don¡¯t mind, i wanted look into your son¡¯s situation as well,¡± said alice, looking at natasha. ¡°i have some perks that can help me find society members early, so i¡¯ll be helpful when i¡¯m around. and, to be honest, i¡¯m also more than a little curious about some other things related to my own research. i just want to observe your kid and see what he does on a daily basis ¨C i won¡¯t do anything that will harm him.¡±


    the woman¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly as she heard alice¡¯s request, before she seemed to wrestle with something. then, her gaze relaxed. ¡°truth be told, if you hadn¡¯t taken part in helping my boy, i might have rejected you. but if you wanted to harm my boy, you probably could have spirited him away before i got to see him today.¡± natasha sighed, before nodding at arin. ¡°and i¡¯ll take you up on that [guard] detail. even if it¡¯ll be inconvenient, my child is all i have left. tell me if there¡¯s anything i need to do, or if there¡¯s any way i can help make things easier for the [guards].¡±


    arin nodded, and alice broke into a wide smile. even if visiting natasha and boris would be another huge time sink, and alice would need to spend money renewing her enchantments in case she got caught up in another society attack while she was there, alice also had a potential way to expand her research in a direction she had never expected before. only time would tell if this branch of research would prove useful, but with every day that passed and every new discovery, alice felt that she was closer and closer to unravelling what the system was and how it worked.

 Chapter 84

    chapter 84


    after alice worked out some more specific details with natasha, she took a moment to lament how bad her schedule was becoming. anytime she managed to get a perk boosting her work speed, it seemed like she immediately spent whatever time she freed up. then, alice sighed. after ezrien¡¯s team finished up their research, or when her one year contract with ezrien ended, she would take a week or two to relax. the magic academy took two month-long breaks every year, one at the beginning of winter and one near the end of spring/beginning of summer. the winter break was used as an opportunity to arrange second-semester classes, shuffle schedules, allow [noble] children to visit their parents and/or territories if needed, and otherwise give students some time away from classes. the summer break was to allow [students] to graduate, let new [students] join the academy and get their schedules handled, and allow children to visit their families. if alice¡¯s enchanting abilities had reached a high enough level by next summer, she would hopefully be able to pay for her own tuition, freeing up one of the portions of her schedule. for now, since she had decided to visit natasha and boris about once a week, she would just have to make due with even less time than before. she would also have more free time whenever winter break rolled around, although she would still need to work with ezrien¡¯s team and work on her enchanting, so her schedule would still be busy.


    then, alice went to her classes for the day. alice¡¯s group of [students] had made a noticeable ruckus yesterday, so everyone knew that something had happened during the trip. however, most of the adults had been busy running around and trying to figure out what the society was planning and what was going on, meaning that everyone who had been involved in the hunt yesterday had a different version of events that they were convinced was correct. some said that alice¡¯s group had awoken a great, sleeping monster in the wilderness and had barely escaped with their lives. some claimed that the group had been caught in some sort of freak mana accident that ended up involving the [scout], and claimed that alice and her friends had escaped consequences because they were already mages, but the [knight] guarding them and the [scout] were either dead or newly baptized. oddly enough, some otherwise claimed that alice and her group had wandered into a pocket of broken mana by accident, and alice and her group had all failed their broken mana baptisms and died.


    so when alice went to her first tuesday class, she got a big surprise when a couple [students] that alice barely knew the names of approached her and asked what had happened yesterday. alice decided to avoid saying anything in depth on the issue, and redirected her curious classmates towards erkki, luka, and arsi. she did notice that the [students] who approached her were noticeably more attractive than her other classmates, indicating higher than average [charisma] scores, and also seemed to have unusual class fractals near their mouths. [gossips], or some similar class, perhaps? alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure, but since plenty of weird perks existed alice decided to just say as little as possible and let other people deal with it. she didn¡¯t know how to handle these people, and so her solution was to fob them off onto people who could manage the situation more effectively.


    however, on wednesday, a person alice couldn¡¯t ignore asked luka, erkki, arsi, and alice about the events on monday. unlike the classmates alice barely knew, she couldn¡¯t just brush this question off.


    ¡°are you guys all right?¡± asked laila, nearly the moment she walked into the room. for once, the girl¡¯s characteristic lackadaisical nature was nowhere to be seen. instead of seeming like she would prefer to take a nap somewhere, she seemed concerned, her gaze almost penetrating straight through the four of them as she sat down. ¡°i heard that you guys got caught up in some sort of accident. well, i heard the hunting group on monday got caught up in some sort of accident, but when i asked people from the actual hunt, it seems like the issue hit your group in particular. are you all right? are any of you hurt? my family has connections with a few pretty good [organic mages], so if you need a healer specialized in something weirdly specific i can help,¡± said laila. ¡°i mean, luka¡¯s family probably has better connections than i do, but if there¡¯s anything i can do to help...¡± the girl shuffled uncertainly, before giving them all penetrating looks of curiosity. alice felt a strange mixture of warmth and a desire to laugh. it was nice to see that laila lost her characteristic laziness when their lives were potentially at risk, but the danger from monday already seemed to have ended.


    ¡°we¡¯re fine. we got into a bit of a scuffle on monday, but we didn¡¯t get hurt¡± said alice. ¡°the [scout] that was guiding us went through a broken mana baptism and didn¡¯t make it, though.¡±


    ¡°yeah, we ended up getting caught in a fight with the society,¡± said arsi, shaking his head. ¡°it was awful. we had to fight for a chance to survive, and after the fight ended, we even found a couple of kids they had kidnapped. we managed to get out of it in one piece, but it probably would have ended catastrophically if the [knight] wasn¡¯t with us. before the hunt set out, i thought the academy was being ridiculously overprotective, but now, i¡¯m thankful they put in so many safety precautions for the hunt. if they hadn¡¯t, the four of us might not have come back here today.¡±


    laila shuddered. ¡°the society? what are they doing in illvaria? i thought they weren¡¯t very active these days, at least not in the shil confederacy. they¡¯ve always seemed more inclined to trade with the sigmusi and raid the free cities and the nomads, since the free cities are pretty weak individually and each individual nomad clan is also very weak. their presence here has seemed to be expanding for a few decades, but why the sudden surge of interest from them? aren¡¯t there other, much softer targets on the continent?¡±


    ¡°on the central continent both churches issued a joint denunciation of slavery pretty recently,¡± commented luka. ¡°it¡¯s putting a fair bit of pressure on some of the channels the sigmusi imperia usually uses to collect slaves, which in turn cuts off the easiest route for the society to get test subjects. as for the nomads and free cities...¡± he shrugged. ¡°i haven¡¯t heard any news on those fronts. maybe the society is still targeting them, and they¡¯re just targeting us as well to make up numbers? the shil confederacy is one of the softer targets on the continent, since the member-nations are so disunited. at the end of the day, i don¡¯t know the situation on the northern part of the southern continent in much detail because roads and [messengers] aren¡¯t as plentiful in those areas.¡±


    erkki frowned. ¡°the fact they¡¯re targeting illvaria is pretty scary. i hope the crown manages to drive those bastards out of the country. luckily, all five estates are pretty united in hating the society of starry eyes, so if an assembly of the estates is called, they should have a pretty easy time working together to help drive the society away. even if only the crown estate and the noble estate work on halting the actions of the society, it should be possible to mount some dedicated searches and defenses against them, though it might be a little troublesome. those two are the strongest estates, after all, although the mage estate is a pretty influential one as well. hopefully they decided to call for an actual assembly, but even if they don¡¯t i doubt anyone will just sit around and hope things blow over.¡±


    luka nodded. ¡°i already reported what happened on monday to my family. i¡¯ve been told that the crown will make a more official announcement at the end of this week or the beginning of next week, after they have more time to investigate, but my family has already nearly doubled the number of patrols from our [guards] and started strongly encouraging overtime while we try to hire more. the crown estate is already preparing to counterattack, so i expect they¡¯ll reveal the results of their investigation soon. it¡¯s much harder to kidnap children when everyone is on guard against strange outsiders taking their children away, after all, and if there¡¯s one thing people take seriously is the safety of their kids.¡±


    ¡°is the problem that serious?¡± asked arsi. ¡°in the slums, i always heard stories about the society and their actions behind the scenes. i always figured they were at least occasionally active. they¡¯re sort of like monsters ¨C a constant fact of life that never quite goes away. or at least that was the impression i got.¡±


    finally, alice reached natasha¡¯s house. when she knocked on the door, she saw more than two clumps of rainbow mana inside of the house. alice frowned, quietly readying her combat-related perks. she had only expected natasha and her son to be in the house. why were there more people?


    when natasha opened the door, alice relaxed again. inside of natasha¡¯s house, two [guards] she vaguely remembered seeing working last time she went to the [guards] station were inside, this time dressed as [peddlers].


    natasha nodded at alice, giving her a friendly smile. ¡°lady alice! it is good to see you again. welcome to my humble abode. i¡¯m glad you decided to come over. are you perhaps going to take me up on my offer to make you some clothes? i might not have the prettiest or richest materials available to me, but i¡¯d be happy to make you something fit for at least an informal gathering with other [nobles]. it would at least be enough to make sure they wouldn¡¯t look down on you! don¡¯t mind these two ¨C they¡¯re my cousins from out of town, and they¡¯re visiting me for a few months. something disastrous happened to their last trading attempt, so i¡¯m helping them out for a while.¡±


    alice quickly realized that if she had a lie-detection perk, it would almost certainly be going off right now. last monday, natasha had no clue who these [guards] were. there was no way they would just suddenly turn out to be related. however, alice also decided to play along, even though she didn¡¯t spot any suspicious mages while she was coming here. just in case someone was using a [stealth] perk or something else that worked around her skill set.


    ¡°indeed, i was glad to hear your offer. i would like some casual clothes. maybe just a sturdy skirt or pair of pants to walk around in, along with a shirt or something?¡± said alice. she was taken a little off-guard by natasha bringing her offer to make alice some clothes for free back up, so her answer was a little vague.


    ¡°as lady alice wishes,¡± said natasha.


    ¡°how have you and your son been over the past week? recovering from the recent fright, i hope?¡±


    ¡°it¡¯s a little troublesome, actually,¡± said natasha, frowning a bit as she looked at boris, who was sitting in the corner. ¡°my son isn¡¯t talking as much as he used to, and he isn¡¯t playing with his friends anymore. the kids were asleep when they were kidnapped, so the other kids haven¡¯t been affected too much by the whole incident. it¡¯s only my son that seems to be reacting differently after the incident. i would understand if he got a fright from the whole incident, but from my [caring wife] class i have perks explicitly devoted to helping my kid keep his mental health stable. they just don¡¯t seem to be working anymore. on top of that, recently, he seems to have a strange obsession with farming now. i don¡¯t mind him farming, but he¡¯s not old enough to get a class yet. what¡¯s the point of him wasting all of his time trying to train skills and classes? kids should just play until they turn six, then slowly learn a trade after that.¡± natasha frowned.


    alice frowned, taking a closer look at boris. however, she quickly realized that the rainbow mana in his body was quite different from earlier this week.


    on monday, when alice had rescued boris and his friends from the society, the three kids had some sort of anti-mana bubble surrounding them, while boris had seriously messed up system mana fractals surrounding him. however, the messy system fractals were gone. instead, the boy¡¯s body had a single class fractal, located on the right half of his chest. but there was much more oddity to his condition than alice had expected to find, because his body had a large amount of mana contained inside of it. far more than anyone should ever be able to acquire in a week. alice would have found it pretty normal if a level 10 or 15 had that amount of mana, but boris had no class fractal five days ago. getting fifteen levels in a class in five days was very unusual without some seriously extenuating circumstances, or some very high quality achievements boosting leveling speed. furthermore, the mana wasn¡¯t carefully layered inside of his already existing muscles and bones, the way alice saw most other people¡¯s mana. after alice had seen the strange, multilayered mana-based muscles in her organic mana vision trip several days ago, she had begun to look more closely at the mana inside of people¡¯s bodies, and had confirmed that the mana in most people¡¯s bodies had a slightly greenish tint compared to ¡®pure¡¯ mana. it was hard to notice, but alice had taken that as weak evidence that the system mana used to rebuild people¡¯s bodies was probably mixed with at least light amounts of organic mana mixed in. however, the mana in boris¡¯s body didn¡¯t have that light green tint. it was very... pure. oddly pure, in fact. and it looked much more random and haphazardly scattered through his arms and body than other people¡¯s mana.


    seeing these abnormalities, alice felt uneasy. even though she wasn¡¯t quite sure what she was looking at, boris¡¯s condition was ringing alarm bells in her head. she had previously assumed that the reason the system didn¡¯t let kids below the age of six get classes and attributes was pretty obvious. classes like [brawler] or [swordsman] being placed in the hands of a toddler was a pretty obvious recipe for disaster, and would be about as wise as handing a toddler a fully loaded shotgun. however, alice suddenly wondered if there was another reason why the system didn¡¯t let kids below the age of six come into contact with large quantities of mana.


    after getting natasha¡¯s permission, alice used {lesser organic vision} to take a look inside of boris¡¯s body, but didn¡¯t get a clearer idea of what the system was doing (or failing to do) inside of boris¡¯s body. most of what was happening just seemed to be taking place on too microscopic of a scale for alice to interact with. however, for now at least, alice memorized everything she could about the mana structures in boris¡¯s body, as well as throwing everything she could into {mana construct modelling}. the perk told her that she was currently looking at pure mana, at least from what she could analyze, but alice wasn¡¯t sure whether that was just because she didn¡¯t have a clear picture of the smaller mana glyphs in boris¡¯s body or whether everything in his body was actually pure mana. for now, she could only sigh in frustration at how much she didn¡¯t know right now.


    after spending a few hours talking with natasha about alice¡¯s new set of clothes, as well as natasha¡¯s increasingly concerned observations about her son over the past week, alice left for the day. however, mentally, she raised the importance of visiting boris by quite a bit, as well as the importance of learning to manipulate organic mana more effectively. she wanted to get a clearer picture of what was going wrong here, if anything. and, if necessary, alice hoped that she would be able to help boris avoid getting hurt, if worst came to worst.

 Chapter 85

    chapter 85


    life settled back into alice¡¯s usual routine. alice continued to help cecilia form a magic seed without the help of the system, go to classes, work with ezrien¡¯s team, build enchantments for cecilia¡¯s shop, and spend saturdays playing board games with her friends before visiting boris and natasha. as the group got tired of the settlers, eventually alice switched to infection, a game built around stopping a series of plagues from destroying humanity, although she swapped the continents around to match luliv¡¯s geography instead of earth. as weeks passed by, alice reached the end of summer.


    you have leveled up!


    explorer of magic : 55 -> 56, scholar : 40 -> 43, scientist : 43 -> 45, kinetic manabinder : 23 -> 27, careful enchanter : 14 -> 19, student : 3 -> 6


    through training, you have increased an attribute!


    endurance : 123 -> 125, dexterity : 109 -> 111, strength 109 -> 110, charisma 128 -> 129, perception 130 -> 133, intelligence 165 -> 166, magic 146 -> 150


    through training, you have increased a skill!n?00v€l--?1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.


    basic human biology : 29 -> 33, kinetic manipulation 65 -> 66, mana control 46 -> 48, mana precision 47 -> 48, kinetic force 44 -> 45, projectile awareness 23 -> 25, divided attention 25 -> 27, mana filtering 8 -> 17, dodge 22 -> 25


    during the weeks that passed by, alice accumulated a fair number of levels, skills, and attributes just from going about her day to day routine. it was nowhere near the explosive increase of levels she experienced whenever she finished an experiment, but she was still glad to get ahold of three new perks.


    enchanter''s basic magic seed


    requirements: careful enchanter level 15 or greater


    you gain another magic seed slot with a maximum 15% mana conversion ratio.


    first, alice gained another magic seed slot. frankly, she had needed another seed slot in order to build up a system magic seed whenever she got one working. the {experimental seed} she got from her scientist class wasn¡¯t suitable for her current needs because alice intended to use this seed for more in-depth enchanting and experimentation, rather than learning about the process of building a seed. thus, having a system seed limited to 15% mana conversion ratio, even after her achievements were factored in, just wouldn¡¯t give her the mana needed for her experiments. this perk could be influenced by other perks, so once alice got the actual seed built its conversion ratio would start quickly shooting up as she used {expanding comprehension} on it. she wasn¡¯t sure whether {scholar of magic} would apply to her system seed, since {scholar of magic} upgraded her seeds when she read a book or took a class related to the magic seed, and alice wasn¡¯t technically taking classes or reading books on system mana since none existed as far as she knew. maybe if alice read through the church of the system¡¯s holy book she would be able to improve her system seed that way? alice had no idea, and she might not have time to experiment with the idea if her schedule stayed busy. however, {expanding comprehension} could at least get her a good chunk of the way towards the mana reserves she needed to properly experiment with the seed.


    kinetic enchanting


    requirements: kinetic manabinder level 25 or higher,


    if you interact with an enchanting material for an extended period of time while focusing on this perk, you may increase the amount of ''instructions'' the enchanting material can remember by 1 permanently. this extra instruction may only be used to increase its memory for kinetic enchantments, and the material must already have some affinity with kinetic mana or the perk will not work.


    this can only be used on a given material once, and will fail if other similar perks, achievements, or any other effects have already been used on it.


    the results of boris¡¯s oddity were growing increasingly evident, at least in alice¡¯s eyes. boris had not developed a second class, even though by all rights he probably should have picked up another class just by sheer coincidence at this point. after all, levelling up a class like [farmer] required a fair amount of physical exertion and labor, so picking up a class like [laborer] should have almost certainly happened by now.


    the class fractal in his body looked increasingly faint, which was incredibly odd. the more someone levelled up a class, the more colorful, mana-dense, and vibrant the class fractal in their body would get. this was the basis of how alice guesstimated the levels of people around her. however, boris was definitely growing stronger and sturdier, and better at farming... without his class fractal getting brighter and more packed with mana. the amount of mana in his body now resembled somebody who was level 30 or 35, despite the fact he had only had his class for less than two months, and his class fractal didn¡¯t look like it was becoming higher-level. alice had no idea what to make of this.


    boris still did not talk very much, either. according to natasha, the number of sentences he said on a daily basis could be counted using her fingers, and boris no longer enjoyed playing with his friends. he spent all of his time obsessively farming. he learned more about how to farm, spent time in the fields with the grown-up farmers working with them, and otherwise taking actions that should normally result in boris levelling up. alice wouldn¡¯t have thought much of his behavior if she hadn¡¯t heard what the boy used to be like from natasha ¨C after all, even many of the [farmers] who worked in the fields of the village every day seemed to find his behavior cute, rather than weird, and alice had seen plenty of other people who grinded out levels whenever they could in hopes of reaching immortality before they died. being a hard worker was nothing unusual, but having someone¡¯s personality radically change this way was definitely unnatural.


    ¡°lady alice, do you know what¡¯s wrong with my son?¡± asked natasha, breaking alice out of her thoughts.


    ¡°i¡¯m sorry?¡± asked alice, shaking off her train of thought.


    ¡°my son. why is he so different? i know you said that the society might be targeting him, but we haven¡¯t seen them a second time, even though over a month has passed now. instead, my child is growing increasingly different. he wasn¡¯t awake when he was kidnapped, so even if he was shaken up a little bit, the effects on his personality shouldn¡¯t have been this severe. but every day, he grows more distant from me...¡± natasha said, shuffling a little bit as she eyed her son. boris didn¡¯t pay very much attention to the two of them, and was simply staring at the door. his hand twitched and occasionally moved, as if he were imagining holding a hoe or plow in his hands, and even alice found his behavior concerning.


    alice sighed. she didn¡¯t want to talk about some of her abilities, but she also didn¡¯t feel that it was entirely right hiding everything from natasha, who was only worried about her son. however, telling natasha more might cause the woman to make a mistake that put her and her child in more danger than they were already in, as well as put alice herself in danger. alice pushed down a strange feeling of guilt, before she turned back to natasha.


    ¡°i don¡¯t think telling you will help you fix it, or allow you to take any countermeasures against it. on the contrary, knowing may put you under greater threat from the society without having any beneficial effects...¡±


    ¡°but you know the reason why he¡¯s becoming different, right?¡± natasha said, stepping closer to alice. ¡°can you help my son? i¡¯ll pay you for your time ¨C whatever i own, i can give you. i¡¯ll do anything, so if you can stop whatever is changing my son...¡± natasha shivered, and alice felt an even greater surge of guilt as she looked at the woman.


    then, she turned back towards boris. could she help him? alice wasn¡¯t great with little kids, but that didn¡¯t mean she disliked them. she did have some thoughts of helping him if she was able to. the problem was that she had no confidence in fixing the problem. alice barely even understood what the problem was, honestly. she knew that the system wasn¡¯t supposed to give people classes before the age of six, and was beginning to suspect that getting one ahead of time might be the cause of boris¡¯s mental problems. she wasn¡¯t sure why the problem existed though, and she had no clue how to fix it. after all, removing levels from another living human being in this world was impossible, as far as she knew. once one gained a class, they had it forever. if they really didn¡¯t like it, they could move it to the secondary classes section and replace it with something they actually wanted, but that usually required speaking with a [priest of the system] who was higher level than them and paying a fee to the church. people usually only did so to pick up a marriage-related class, or on rare occasions when they wanted to change professions and didn¡¯t have a free main class slot. that didn¡¯t give alice any idea what she needed to do to remove a class entirely. alice didn¡¯t even know if the class itself was the problem, or if it was the symptom of deeper problem, because correlation did not equal causation and alice had yet to establish exactly what the ¡®root cause¡¯ of boris¡¯s abnormality was.


    in short, alice had no idea where to begin.


    furthermore, messing with boris¡¯s body would put alice in a rather dangerous legal position. in illvaria, people weren¡¯t allowed to heal other people without a license. this was to prevent incompetent people from trying to sell their services as a healer to others and messing up, harming or killing patients in the process. the law wasn¡¯t entirely rigid, and there were some circumstances where it could be ignored. if an [organic mage] stumbled across a man who was bleeding out and there was nobody more qualified nearby who could help, for example, they could try their best to save the man and wouldn¡¯t suffer from legal consequences if they failed to save him, and there were some other exceptions. however, this clearly wasn¡¯t the scenario alice found herself in right now. boris wasn¡¯t in immediate risk of dying ¨C alice only suspected that bad consequences would occur if the problem continued to grow worse and wasn¡¯t fixed somehow. the fact alice didn¡¯t have a healer¡¯s license was suddenly proving unexpectedly annoying. her introductory organic mana class with professor felissa would allow her to apply for an apprentice license, but that would only let her heal while under the supervision of someone with a proper license, and alice had simply never found the time to get an apprentice license.


    alice realized that she might need to work towards picking up an apprentice healing license if she wanted to help boris without landing herself in legal hot water. how would she even convince professor felissa to oversee alice¡¯s attempts at healing the boy when half of alice¡¯s attempts at healing the process were dubious, and related to secrets alice didn¡¯t want to expose? if alice wanted to heal without supervision, she would need a full license, but she didn¡¯t have the qualifications to get one yet.


    if alice did nothing, she might not be able to get to the root of whatever was happening right now. she didn¡¯t know all of the minute details behind why mana baptisms were failing more often, but she still suspected it was related to a much bigger problem that would eventually affect her if she didn¡¯t figure out what was going on. however, if she did do something, she ran the risk of being targeted by the society, which was already showing itself to be more and more active in illvaria as the country desperately tried to hire more [guards] and [soldiers] to fill in the gaps of its military. alice had always been wary of the society, and things were getting worse right now.


    she felt a growing headache as she wrestled with this problem, before sighing.


    ¡°let me think. i don¡¯t have a healing license, so i need more time to figure out what¡¯s going on. let me... let me think for a bit,¡± said alice. she made some small talk with natasha for a few more minutes, before she returned to metsel after excusing herself. in the past month, things seemed to be slowly but surely getting worse, and alice had some harder choices she needed to make.

 Chapter 86

    chapter 86


    after alice returned to metsel, she began to work on a few new projects, in hopes of figuring out what was going on with the recent decline in successful mana baptisms and boris¡¯s increasingly strange behavior.


    first, alice continued combing through the library in hopes of learning more about magic seeds and the system, as a form of preparation for forming a system mana seed. she had a sneaking suspicion that it would extremely useful in the future, and might be the key to fixing some of these problems long-term.


    second, alice started looking up the requirements to publish academic papers related to research. for a long time, alice¡¯s research had drifted in a kind of strange limbo, where she shared it with cecilia so that the other girl could get achievements, and occasionally illa and milo when she was still in cyra. otherwise, her research was more for the sake of her own curiosity, and she had never felt that it was particularly important for the rest of the world to know or pay attention to. she never talked with people about her research discoveries, or connected them to the wider community of [scholars] and mages that existed in illvaria. however, now that a problem was starting to crop up on a larger scale, alice was beginning to suspect she might need to start sharing her findings as well. she had done her best to avoid putting herself in the eyes of the society, but alice seriously doubted boris was the only kid who was starting to suffer from weird mana buildup and early access to a status screen. if alice¡¯s findings could legitimately help people treat the issue, she felt it was worth sharing, and it could also build up some of her credentials as a [scholar] and maybe give her a few levels along the way. considering how active the society was these days, alice did have reason to be more afraid of them ¨C however, illvarian countermeasures against the society were also becoming harsher and more effective as the illvarian government learned to deal with the increased activity of the society. overall, alice felt she could publish at least some of her findings once she knew a bit more about the process.


    in the library, alice discovered that she actually already had the minimum qualification to publish an academic research paper as long as she remained a [student] of the magic academy. however, it needed to be reviewed by one of her professors, and then would be submitted to one of the academy [librarians], who would review it again. from that point onwards, with the help of some lie detection to make sure her results were based on real experiments, and some followup paperwork to clean up any final details, alice would be allowed to place a research document detailing her findings into the library. if any of the academic journals popular in illvaria took a fancy to her paper, they might pay her to put some copies of her research into that month¡¯s edition. if they didn¡¯t, her paper would still be available in the library for others to read and learn from. [merchants] might also find something interesting in her paper and wish to speak with her further on the topic, and alice would automatically be granted a patent on any material gains related to her research for five years after her paper was published.


    with that in mind, alice began thinking about publishing her findings related to mana and mana filtration. the idea that mana deprivation might not be lethal was pretty new from an academic standpoint, but it would potentially help ground some other academic theories in the future that would be relevant if something really was going wrong with the system. more importantly, this also had some potential of helping alice treat boris without legal troubles.


    she didn¡¯t know why boris getting a status screen two years early was causing his behavior to change so radically, or how to solve the situation permanently. however, she had a sort of band-aid solution she thought might work, even if it didn¡¯t really address the root of the problem.


    boris¡¯s primary problem seemed to be the fact that he was unlocking a class and absorbing mana well before he should be able to. alice didn¡¯t know why this was a problem, and also wasn¡¯t sure what a more detailed solution to boris¡¯s problem might look like. however, that didn¡¯t mean it was untreatable. alice currently thought that, even if it wouldn¡¯t help long term, stopping boris from absorbing mana from his surroundings might prevent the problem from getting worse. alice had already tested whether or not mana deprivation was lethal multiple times in her experiments from several months ago, and had determined that while it lowered one¡¯s [endurance] stat, it wasn¡¯t likely to kill someone that wasn¡¯t already sick or in a weakened state. alice also knew as a result of her experiences with her manaless room that one couldn¡¯t level up without mana. instead, everyone¡¯s body seemed to sort of ¡®remember¡¯ how many levels they were supposed to gain and then just pick the levels up whenever they had access to mana again. if boris levelling up was the problem, then stopping him from levelling up should solve the problem for now, right?


    that was the idea, at least. {safety analysis} had at least informed her that her test wouldn¡¯t harm boris, even if she had no clue whether it would help or not. it was worth a try, right? it wouldn¡¯t work long term, of course, because levels were practically a requirement to function in this world. however, maybe once boris turned six the issue would solve itself? in any case, alice felt that it wouldn¡¯t hurt to try.


    as a third project, alice began investigating the requirements for a healer¡¯s license. if she published a paper on mana deprivation, and then found a way to link it to boris¡¯s case in a more concrete fashion, then coupled with an apprentice healer¡¯s license alice would probably have a pretty solid case for treating boris with only minor legal penalties. if alice could get one of her professors such as professor felissa interested in her research, she could probably even ask them to watch over her treatment of boris. this would remove any legal problems completely.


    the requirements to get an apprentice healing license were less annoying than she expected them to be. it had a total of three requirements. first, one needed proof of being under mentorship with someone who had a license. alice already had that, since she was enrolled in introductory organic mana through the academy. the magic academy pretty explicitly required that the teachers of organic mana courses were licensed healers, since most [organic mages] wanted to be healers. therefore, as long as alice showed up with her student id and a copy of her schedule, she would pass this requirement.


    second, one needed to pay a registration fee of one golden sun. losing one golden sun was a bit painful, but alice¡¯s income was improving enough that she could handle a minor fee without financial strain now.


    finally, one needed to take an exam. since it was just an apprentice license, the requirements weren¡¯t too strict. one needed to pass a written test, related to the infrastructure of the human body, and then needed to pass a practical exam. for the practical exam, a high level [organic mage] would give themselves some sort of minor injury, such as a slight cut on their hand or a minor bruise, and then tell the [student] to heal it. the [student] did not need to heal the injury perfectly ¨C they just needed to help the injury recover by some amount without making any catastrophic mistakes along the way. since the license examiners were high-level [organic mages], they could pretty quickly fix any problems that popped up if the [student] actually made a mistake. however, frankly, the practical exam was pretty lenient ¨C after all, the apprentice license was just to ensure people were seriously learning how to treat people before they started more difficult work.


    ¡°i heard from luka that things got pretty dangerous for a while. i¡¯m glad that nobody from our class got hurt,¡± said the girl, nodding at alice as she dismissed the death of the [scout] during the excursion. ¡°i heard that incident was what tipped off the illvarian government about the presence of the society, right? what was the actual fight like?¡±


    alice wasn¡¯t usually very talkative when interacting with people she didn¡¯t know well, but right now, she was glad to have a way to start a conversation with samantha. after telling samantha the story about the fight with the society of starry eyes, alice eventually found a way to turn the topic towards samantha herself. alice didn¡¯t learn much about the girl¡¯s background, mostly because while the girl was a chatterbox, she was also prone to distraction and got easily sidetracked. however, alice did eventually manage to steer the topic towards mana seeds, which was the real reason she had come to talk to this girl in the first place.


    ¡°you know, i recently formed a new magic seed,¡± said samantha, grinning. ¡°i¡¯ve been thinking about branching out into enchantments for a while, since it¡¯s a pretty good career choice. my parents are wealthy enough to pay for most of my education here, but we¡¯re not super wealthy, you know? i don¡¯t really want to join the military, and so i was originally planning on using my organic seed to become a healer. but...¡± samantha sighed. ¡°honestly, i don¡¯t think i have the right aptitude for it. i¡¯ve never been that good at studying human biology, and my {basic human biology} skill is only at 41 even after spending almost two years on it. recently i¡¯ve been thinking it might be a better fit for me if i swap around my studies a little next semester. i think that enchanters make decent money, right? also, enchanting is more interesting in my opinion, and there¡¯s a lot less pressure if you mess up since you won¡¯t kill someone. speaking of which, i recently heard that the prices of enchanting materials are starting to rise up again because of the society. do you think the society might actually attack us? the fact that they¡¯re concentrating on this region is really scary. my parents have a few connections with some wealthier [merchants], and i hear that they¡¯re scrambling to hire better [guards] to keep themselves safe. say, that reminds me of a story i heard two weeks ago, where a merchant tried to hire [guards] only for a [thief] to steal the money from him during a negotiation with a [guard]. the merchant couldn¡¯t pay for the contract right after he finished signing it, so the deal fell through and [guard] got super pissed off. but if he couldn¡¯t even spot a pickpocket robbing the [merchant] during the negotiation, isn¡¯t his level a bit too low? he doesn¡¯t seem like a very good [guard],¡± said samantha, laughing.


    trying to get detailed information about one topic from the girl was like trying pull teeth. alice wondered if the girl would be able to enchant things properly, if she was this easily distracted, before she started to redirect the conversation again.


    ¡°what kind of experience did you have forming the magic seed?¡± asked alice, once she managed to wrangle samantha back towards the topic of magic. ¡°i¡¯ve been looking into a few topics of my own, just because i¡¯m curious. how would you describe the process of seed formation?¡±


    ¡°hmm... i¡¯d say it was a little weird. i felt like i missed something near the end of the seed formation,¡± said samantha, frowning a bit. ¡°i¡¯m a bit fuzzy on my first magic seed formation experience though, since it was years ago and i never picked up any mental perks to boost my memory. maybe i¡¯m just overthinking it? it¡¯s probably fine though.¡± samantha shrugged, before she began to distract herself again and started talking about the recent prices for enchanted objects, and how much she wished she was a qualified [enchanter] so that she could make a quick couple silver crowns. this led her into a rant about how her parents had decreased her allowance recently, since they apparently disagreed with the girl¡¯s plans to learn enchanting. alice kept talking with the girl, aimlessly drifting from topic to topic until class started, but at the same time she was rapidly making mental notes for herself.


    alice had already heard that the rate of mana baptisms was starting to drop recently, but that could also be attributed to statistical flukes or the nature of rumors. after all, most people that tried for a mana baptism were people who were in dire economic straits, and desperate enough to gamble their lives on surviving a four percent chance of becoming a mage and changing their life. naturally, these people were usually invisible before their baptism ¨C they were the kind of people who were hard to notice the disappearance of. that factor alone made it hard to get concrete numbers about sudden increases or decreases in the success of mana baptisms, and so even though rumors were flying around that more people than usual were failing, there was nothing concrete.


    however, the messed up kinetic seed near samantha¡¯s heart was a different matter altogether. with her own eyes, alice could see that something was off about samantha¡¯s kinetic seed. for now, alice decided to regard this as yet another weird case study of something that probably shouldn¡¯t happen.


    alice also decided to get a better feel for samantha¡¯s personality and keep an eye on future developments. if samantha looked like she would get seriously hurt as a result of her weird kinetic seed, or alice and the other girl established enough trust with each other, alice would help the other girl remove the weird kinetic seed and form a functioning one if samantha wanted help. if the problems caused by the seed weren¡¯t severe enough to notice, or if alice felt talking more about her secrets with samantha would put her life at risk, she would pretend she didn¡¯t see anything and just observe from the side. while alice was happy to help people where she could, she didn¡¯t want to die as a result of her actions, so she would still put her own safety first.


    however, after seeing samantha¡¯s weird kinetic seed and confirming that the girl hadn¡¯t done anything particularly unusual during her magic seed formation, alice was growing increasingly nervous. from boris¡¯s peculiar case, to the increased activity of the society, to samantha¡¯s weirdly broken seed...


    alice wasn¡¯t sure what was going on, but her half-baked suspicions were starting to grow more and more solid.


    whatever had gone wrong recently was getting worse.

 Chapter 87

    chapter 87


    alice spent the next week practicing her healing skills, before finally reaching a point where she could heal a small cut in the practical test for her healing license. her organic magic skills were still far from good enough to use when she could just activate {moderate tissue regeneration} or one of her enchanted rings, but she was at least good enough at healing that she no longer left permanent side effects behind. it was good enough to get her license at least, and also good enough to heal other people with far more control and vastly better mana efficiency than her healing mana seed could provide. since her memory was excellent now, she should have a pretty easy time passing the written part of the exam, so she quietly scheduled and took the test that friday after finishing her classes for the day. the examiner noted that she had barely squeaked by on the practical, but at the end of the day, alice had an apprentice healing license.


    during the week, she also picked up a new perk and a few new levels.


    you have leveled up!


    kinetic manabinder : 27 -> 28, careful enchanter : 19 -> 20, student : 6 -> 7


    pride of a craftswoman


    requirements: careful enchanter level 20 or greater


    the efficiency of mana manipulation in your finished enchanted products is drastically increased.


    with {pride of a craftswoman}, alice¡¯s finished enchantments were finally almost on par with a fully developed [enchanter]¡¯s finished products. alice didn¡¯t have quite the levels fully grown [enchanters] might have, and she also had zero perks that boosted her ability to make consumable enchantments. she was also still a little slower in actually making an enchantment, but the difference wasn¡¯t huge anymore. at this point, the only thing she was missing to compete with a more well-established enchanting shop was the money to buy better enchanting materials, as well as the ability to branch out her enchantments into different kinds of enchantment beyond just traditional enchanting.


    alice couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit of pride when she looked at her status screen. she now had a slightly above average stat line even compared to most normal adults in this world, her highest level classes could basically match an average adult¡¯s levels, and her achievements were well beyond what a normal adult¡¯s achievements looked like as well. in short, alice had finally achieved a measure of financial and physical security for herself, even in this world of incredibly strong and resilient people. instead of only being able to compete with those in her age group, alice was now able to compete with an average adult here, and alice still had at least four years before she turned twenty and lost the boost in levelling speed and attribute growth all humans had between the ages of 12 and 20 years old. given her current levels, the fact that she was a mage, and the rarity of her achievements, alice was also aging slower than other people, although she didn¡¯t know how big the difference was. that meant she might spend quite a bit longer than four years being under twenty. for somebody who had arrived in this world less than a year ago and had started so far behind everyone else, alice felt happy that she had finally caught up, and even surpassed average people.


    after alice finished pondering her gains for the week, she turned her head to cecilia, who was helping her clean up board game night for the week. erkki and anna had already left, and since cecilia¡¯s shop was usually where the group met for board games, cecilia and alice were the ones tasked with cleaning up the cards, board game pieces, and so on whenever the group finished up. this also gave alice the opportunity to discuss some things with cecilia privately.


    ¡°what do you think about all of this?¡± asked alice. ¡°recently, i¡¯ve been seeing more and more strange things. boris, samantha ... what¡¯s your take on all of this?¡±


    cecilia fell into thought. ¡°it¡¯s a little hard to say right now, since i haven¡¯t seen samantha¡¯s weird seed, and that makes it a little hard for me to form an opinion. however, based on the previous experiments concerning the relationship between mana and the system, as well as the way the system helps people form magic seeds... is there something wrong the system?¡± as she said it, cecilia¡¯s face had a rather strange expression on it. alice could see that the other girl was wrestling with her own statement, trying to make sense of something that seemed absurd to her. just five months ago, alice knew that cecilia had at least vaguely believed that the system was some sort of deity. cecilia may not have been a devout believer of the church of the system, but it was the dominant religion in illvaria, and it was inevitable that cecilia¡¯s thoughts would be influenced by the people around her as she grew up. even though her experiments with alice had somewhat dispelled the ¡®divine halo,¡¯ most people believed the system had, it would still be hard for the other girl to accept the idea that the system might malfunction. the fact that cecilia could see the problems with the system right now was proof of how far the girl had grown in being able to challenge her mindset.


    alice sighed, before nodding. ¡°i also think something is up with the system. i feel strange saying it, because the system has clearly functioned just fine for hundreds, or possibly thousands of years with no issues, but...¡± alice sighed. ¡°i don¡¯t know what else to think, honestly. something seems wrong with the system recently.¡± after that, alice paused, sinking into her thoughts for a moment before she refocused on the conversation. ¡°here, do you want to see samantha¡¯s weird seed? i can use {shared memory} if you want to take a look. i think it¡¯s quite interesting.¡±


    ¡°sure.¡±


    in it, alice listed her observations about how humans could remain in a room with no mana for an extended period of time with no harm, but noted the fact that their body seemed to get weaker if they spent a long period of time inside of such an environment. she studiously avoided phrasing the idea as ¡®stats dropping,¡¯ and instead simply talked about how one¡¯s physical abilities seemed to drop in a manaless environment, as well as how those who were already ill or weak may genuinely experience severe harm or death as a result of the experiments, but in other cases, entering an environment with no mana was an unpleasant but otherwise harmless experience.


    attached to alice¡¯s thoughts that she wrote into the paper, she also discussed the methodology for her first few experiments on manaless rooms. after publishing the paper, alice even picked up a level in [scholar], going to level 44. [scientist] seemed to get nothing at all from publishing the paper, but her [scholar] class clearly got some extra experience after she wrote down her experiences and made them available for others to study.


    on thursday, however, something that took alice totally off guard happened. as she was going to her introductory organic magic class, professor feliza pulled her aside after the class and began talking to her.


    ¡°lady alice, i see that you¡¯ve applied for an apprentice healing license, and that you¡¯ve also submitted a research and discussion paper recently?¡± asked professor feliza, squinting her eyes at alice. for some reason, {sense hostility}, the perk alice barely used from her [survivor] that let her detect other humans who felt hostile towards her, started ringing a very light alarm at her. it didn¡¯t feel like feliza was very hostile to her, but alice could definitely feel a trace of danger from her gaze. at the same time, alice noticed rainbow mana creep into her [teacher]¡¯s eyes, which usually meant a lie-detection perk was being activated. alice had no clue what class professor feliza might have that gave her a lie-detection perk, but she was much more confused about why her professor might feel hostility towards her. she quietly started preparing for a fight, slightly adjusting her body posture and making it easy to access her enchanted items if needed.


    ¡°indeed, professor feliza. i did a few experiments on myself after my mana baptism, and i felt that i could probably share my interesting results with the magic community. a lot of people have always held to the belief that mana deprivation is lethal, and i can see why that belief would form, but after testing it on myself it seems to be a false assumption. while it isn¡¯t a big deal in and of itself, since there are no naturally occurring manaless environments in this world, small misconceptions about the nature of reality can build themselves into much bigger problems if we aren¡¯t careful, so i was hoping some other people would take my conclusions and lead them into new and more interesting experiments and realms of information. i want to know the truth, and i probably won¡¯t be able to finish all of the experiments i want to on my own in the near future, and i definitely won¡¯t think of every direction i can take my results. so i wanted to see what other people made of it.¡±


    ¡°can you swear that you have never taken part in or planned an unethical experiment?¡± asked professor feliza.


    alice finally realized why {sense hostility} was pinging at her. professor feliza had discussed in detail how much she hated unethical mages on the first day of class, and had even stated outright that if any of her [students] used what she taught them to join the society of starry eyes she would kill them. she had also strongly hinted she had followed through on this threat a few times in the past. it had certainly been one of the more memorable first classes alice had taken part in.


    ¡°to the best of my knowledge, i have never placed anyone in danger as a result of my experiments except for me. i do not mind people calling me reckless, but i have never harmed other people in my pursuit of knowledge and have no plans of ever doing so,¡± said alice.


    {sense hostility} stopped activating, and alice subconsciously relaxed.


    ¡°good. i didn¡¯t think anyone would be brainless enough to submit research findings to the library that were obtained through unethical experiments, but it¡¯s always best to double check. sometimes even with high [intelligence] people can take some truly baffling actions,¡± said professor feliza, now grinning broadly at alice.


    alice was reminded of boris, since she had hoped to get this professional healer to boost her treatment of boris along. after a moment of hesitation, she decided that now was a good time to at least bring it up.


    ¡°by the way, recently, i¡¯ve discovered someone who seems to be a bit... ill. as a four year old, he has a much heavier density of mana inside of his body than any four year old has a right to have, and as the mana density grows, his behavior is becoming increasingly strange. i have been wondering if these two things are related, so i¡¯ve been wondering if you had any thoughts...¡±


    alice didn¡¯t discuss system mana with professor feliza, but she did describe boris¡¯s odd behavior in broad strokes. professor feliza also frowned as alice discussed the oddities she had encountered during the process of observing boris, before finally, she began discussing her thoughts with alice. it wasn¡¯t particularly in-depth, since professor feliza had never seen boris in person, but alice could at least tell that the other woman was interested in the issue. even if the woman didn¡¯t promise to investigate the case further, alice could tell that professor feliza had quite a bit more interest in alice than she had shown a week ago. which was exactly what alice was hoping for. by arousing some amount of interest as a ¡®good [scientist]¡¯ she would hopefully acquire the social capital needed to treat boris without legal issues, and she would hopefully be able to use that as a springboard for learning and understanding more about the world around her. it would take more time to build up professor feliza¡¯s interest and expectations in her, and to bring up the issues boris seemed to be experiencing, but boris¡¯s situation didn¡¯t seem urgent. besides, professor feliza was an old hand at healing and organic magic. there was an entirely reasonable chance alice had missed something, and professor feliza might spot it and help alice administer treatment.


    for now, alice was content to keep working on preparing what she needed to actually treat boris. it might take another few weeks before she could finish laying out all of her plans, but she was steadily making progress towards her new list of goals. as alice went back home for the day, she couldn¡¯t help but smile to herself as she walked back. although progress might be a bit slower than she hoped it would be, boris¡¯s problem was unlikely to kill him within a few weeks, and hopefully samantha¡¯s weird kinetic seed wouldn¡¯t either. at the very least, alice was starting to build up the trust and credibility she would need if she wanted to start interfering with these cases. slowly but surely, she was moving out of the strange limbo her experiments had previously existed in and was stepping towards achieving recognition and the ability she would need to get to the bottom of whatever had changed with the system recently.


    she just hoped that it wouldn¡¯t be too late.

 Chapter 88

    chapter 88


    on friday, professor feliza requested for alice to join her during her office hours after alice¡¯s classes. after some deliberation, alice accepted professor feliza¡¯s offer, and found herself in the steely woman¡¯s office again the following day. when alice entered the [teacher]¡¯s office, she barely had time to find a chair before professor feliza got straight to the point.


    ¡°after careful consideration, i think your research has some promise to it,¡± said professor feliza. ¡°i spoke with your theory of mana professor, and he said that you have a lot of unique takes on broken mana as well. is that true?¡±


    ¡°yes, it is. i wouldn¡¯t say i¡¯ve focused much of my research on it ¨C after all, my primary interest is in a different area. however, broken mana is at least tangentially related to a lot of my other interests, so i do end up picking up bits of data and ideas about broken mana that i sometimes delve further into,¡± said alice, shrugging.


    professor feliza nodded after some thinking.


    ¡°in that case, it seems like you have a lot of interest in mana and broken mana. can i ask what direction you yourself see your research leading towards?¡±


    ¡°i intend to do a lot of things with my research when it gets more advanced. i want to see if there¡¯s any way i can apply my research to enchanting, for example, and while i don¡¯t really have the funds right now, i suspect that my research will eventually intersect with my work as an [enchanter]. i originally didn¡¯t have any other solid ideas where my research would lead, because while it could lead to a variety of unique conclusions it could also very well lead to nothing in particular. however, as i mentioned yesterday, boris¡¯s case seems at least vaguely tied to my research on how mana works. if other children are also suffering from similar problems recently, i think my research could shine some light on whatever is causing them to behave strangely, and perhaps might help them.¡±


    professor feliza looked even more thoughtful for a few moments, before she actually smiled. ¡°learning to treat new and interesting diseases before they appear is definitely something i admire. just don¡¯t recklessly try to apply your treatments without consulting a medical professional first.¡± alice nodded wordlessly.


    ¡°in your paper, you also stated that you¡¯ve done the experiment regarding mana deprivation on yourself?¡±


    ¡°yes. multiple times, in fact. i even use manaless rooms regularly as the basis for some other experiments i¡¯m running, and sometimes need sit inside of a manaless room for several minutes or even a few hours. apart from the stated reduction in my endurance stat after mana deprivation starts to set in, i have yet to experience any further side effects. the effects seem to ¡®cap out¡¯ around fifteen minutes, and after that i notice no further loss of stats. i eventually allowed some of my acquaintances into the manaless room as well, but only after i was fairly certain it was safe. i got a very good achievement from my manaless room experiments, and after i mentioned the benefits i obtained from finishing my experiment, a few other people expressed some interest in my experiments as well,¡± said alice.


    ¡°any chance you can tell me what the achievement does?¡± professor feliza seemed curious, rather than aggressive.


    ¡°i¡¯m afraid not ¨C some of its weirder effects are directly related to my combat ability,¡± said alice. ¡°however, i will say that it gave me a rarity eight achievement, and the achievement¡¯s rarity was upgradeable. it¡¯s an excellent achievement, even if i¡¯m unwilling to discuss its specific details.¡±no?vel binz was the first platform to present this chapter.


    professor feliza seemed to sink back into thought, before finally, she nodded. ¡°i¡¯ve decided. i¡¯ll try running a manaless room experiment of my own this weekend to see what happens. come back to my office next week, so that we can discuss in further detail what i find,¡± she said.


    so fast? alice was surprised by how decisive professor feliza was. she hadn¡¯t expected professor feliza to be willing to test the experiment merely a few days after reading over alice¡¯s research paper. even if this world had lie detection perks and professor feliza knew that alice¡¯s experiment results were accurate records of the past, wasn¡¯t she afraid that alice had made a mistake somewhere in the methodology, or that alice had some weird perk or achievement interaction that made her results different from other people? alice certainly took most studies from this world with a grain of salt just because of how much variance there was to this world¡¯s academic studies. and how well connected was professor feliza that she was able to set up a manaless room in only a day or two?


    alice suppressed her wandering thoughts and continued conversing with professor feliza. since alice¡¯s study had apparently piqued the woman¡¯s interest, professor feliza was more than happy to discuss alice¡¯s ideas about mana deprivation and what it might mean for the human body. professor feliza admitted that she had never considered the idea of mana deprivation being nonlethal ¨C after all, in this world mana was regarded as something vital to life, and nobody tended to question the result in the same way nobody questioned how useful oxygen was. however, professor feliza admitted that while alice¡¯s study of mana deprivation seemed rather useless on the surface, it could change a lot of the background information other academic studies used as a framework. the only reason alice¡¯s study was fairly worthless and theoretical was because, at least in this world, there was no naturally occurring area without mana present.


    professor feliza also let slip the reason that she had learned about alice¡¯s research paper so quickly ¨C apparently, the library had a sort of automated system that let professors know when one of their students submitted a paper to the library, since one of the requirements for graduating from this particular magic university, in addition to being level 35 in one¡¯s main class, was to submit a research paper and defend their findings against a set of randomly chosen academic teachers with relevant credentials. the [teachers] were thus made aware of any studies submitted by their [students] so that they could set up the relevant follow-up procedures for a thesis defense.


    once alice learned about this, she couldn¡¯t help but chuckle. she had intended to use the papers as a way to accumulate some amount of prestige and trust, but she had honestly expected to need to do more legwork to get things moving. now that the library was essentially promoting her paper to her professors for free, that might help speed things along a little more. best of all, it required zero effort or funding on her part.


    putting aside the good news given to her by professor feliza, alice took the rest of the conversation as an opportunity to get to know professor feliza herself a little bit better. the more alice interacted with professor feliza, the more she found the woman to be both difficult and easy to get along with. professor feliza was a woman who stuck by her principles no matter what, as evidenced by the number of her own [students] she had cut down in the past after they had joined the society or gone down an unethical path. she was also someone oddly enthusiastic about saving lives and the progress of healing and research, and as far as alice could tell she seemed to think alice was enthusiastic about the subject. during the conversation she also dropped interesting tidbits about human biology and her experience as a healer into the conversation, giving alice new insights about this world¡¯s understanding of human biology and the way [organic mages] handled the business of healing people.


    finally, near the end of professor feliza¡¯s office hours, she smiled at alice.


    for this experiment, alice moved into the manaless room and emptied the room of mana, before using her pure mana seed to replace the atmospheric mana she needed. alice began filtering mana while focusing on what she knew about the system, before she tried forming a seed.


    as usual, mana began drawing towards alice as she focused on the process of condensing her ideas and mana together to form a seed. a few seconds passed by, as she struggled to put those two things together and pack them into her mana core... before the two fell apart. she frowned, before trying again.


    this time, the mana and ideas stuck together as a magic seed, but in a way that was seriously imperfect. the rainbow color of system mana was nowhere to be found in the magic seed ¨C instead, not only did it look like it had been run through a shredder and then run over by a train, it was also grey, green, and red, without any of the other colors alice was used to associating with system mana. she frowned, trying to figure out what each of those colors represented, before she gave up. whatever she had done this time, it was so far off base that she wasn¡¯t even close to making a functioning system seed. she would just have to keep trying and failing before she nailed down what parts of this process she was getting wrong.


    however, after observing her new, messed up magic seed that looked even worse than the photon magic seed, alice realized a few more things.


    first, system seeds were very unusual, even by the standards of the other magic seeds she had tried to form based on earth physics. this was in line with alice¡¯s expectations. considering how powerful and complicated the system was, she would have been pretty surprised if it was easy to form a system magic seed. however, getting several of the colors wrong wasn¡¯t something she had expected ¨C all of her other failed magic seeds had at least had the same color as a successful one, but this one was missing most of the colors proper system mana had.


    second, alice learned that using {expanding comprehension} on a messed up magic seed was dangerous. she had been about to use her perk to see what she could learn, since she had been expecting to destroy the seed later anyway. luckily, right before she activated {expanding comprehension} she thought to use {safety analysis}, which told her that her current plan was a very bad idea. alice once again had no clue why the experiment was dangerous, which finally revealed one of the major weaknesses of the {safety analysis} perk. even if she knew whether something was harmful or not, she had no context for why it was harmful, making it hard to mitigate danger or change the experiment to remove the problem. her head was already starting to hurt from overusing her mental perks, so she decided it was a problem for next time.


    thus, alice put her plans to the side for now. after that, alice cleaned up her failed magic seed with {broken seed}, before she threw {expanding comprehension} at her pure mana seed again. the mana conversion ratio for her pure mana seed was already high enough to provide her with financial stability, but alice wanted to get a little bit of extra money laying around before she started focusing on other seeds. the only exception she would make was if she formed her system seed properly, but that looked like it would take more trial and error.


    alice drifted into a whirling mass of thoughts and images concerning pure mana, as usual.


    but during her vision trip, alice saw something more than what she usually did.


    her vision trip started out by showing alice a variety of forms of pure mana and the ways it could transform into other things. kinetic mana, kinetic energy, heat, and so on were things she was quite used to seeing at this point. however, near the end of her vision trip, alice watched as pure mana once again condensed itself into two different things.


    first, alice saw pure mana condense itself into a magic seed. this was a very familiar looking kinetic seed, and looked very close to the one located inside of her mage core. she had seen plenty of kinetic mages walking around with a similar seed inside of their body by now, and at this point she didn¡¯t think of this kind of seed as being very remarkable. however, now that alice got to observe the process of a magic seed forming up close, she noticed a few things that she hadn¡¯t before.


    when the mana and ¡®idea¡¯ of a magic seed reached a certain level of density, the loose mana changed in a way that was hard for her to understand. it gained a certain amount of color it hadn¡¯t had before, and the color gained a certain richness to it. this extra color started to become more muted over the next few seconds, and the difference was so subtle it was hard to spot if she wasn¡¯t paying very close attention to it. however, she could still sense that the compacted mana had a very different nature than it had moments ago. with {expanding comprehension} feeding her bits of information, alice knew that the seed was now ¡®activated,¡¯ in a way it hadn¡¯t been before. she even began to suspect that this brief moment of rich color was what made a magic seed a magic seed. once it was formed, it started to produce mana inside of itself, creating energy from nothing and allowing its user to perform magic.


    the second thing she saw, however, was far more baffling. alice watched step by step, as mana began compacting itself into a dense set of lines, much like the magic seed she had seen form earlier. these lines were comprised of system mana, organic mana, and pure mana, but when they were all put together, they looked just like a class fractal alice was used to seeing. much like the magic seed she had just seen formed, for a brief moment, it gained a rich new color, before it started to fade away. however, this ¡®seed¡¯ behaved very differently from a magic seed.


    instead of producing mana, it started to vacuum up the mana in its surroundings, like a black hole. it didn¡¯t absorb all of the mana around it ¨C it absorbed very small amounts of pure mana, but it also absorbed mana that seemed less ¡®pure¡¯ than other atmospheric mana. it took a moment for alice to put her finger on what the difference was.


    the second ¡®magic seed¡¯ she was looking at was comprised of ¡®fishermen¡¯ mana. and it absorbed other mana that was relating to the idea of fishing. and the ¡®magic seed¡¯ now looked exactly like a class fractal.


    alice felt her head spinning as the implications of what she had seen finally started settling in her brain.


    alice realized that just like magic seeds, class fractals resided inside of human bodies, often near the brain or heart. and both class fractals and magic seeds required huge amounts of atmospheric mana to form, and also consumed mana to improve with the system¡¯s help. both class fractals and magic seeds gave people supernatural abilities which were impossible to find on earth. classes were much worse at giving people supernatural abilities than a magic seed, of course. a kinetic mage, for example, could shift the trajectories of arrows around them even at level zero, the instant they had a working magic seed and a basic grasp of their powers. however, a high level [archer] could also shift the trajectories of arrows they fired. there was no way someone on earth could ever do either of those things without technology assisting them, and at a high enough level, class seeds did an awful lot of things mages could do as well...


    alice thought about class fractals, and then about magic seeds. class fractals... no, class seeds. after using this perk, alice felt that one of her vague suspicions that she had never had precise details or guesses about was nearly confirmed. was her perk telling her that classes were some sort of drastically weakened magic seed?

 Chapter 89

    chapter 89


    after alice came to her hypothesis about the nature of class seeds, she felt a whirlwind of excited thoughts start to spin around in her head. if classes were actually magic seeds that had been altered in some way, she had made a huge step towards understanding how the system worked. she had never previously come across the idea of classes being based on magic seeds, because it was so far outside of her previous guesses about the nature of mana and the system that she simply wouldn¡¯t have ever thought of the idea.


    then, alice took a few deep breaths as she did her best to shake off her excitement. even if class seeds and magic seeds looked like they were close to same thing when she had used {expanding comprehension}, she needed to do more testing, to make sure her ideas were correct. she also needed to figure out what this actually meant in concrete terms. if class seeds were actually some kind of weird, deformed magic seed, what were the notable differences between a class seed and a magic seed? what were the similarities?


    alice frowned, going back over her thoughts and memories as she tried to highlight the differences between a magic seed and a class seed.


    first, one needed to go through a mana baptism to use a magic seed. a mana baptism formed a mage core, and was a fundamental requirement to use ¡®magic¡¯ in the truest sense of the word. class seeds didn¡¯t require one to go through a mana baptism at all. instead, one could use them safely with zero danger. so the fundamental danger each kind of seed posed to the user were very different, because class seeds were much less strict in their requirements than a magic seed was.


    second, class seeds were much, much weaker than a magic seed, especially at first. any class provided few benefits before one started getting to a high level, and before level 50, most classes were still strictly inferior to magic seeds. however, class seeds continued to ¡®grow¡¯ as people took actions related to their class. if alice explored magic, for example, her [explorer of magic] class would keep levelling up, granting her new abilities every so often.


    magic seeds never did this. once they were formed, they were basically totally finished unless perks or achievements started to boost them up. therefore, while the initial power level of a class seed was much, much lower than a magic seed, they seemed to have a much higher growth limit, but it also took much more time, effort, and work to get there.


    third, in alice¡¯s vision trip with {expanding comprehension}, she had noticed that magic seeds seemed to keep generating mana without any need for external resources or input. this correlated pretty well with her tests in manaless rooms, where she had proven unable to find any real ¡®source¡¯ for the mana a magic seed produced. as far as alice could tell, magic seeds seemed to just never heard of the law of conservation of energy, and had no intention whatsoever of following them. while class seeds also worked without external fuel sources, they grew weaker without them, which was unlike a magic seed.


    alice also realized that in her vision, a class seed would keep consuming more mana from its surroundings as long as it was related to the seed. there seemed to be no point at which a class seed stopped absorbing mana, actually. maybe that was how a class gained levels? they just... kept absorbing mana?


    alice also didn¡¯t understand why class seeds absorbed mana only after someone took an action related to their class. why didn¡¯t class seeds just keep absorbing mana every second? if absorbing mana was what made classes level up, there was no logical reason to tie mana absorption to classes at all. someone taking the time to train themselves in the art of swordsmanship would obviously get better at swinging a sword around, but it didn¡¯t make sense that swinging a sword around gave them more mana, even if that mana was used to fuel magic abilities vaguely related to swordsmanship. why did class seeds gain mana and level up from doing things totally unrelated to magic?


    alice frowned, wrestling with various ideas as she tried to come to a conclusion on how levelling up actually worked, before she gave up on thinking about the idea. she just didn¡¯t have enough information to guess yet. finally, she began thinking of boris¡¯s situation again.


    couldshe use {broken seed} on a class? she had never thought of trying, but thanks to {seed creator} she was able to break other people¡¯s magic seeds, as long as they were willing to let her. and if classes and magic seeds were fundamentally the same idea with minor revisions, she should at least theoretically be able to break a class seed the same way she could break a magic seed.


    which was a very strange idea. as far as alice knew, nobody in this world had any way to remove a class once it had been acquired. a [priest of the system] could change whether a class was a primary or secondary class, but had no fundamental ability to remove a class. once someone had a class, it was permanent. granted, there was zero reason to remove a class once someone had one ¨C classes were never bad for the user, even if they were sometimes useless. however, if {broken seed} was able to remove any magic seed, and classes were fundamentally magic seeds, could {broken seed} outright delete a class?


    alice tried feeding the idea of breaking a class seed into {safety analysis}, with the idea of removing her [fisherwoman] class, pushing through her worsening headache from using mental perks over and over again. alice was willing to delete the class if it would give her more information, since she had no real intention of ever developing the class any further than level 3. to be honest, on most days alice largely forgot that she even possessed this secondary class, because it was so utterly useless to her. she hated fishing, and was no longer in a position where she needed to desperately scramble to feed herself. and it didn¡¯t offer her any useful perks, either ¨C she was still seven levels away from getting her first perk in the class, and she doubted she was ever going to acquire those levels, or use the perk even if she got it.


    her perk informed her that destroying her [fisherwoman] class was safe. of course, that could also just mean that she would accomplish literally nothing during the experiment. she asked {safety analysis} what would happen if she deleted the class seed from boris. after all, if boris having access to the system before he was supposed was creating all of these weird problems for him, maybe she could outright remove the class? she thought that might work better than just cutting boris off from mana. if it worked, hopefully boris would just lose his status screen until he turned six, and then he would unlock it again like normal. that would be a much better solution than alice¡¯s first idea, which was just to cut off boris¡¯s access to mana. cutting off boris¡¯s mana would indeed stop boris from levelling up, and alice thought it was likely that it would prevent boris¡¯s problems from getting worse. however, it also prevented him from levelling up and forced him to become reliant on expensive enchantments to stay alive, and both of those were problems in the long run. not to mention, it wouldn¡¯t fix whatever problems boris already had, because the mana accumulation and class seeds in boris¡¯s body wouldn¡¯t decrease no matter how long she cut him off from mana.


    as alice contemplated breaking boris¡¯s class seed, a feeling of suffocating dread crushed her as {safety analysis} blared out warning signals. alice shivered as the feeling started to dissipate.


    clearly, removing boris¡¯s class seed was a bad idea. why though?


    alice took a moment to collect herself, before she began brainstorming reasons for why destroying boris¡¯s class seed would be dangerous.


    there were a few possible conclusions. first, there could be some sort of fundamental difference between primary and secondary classes, making one safe to break down while the other wasn¡¯t. alice wasn¡¯t absolutely sure if borris¡¯s farming class was a primary class, but given how fast it was picking up levels it was probably a primary class. alice would investigate this later, when her headache got better. since {safety analysis} was fairly safe and easy to use, alice could run lots of experimental ideas through the perk and see what was and wasn¡¯t dangerous when she had more time.


    alternatively, boris might not be in danger because he had a class seed. instead, perhaps his class seed wasn¡¯t sucking up enough mana? whenever someone was exposed to enough mana for a fair amount of time, they would undergo a mana baptism, where they had a small chance of becoming a mage and a much greater chance of dying on the spot. this was a good reminder of how dangerous mana actually was. maybe class seeds worked to suck up mana, and the fact boris¡¯s mana seed wasn¡¯t sucking up enough mana was what was causing his weird personality changes?


    alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure how that would work, but it seemed as plausible as any other theory she could come up with. alternatively, maybe boris could actually go through a mana baptism as a result of the mana buildup in his body or something. alice had never heard of anyone going through a baptism because there was too much mana inside of their body, and she had no clue whether it was even possible. however, if it was possible, it made perfect sense that boris¡¯s situation was becoming increasingly bizarre and dangerous as time passed on, and it also made sense that deleting his class seed would put him in massive danger. after all, even if his class seed wasn¡¯t working as it was supposed to, removing it entirely might speed up the potentially dangerous mana baptism boris was at risk of going through. being forced into a process with a 4% survival rate definitely seemed dangerous enough for {safety analysis} to blare a bunch of warning signals at her.


    or her theory could be totally wrong. alice was in totally unfamiliar territory at this point, there was just too much she didn¡¯t know. alice sighed in frustration, before she shook her head again. at the very least, it seemed like trying to remove a class seed with {broken seed} would do something if she tried using it on boris. she would figure out how to test her ideas some more when her headache settled down a bit, and when she had better ideas for testing things without putting boris in danger.


    finally, alice stepped out of the manaless room. the moment she did, mana flooded into her body, and level up notifications started ringing like crazy.


    you have leveled up!


    survivor: 50 -> 51, explorer of magic: 56 -> 59, scholar: 43 -> 51, scientist: 45 -> 52


    seeker of truth (iii->iv) (rarity: 9 -> 10)


    while reading any form of written text, you can read and process information ten times faster than before. your comprehension abilities are also greatly enhanced while reading (note - this bonus only applies to things you are reading. if you are reading and doing something else at the same time, only reading gets this comprehension bonus).


    alice took {super speed reading} because she spent so much time reading every day, and yet there were still hundreds, or even thousands of reports, books, and pieces of information left in the academy library that she had no hope of accessing within the next few months, or even within the next few years. the library collected more books and rotated out old books semi-frequently, keeping only the most well known and useful older books around, and alice found the idea of reading through books much more quickly appealing. with this perk, alice could probably finish a smaller experiment report within a few minutes of reading, and might be able to finish even a longer book within thirty or forty minutes. that reading speed was absolutely phenomenal, and alice felt it was worth spending a perk slot on it.


    delve into the arcane


    requirements: scholar level 50 or higher, magic 150 or higher, intelligence 100 or higher, some sort of perk which gives you the ability to learn information, rarity eight or higher achievement related to magic and research


    if you have spent at least an hour learning about magic within the past 24 hours, your mana regeneration rate is increased by 100% (this multiplier takes effect after accounting for all other perks you have that multiplies mana regeneration, working multiplicatively instead of additively).


    when alice saw this perk, she took it almost immediately. her current mana regeneration rate was 2.5% of her maximum capacity ever hour, meaning she needed 40 hours to completely recharge. this put an upper limit on the amount of enchanting she could do every day, and also meant that she needed to carefully manage the amount of mana she spent during classes if she wanted to remain economically stable.


    this perk would just double her mana regeneration to 5%, and would boost both her economic stability and her ability to train and enchant things. considering how much time and energy she spent on learning about magic, alice was pretty sure this perk would have been active for almost every second of time she had been in this world since the moment she had unlocked her first magic seed. the difficulty of keeping this perk active was trivial for her, and the benefits were definitely sizeable.


    finally, alice grabbed her level 50 scientist perk.


    the science of mana deprivation


    requirements: scientist level 50 or higher, intelligence 150 or higher, must have extensively experimented with mana and lack of mana and its effects on other creatures and/or oneself, magic 150 or higher, pure mana seed (or similar seed) present.


    you may use your mana tendrils to interfere with mana, allowing you to create manaless fields at will given enough time or otherwise allowing you to prevent mana from interfering with your experiments.


    note 1: the farther away the mana is, the more difficult and mentally draining it will be to activate this perk. it is advised you use this on areas near you.


    note 2: please remember that interfering with mana controlled by other people will be far more mentally taxing than manipulating the same amount of mana would be if it were uncontrolled.


    alice had been pretty surprised when she had seen this perk, mostly because it seemed so... unusual by system standards. as far as alice could tell... this perk did a few things for her. first, it made setting up a manaless field much easier, saving her a lot of labor, enchanting materials, and time if she wanted to do an experiment without mana getting in the way. this was a minor effect, but one that alice welcomed, since it would finally let her run experiments outside of cecilia¡¯s workshop.


    however, much more importantly, as far as alice could tell, this would let her prevent other mages from using mana if she could get one of her mana tendrils in contact with theirs. this provided a very situational but very powerful antimagic ability for her, giving her a completely unexpected combat ability boost from a class she had never expected to provide her with combat options.


    and, most interesting of all, alice wondered if this could prevent the activation of perks. as far as alice could tell, most perks worked by utilizing system mana to do stuff. normally, people couldn¡¯t interfere with system mana even if they had this perk, because they wouldn¡¯t be able to see it in the first place. however, alice could see system mana perfectly clearly, and had long gotten used to cornering system mana with her own even when it tried to escape. if that was the case... maybe she could just outright prevent perks from working? she had no idea if it would work or not, but it was a very interesting idea that alice found herself eager to try.


    alice couldn¡¯t stop grinning to herself as she analyzed all of her gains from the experiments she had done, before she walked out of the hallway. she started humming a tune from earth to herself, since she was feeling especially cheerful.


    as she passed by cecilia, cecilia noticed her grinning and humming to herself.


    ¡°productive experiment today?¡± asked the other girl, without looking up from her enchantment.


    ¡°very,¡± said alice, grinning. ¡°i don¡¯t have a solution for boris¡¯s problem yet, but i think i¡¯m on the way to getting one. or at least i got a big clue about how everything works behind the scenes, and i can take it in really interesting directions. i just need a bit more time, and i can figure out how all of this fits together.¡±


    cecilia nodded, smiling faintly at alice¡¯s joy. ¡°just make sure you pay attention. the society is getting even crazier recently, and i don¡¯t know why, but they¡¯re making the recent problems with the system even more dangerous. figuring out what¡¯s going on is hard enough without those guys also stirring up trouble. if you stick out too much, they might come after you regardless of the consequences, especially if it looks like you would be able to help them with their research.¡±


    ¡°hopefully that won¡¯t happen, but i¡¯m starting to wonder if whatever is going wrong with the system is an even bigger danger than the society. if the system breaks down... what happens?¡±


    ¡°if the system stopped working entirely? i... have no idea,¡± said cecilia, frowning. ¡°given how much it seems to help out behind the scenes, a world without the system... is probably one without humans in it? if everyone suddenly lost all of their levels and perks, that¡¯s what i imagine would happen. but the fact that we kept our perks, levels, and attributes even when we cut ourselves off from the system in previous experiments probably means that even if the system collapsed tomorrow, we wouldn¡¯t lose what we¡¯ve already acquired. however, when i think of children born in the future, i can¡¯t imagine many of them surviving...¡± cecilia frowned, sinking into thought.


    alice sighed, shaking her head. ¡°i¡¯ll do my best to stay out of danger, but i¡¯m starting to think there¡¯s no way to stay safe no matter what. in the end, i might need to brave the society¡¯s attention or stand to the side and watch as whatever is going wrong unfolds.¡±


    cecilia¡¯s frown grew deeper, before she also sighed. ¡°i¡¯ll start training up my combat classes a bit more, in case we¡¯re forced into a dead end and something happens. i hope it doesn¡¯t come to that, but... if something really does go horribly wrong, i¡¯ll be there for you, okay?¡± cecilia shook her head. ¡°but do your best to make sure it doesn¡¯t come to that. i¡¯m only a little over level 50, and my primary classes are [enchanter] and [merchant]. neither of those are very handy in a fight, and while i do have some self-protection enchantments on me, i would rather not test their effectiveness on some combat-oriented level 70 come to kidnap you in the middle of the night or something.¡±


    ¡°i¡¯ll do my best,¡± said alice, grinning mirthlessly at cecilia. at the same time, she decided that she needed to finish rebuilding her second generation of self-protection enchantments sooner rather than later. she also hoped she wouldn¡¯t ever tangle with the society of starry eyes. but with the way things were unfolding now, alice wasn¡¯t sure if that was possible anymore.

 Chapter 90

    chapter 90


    after alice finished dealing with all of her upgrades, she visited boris for the week. now that she had a more extensive list of ideas and guesses about class seeds, alice took this visit as an opportunity to observe boris in greater detail, to see if she could verify any of her guesses about the nature of class seeds. she had already observed that boris had a huge amount of mana in his body compared to the amount of time he had been working on levelling up, but now that she had more information, perhaps she could learn something new.


    unfortunately, this idea ended up as a dead end. alice didn¡¯t manage to discover too much or confirm any of her guesses after the visit. however, she did discover that the class seed in boris¡¯s body wasn¡¯t absorbing any mana, unlike the seed she had seen in her vision. this puzzled alice, but considering how much she didn¡¯t know about class seeds right now, it wasn¡¯t too surprising that she had missing information right now. alice couldn¡¯t help but wonder if boris¡¯s condition would get better the moment he turned six. perhaps the moment he turned six and turned the right age for a normal status screen, the class seed in his body would instantly eat up all of the extra mana in his body and he would return to normalcy? or perhaps nothing would happen, or the class seed would start absorbing mana and slowly ¡®digest¡¯ the excess mana in boris¡¯s body bit by bit? alice wasn¡¯t quite sure, and she didn¡¯t dare to mess with anything right now due to her fear of harming boris in the process. at the very least, ever since alice had encouraged natasha to prevent boris from farming, his condition hadn¡¯t gotten any worse, so alice considered that a minor victory for now. next weekend she could hopefully bring over professor feliza and get boris an enchantment to shut off access to mana in his surroundings, which would work as another countermeasure to prevent boris¡¯s condition from deteriorating further.


    alice left natasha¡¯s house in a poor mood. she still didn¡¯t know enough about how class seeds worked to solve the root problem, so she could only sigh, remind natasha not to let boris farm or work in the fields, and return to metsel for the night. on the way out of the village, she couldn¡¯t help but notice that the number of [guards] around natasha and boris had drastically decreased compared to a month ago. there was still one extra [guard] sticking around natasha¡¯s village, but considering how many different directions illvaria¡¯s manpower was getting pulled now, the [guards] obviously couldn¡¯t afford to devote more people towards an attack that showed no signs of materializing. alice was starting to think her guess was unfounded ¨C the society of starry eyes might have stumbled across boris as a result of blind luck, and maybe have just been kidnapping children at random in hopes of getting lucky instead of having some way to actively search for him.


    the following day, alice returned to her magic classes and prepared to learn more about monster biology, self-defense, and attend an extremely exciting, fascinating, and valuable lecture about morals. but before she could get settled in and talk with samantha for the day before switching back to talking with luka, erkki, laila, and arsi, she realized that samantha wasn¡¯t present in the classroom.


    samantha usually arrived to class fairly early.


    alice started to get a bad feeling.


    ¡°do you know where samantha is?¡± she asked her four friends in the class.


    luka simply shrugged, and erkki frowned for a moment before he shook his head. laila lifted her head towards alice for a moment, before she yawned and responded with a lazy ¡°i don¡¯t know who that is.¡±


    arsi gave alice the most useful response. he turned towards her and then frowned for a moment, before nodding to himself. ¡°i¡¯ve heard one of her friends from an earlier class i share mention that samantha was sick today. i didn¡¯t pay much attention to it, but i did hear her say that the girl is sick enough for her family to hire an [organic mage] to take a look at her. she should be healthy by tomorrow, i guess, assuming samantha¡¯s family hires a good [organic mage].¡± arsi shrugged. ¡°if you wait until wednesday you can probably see her again.¡±


    alice¡¯s bad feeling intensified as she wondered whether an [organic mage] could even find samantha¡¯s weird and broken kinetic seed. the best thing the healer might be able to accomplish was healing some of samantha¡¯s symptoms, unless the [organic mage] had a very surprising set of perks and achievements.


    ¡°do you know where samantha lives? i¡¯m sure you know that she and i have been talking recently when i have extra time, so i want to go wish her well. besides, i¡¯ve recently been learning bits and pieces about organic magic, and maybe i can sit by the side and learn something useful,¡± said alice. the effort she had been putting in for the past week came in useful, as arsi simply nodded at her statement. alice was now known to enjoy speaking with samantha, and so arsi didn¡¯t think there was anything unusual about alice wanting to visit her friend.


    ¡°i don¡¯t know anything specifically where she lives. you could probably ask one of her friends for more detailed information. if you¡¯re lucky, she might even be heading there after her classes for the day are finished in order to check up on samantha. if she is, you can probably just tag along. and even if she doesn¡¯t plan to make a visit, she should know where samantha lives, so you can still get directions from her.¡±


    ¡°is that so? i¡¯ll have to ask her later, then. who should i look for?¡±


    ¡°look for the girl named taylie. she has black hair and blue eyes, and she¡¯s a little taller than you. but she walks with a slightly hunched posture, so in practice your height is about the same as hers. she¡¯s a bit more on the nervous side, has slightly below average [charisma], doesn¡¯t really like people too much, and her mage emblem is made out of copper. she shouldn¡¯t be too hard to identify,¡± said arsi, before adding a few description about taylie¡¯s schedule. ¡°she finishes her classes for the day the same time this class ends, and she doesn¡¯t really stick around the after class. she heads straight out of the building the moment she can leave. i imagine you¡¯ll probably have to rush and catch her by the door if you want to meet with her today. if that doesn¡¯t work, you can always just wait until wednesday, although you¡¯ll miss the chance to observe a healer with a full certificate in action.¡±


    alice thanked arsi for sharing this information with her. class started right afterwards, so she did her best to turn her attention to class, but had a hard time paying attention. her thoughts kept turning back to samantha¡¯s situation. she had been hesitating on what she should do for a while, and cecilia had also advised her not to put herself in too much danger, and had implied that alice should look after herself first, even if it meant abandoning samantha and letting things play out. alice had originally felt that cecilia¡¯s words made sense. she would help where she could, but she would look out for herself first.


    however, now that samantha¡¯s condition was getting worse, alice found that her thoughts were a mess. could she really just coldly watch on as someone she enjoyed talking with get sick and possibly die, just because she was afraid of the society of starry eyes? alice wasn¡¯t even sure if the society would notice alice treating a slightly weird illness, and she was pretty sure the root cause couldn¡¯t be treated by anyone but her. alice also felt a little guilty, because she knew for sure that if the person in danger wasn¡¯t samantha, but was someone like cecilia, alice wouldn¡¯t have hesitated at all. cecilia was her closest friend in this world, and if cecilia had been the one in danger she would have helped cecilia first and figured out the consequences later. even if she wasn¡¯t as close with samantha, letting her die just didn¡¯t feel right.


    ¡°good evening,¡± said the [organic mage], giving them a friendly nod as he walked closer. alice noticed that his gaze settled on the two for a moment, as if he was trying to make a decision, before he took a step closer to them. the alarm bells in alice¡¯s head grew louder. ¡°may i ask what you¡¯re doing on this fine day?¡± at the same time, he stretched out his hand towards taylie¡¯s, as if asking for a handshake. taylie frowned sluggishly, as if she could also tell that something wasn¡¯t quite right, but she reached out her hand to shake the man¡¯s anyway.


    ¡°we¡¯re here to visit our friend,¡± said taylie, giving the man a sleepy nod. alice got a better idea of what was happening as she saw a jolt of rainbow mana reach out of the man¡¯s hand and into taylie¡¯s arm during the handshake. taylie¡¯s smile grew more relaxed and lethargic after a few seconds, and without any further explanation or focus, taylie veered away from the man and kept walking towards samantha¡¯s house.


    at the same time, the [organic mage] extended his hand towards alice for a handshake. alice started panicking. should she shake the man¡¯s hand, or immediately open hostilities? the man hadn¡¯t attacked taylie as she walked by, so he seemed to be uninterested in killing her. if that was the case, alice might have a better opportunity to open a fight with a surprise attack...


    like a wooden puppet, she extended her hand towards the [organic mage] as she started praying that her next idea would work. out of the corner of her eye, she watched a burst of rainbow mana get injected into her body.


    then, alice used {extended organics} to create a small, needle-sized mana tendril inside of her wrist. {the science of mana deprivation} activated, and the burst of rainbow mana was quickly isolated from the rest of her body, tying up one of her mana tendrils but preventing her from falling asleep.


    ¡°i wish you the best of luck checking up on your friend, then,¡± said the man, giving them an more amiable and warm smile as he walked past alice, completely ignoring her. alice did her best to mimic taylie, veering slightly to the side and sleepily walking towards samantha¡¯s house.{sense hostility} stopped activating, and right after alice passed by the man, she immediately used {extended organics} to create three mana tendrils a few inches away from the man, targeting the front of his clothing. before he had time to react, alice used kinetic magic to turn the buttons on his clothes into weapons and shot them directly towards the man¡¯s heart.


    the three buttons tore through the man¡¯s skin, but alice could tell that she hadn¡¯t managed to kill him. he turned around as his flesh regrew, wriggling around in meat tendrils as perks activated inside of his body. the man¡¯s facial features contorted, before his face melted like putty as twisted as he snarled at her. all of a sudden, the man¡¯s facial features were completely different, and alice immediately realized the man had somehow used organic magic to change his own facial features.


    ¡°society attack!¡± yelled alice at the top of her lungs, hoping to call over some [guards] to help.


    the man snarled at her, and then reached down, ripped a cobblestone out of the street with his hands, and threw it at her.


    {adrenaline rush} activated, and alice¡¯s perception of time was warped as the world slowed to a crawl. she reached out one tendril of mana to stop the cobblestone flying towards her while simultaneously activating her bracelet and preparing one more cobblestone to use as a projectile. however, when she tried to stop the cobblestone flying towards her, she realized to her shock that the force behind the cobblestone was somehow resistant to her attempts at stopping it. forced to abandon her plan of counterattacking, alice instead tried to duck away from the incoming projectile. she quickly realized that also couldn¡¯t get out of the way in time, so she cancelled her other mana tendrils before reforming them with {extended organics}. then, she used her free mana tendrils to grab herself by the clothes and throw herself out of the way.


    she barely escaped having her head crushed like a grape as the cobblestone tore through the air, slamming into the wall of a nearby house and tearing a massive hole in the wall. alice felt her heart beating faster as she imagined what would have happened if she hadn¡¯t gotten out of the way in time, and grew even more afraid of the society member who was attacking her.


    luckily, the society member didn¡¯t follow up on his attack. since he was in the middle of the city and [guards] might come any minute, he instead strengthened his legs and began running from the scene at full speed. alice didn¡¯t even concentrate on getting up or healing the bruises from crashing heavily into the ground, as she began firing cobblestones, her consumable bracelet, and random pieces of the surroundings at him. she managed to clip him with a few stones, and almost managed to slice his leg off with a flying piece of roof tile, but the man¡¯s regenerative powers were high enough that he just regrew his flesh and kept fleeing at top speed. alice chased after him until for a few seconds, until {adrenaline rush} ended and she realized she couldn¡¯t stop him from fleeing. soon, he disappeared into the distance.


    alice swore, staring at the decimated street and giving herself a quick check over. luckily, it didn¡¯t seem like she had any serious injuries ¨C just some scrapes and bruises from throwing herself around like a rag doll, but those were easy enough to heal.


    she turned back to the scene of the brief fight, and noticed taylie had made it inside of samantha¡¯s house before collapsing and falling asleep, having managed to completely ignore the brief fight. since alice had no ability to chase after the suspected society member, she cursed again and walked back into samantha¡¯s house to check on taylie. luckily, the girl wasn¡¯t terribly injured. inside of the house were also an older man and a woman, along with a young girl, all sleeping comfortably on a bed together. if it weren¡¯t for the rainbow mana in their bodies, along with the fact the couple and their daughter had somehow managed to sleep through a wall being demolished a few seconds ago, alice might have thought that they had simply fallen asleep.


    however, alice felt that something was missing here. this was samantha¡¯s house, after all. where was samantha?


    it only took her a few moments to confirm her ominous premonition.


    samantha wasn¡¯t in the house.

 Chapter 91

    chapter 91


    alice felt waves of panic cycle through her thoughts as she checked through samantha¡¯s house again, hoping to find samantha in a spot she had missed. however, in her heart, alice already knew she wasn¡¯t going to find her. a heavy feeling of dread weighed down on her as she searched samantha¡¯s house again and again, before the realization that samantha was gone finally settled into her mind like the weight of a millstone.


    dazed, she walked out of samantha¡¯s house and sat down in front of the door. a sense of fear and melancholy appeared as she thought about the fact that samantha¡¯s safety was now completely impossible to guarantee. after samantha was kidnapped by the society, alice didn¡¯t know what would happen to her ¨C nor did alice have any ability to interfere at all. even if samantha was sliced into pieces by the society as an experiment, alice had no way to help her now.


    in fact, the society didn¡¯t need to do anything to kill samantha. samantha¡¯s new kinetic seed had something seriously wrong with it, and samantha was getting increasingly ill as time passed. if samantha wasn¡¯t given an effective treatment in time, the symptoms would probably become fatal. and alice was the only person that could treat samantha, at least as far as she knew.


    the odds of samantha surviving felt dishearteningly low when alice seriously considered the situation. alice felt a burst of doubt and worry. had her hesitation in treating samantha caused this? was samantha specifically targeted because of her strange illness? or had the society already made up its mind to kidnap a mage, and samantha had simply been unlucky? alice felt a wave of doubts as she wondered whether she had moved too slowly, causing samantha to get hurt as a result...


    alice closed her eyes, shaking her head as she tried to clear away her guilty thoughts. to the best of her knowledge, the danger represented by the society hadn¡¯t been significant enough to reach samantha. for the society to kidnap a mage in broad daylight was a massive escalation in their conflict with illvaria, and one that was sure to net a massive retaliation from the illvarian crown. alice had no way of knowing that the society would be willing to risk so much, and she had been doing her best to set up a way to help samantha while keeping herself safe. she had actively been using her connections with her [teacher] to keep her abilities hidden while still allowing he to help people when needed. if the society hadn¡¯t kidnapped samantha today, alice¡¯s would have probably deflected any possible problems towards professor feliza, as long as the woman was willing to help out. if today hadn¡¯t happened, alice felt that she would have been able to save samantha without risk to herself.


    but now, things were changed. alice didn¡¯t even know if samantha was targeted because the society knew something about her magic seeds, or if samantha was just targeted because she was a mage and seemed to be vulnerable. she sighed to herself, ignoring her system notifications as her thoughts churned and she tried to understand what she needed to do next.


    before she finished sorting out her thoughts, a [guard] appeared. the [guard] was a woman who looked to be in her early thirties, and looked to be around level 45 or 50. she was a person with no outstanding characteristics, but alice still stood up to greet her anyway, pushing down all of her chaotic thoughts and emotions to focus on the [guard].


    ¡°excuse me miss, a few minutes ago i and a colleague heard someone yell that a society member had been spotted. may i ask if that was you?¡± asked the [guard], ignoring the caved-in building nearby.


    ¡°i ... yes. you see ¨C i...¡± alice took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down and wishing {rhetorical flourish} worked in this case, because she really needed a perk to help her straighten out her words right now. alice struggled to put her words together, failed a second time, and finally managed to eke out a coherent explanation on her third attempt. she quickly recounted the situation to the [guard].


    the [guard] took a closer look at alice, and out of the corner of her eyes, alice saw the [guard¡¯s] gaze linger on alice¡¯s mage emblem, and then the [guard¡¯s] posture straightened out quite a bit.


    ¡°i¡¯m sorry, you said that an acquaintance of yours was kidnapped? lady mage, do you mean to say that a normal acquaintance was kidnapped, or... was a mage was just kidnapped?¡±


    even though most of alice¡¯s attention was still focused on samantha¡¯s disappearance, she couldn¡¯t help but notice the [guard¡¯s] change in posture, as well as the fact that the [guard] was now referring to her as ¡®lady mage¡¯ instead of ¡®miss.¡¯ she realized with a start that the [guard] hadn¡¯t noticed she was a mage at first. she frowned for a moment, before deciding to emphasize the situation as much as possible for samantha¡¯s sake. if the [guards] knew that a mage was the one that had been kidnapped, it was obvious that they would put more emphasis on the case compared to a random tramp getting kidnapped. alice seriously doubted the [guards] would be able to track down and rescue samantha either way, but having more people working on the case and more resources devoted to it would at least improve samantha¡¯s chances.


    ¡°yes, my friend is named samantha, an acquaintance from my magic university. she¡¯s also a mage. we occasionally chatted before class. i¡¯m quite shocked to see the society brazen enough to kidnap someone in broad daylight, especially a mage of high standing.¡±


    saying samantha¡¯s standing was high was definitely pushing it a bit, but mages were legally considered quasi-nobles in illvaria. even if samantha¡¯s family was poor, she still had a higher social and legal status to protect her. for now, alice was just hoping that the [guard] would call over more high-level people to deal with samantha¡¯s kidnapping, even if it requires stretching the truth a bit.


    ¡°just so that i know what i¡¯m dealing with, can you give me any clues about the man¡¯s fighting style? any estimates for his physical stats, physical characteristics, perks or achievements he used?¡±


    ¡°he was pretty strong. i¡¯m not sure about his physical stats, but i imagine his [endurance] was at least over 200 after stat effectiveness was factored in. his speed was pretty high, so probably at least above 150 [dexterity]? i have multiple classes above level 50, and i almost managed to take off one of his legs with a roof tile, but he dodged or ignored most of my attacks even when i threw everything i could at him. i think if he had actually turned around to fight me, i might not have survived, but luckily he was more focused on escaping,¡± said alice. then, as she had more time to process the fight itself, sudden chills lanced their way down her spine. it finally occurred to her just how close she had been to dying during the fight. if the society member hadn¡¯t decided the threat of [guards] was more important than fighting her, she might have died during the fight.


    the guard¡¯s eyes widened, and she gave alice a hesitant glance before she frowned. then, she gave a self-deprecatory laugh. ¡°if even a mage with multiple classes above 50 couldn¡¯t stop the guy from running, there¡¯s nothing i could do without a bunch of my colleagues. let¡¯s wait for the others to come ¨C the [guard] i was patrolling with went to notify the [guard] house and get more people to close off this area. when they come, i still doubt we¡¯ll have enough manpower to deal with a trained combat mage who¡¯s probably above level 65, and might be even higher in level.¡± the [guard] shook her head, before sighing.


    ¡°is there anyone in the [guards] or armed forces of illvaria you know and you would like me to contact, lady mage? if there is, i can let them know about this situation for you. if you have any contacts with high level people, the odds of your friend getting out of this alive are probably much higher, although the higher ups will definitely respond to a mage getting kidnapped either way.¡±


    alice only needed to think for a moment to think of someone who might be helpful.


    ¡°if he¡¯s available, please contact [knight] arin,¡± said alice. she felt that [knight] arin was strong enough to help in this situation, and would hopefully be interested in the fact a mage had been kidnapped. alice hadn¡¯t spoken with him much over the past month, but she felt it was worth contacting him over this.


    ¡°i will see if he is available,¡± said the [guard] before giving alice a respectful nod. ¡°is there anything else about the encounter you remember? what about the person¡¯s physical description?¡±


    then, alice looked over her choices for [explorer of magic]. when she looked over the perk list, alice noticed something curious ¨C the descriptions she got for when she ¡®combined¡¯ a few perks was somewhat different from the descriptions for combined perks she had seen when she was at level 55. the descriptions for some of her combined perk choices had changed, either because alice wanted more combat ability right now, or simply as a result of reaching a higher level this time. alice wasn¡¯t sure which, but she made a mental note that the ¡®results¡¯ of combining perks seemed to change sometimes and that she should keep an eye out for more information in the future.


    then, she looked over the two new perks she could take at level 60. neither seemed particularly appealing ¨C the first one offered her a new seed slot, which alice didn¡¯t need right now, and the other perk choice would give any of her other magic-related classes a bonus 100% to levelling speed. that wasn¡¯t bad, but the fact that the perk wouldn¡¯t apply to [explorer of magic] made it considerably less useful.


    finally, alice settled on combining perks again.


    combat spellcaster


    requirements: explorer of magic level 15 or higher, magic 50 or higher


    living creatures resist your mana less effectively


    improved seed


    requirements: explorer of magic level 20 or higher


    allows you to improve one magic seed''s mana conversion ratio by 10%. this is only effective on magic seeds below 200% mana conversion ratio.


    alice decided to sacrifice these two perks, because neither of them offered her anything particularly useful anymore. combat spellcaster had been useful when she was still living in the woods, because it helped her deal with spidercrabs before they lunged at her and bit something vital. however, at this point, spidercrabs weren¡¯t a threat anymore, and alice could just plow through groups of them using random sticks and rocks from her surroundings. the perk wasn¡¯t particularly useful against bigger creatures either, since even after the perk reduced their mana resistance, it was still high enough to make doing something like ripping them in half with mana or tearing apart their organs highly impractical. these days, the perk served little use. improved seed had been used to increase her kinetic magic seed, and also wasn¡¯t a very big bonus at this point. her kinetic seed was at 146% mana conversion ratio, and her [magic] stat was much higher than it had been at the time. the bonus from this perk also wasn¡¯t very useful anymore.


    perk 1: combat spellcaster + perk 2: improved seed = ??????


    ????: you may or may not lose the 10% bonus to your kinetic seed¡¯s mana conversion ratio. all kinetic mana from your magic seed will gain two unique properties. first, it will become harder for other mages to interact with objects that have recently been ¡®touched¡¯ by your kinetic mana, and second, objects recently ¡®touched¡¯ by your kinetic mana will gain some sort of detrimental effect for creatures who are wounded by your projectiles. this detrimental effect¡¯s exact details are hard to predict.


    would you like to combine these two perks?


    alice quickly hit confirm.


    combat seed (tier 2 perk, level 60 explorer of magic) (level 15 explorer of magic perk + level 20 explorer of magic perk)


    perk costs: combat spellcaster + improved seed sacrificed to create this perk.


    you may attach a small extra layer of mana to any object you use your kinetic seed to manipulate. this extra layer of mana has the ability to ¡®shred¡¯ other forms of mana it comes into contact with, completely nullifying any attempts to heal wounds or interfere with objects your mana is stuck to until the mana is removed. if an object thrown using this seed ends up embedded in another person, it will fracture into pieces of shrapnel inside of their body if it is possible for the object to do so. these pieces of shrapnel will retain your layer of mana-shredding kinetic mana until another mage removes it.


    note: other mages may remove this extra layer of mana using their own mana, even without specialized perks. however, doing so will be mentally draining and require careful use of mana. it will be difficult to do quickly unless they are much stronger than you.


    after alice took these two perks, she felt that she was much closer to being combat ready. she was still a researcher at heart, and would still probably lose against someone who much higher level than she was. however, she felt... closer to being able to protect herself against the new level of offense she was practically inviting the society to use against her. in particular, with access to {combat seed} she might have been able to at least slow down the guy who had kidnapped samantha earlier, or even kill him if he didn''t have any other surprises in his sleeves. and even if alice was putting herself in more danger, she didn¡¯t regret her decision. she didn¡¯t want to just stand to the side and hope things turned out for the best. even if it was more dangerous, she wanted to explore the secrets of this world and help her friends survive whatever was going wrong with the system these days. if taking a little bit of a bigger risk than before was the price for that...


    alice was prepared to pay it. she was a cautious person by nature, and she had no interest in fighting when she could spend that time doing research instead. but if push came to shove, she wouldn¡¯t run away from it if she would be in danger no matter what she did.


    after another few minutes, to alice¡¯s surprise and delight, [knight] arin actually came to the scene of samantha¡¯s kidnapping. alice took a deep breath, and let it out again to finish calming her nerves.


    it was time to make some serious plans for her future, both to see if there was anything she could do to rescue samantha and to see what kind of protection the crown might be willing to offer if she exposed her ability to see how mage cores worked.

 Chapter 92

    chapter 92


    [knight] arin looked at alice with a bit of confusion, giving her a sideways glance as he took in the sight of the partially ruined street around him. alice also took a look at her surroundings, wincing a bit as she took in the aftermath of the fight. cobblestones were missing left and right from the street, chunks of house and roof tile had been ripped away and used as ammunition, and one of the nearby houses had partially collapsed after the society mage had hurled a cobblestone through its wall. she hadn¡¯t taken the time to look around after speaking with the previous [guard], but now that she took a close look at the scene, it looked like a minor disaster had passed through the area.


    after a moment, arin turned and greeted alice with a nod. ¡°it is a pleasure to see you again, lady alice. although the circumstances are quite... something. this street has certainly seen better days, though i¡¯m glad to see you look quite healthy.¡±


    alice winced again, before she decided to simply nod and not say anything. [knight] arin quickly moved on from the topic.


    ¡°first, i¡¯ve been told that you had an encounter with a member of the society? tell me what happened.¡±


    alice quickly recounted the day so far to [knight] arin again, summarizing her experiences in learning that her classmate was ill, before discussing why she had decided to come to samantha¡¯s house and check up on the girl. [knight] arin nodded along to alice¡¯s story, also calling the [guard] over from time to time to confirm alice¡¯s statements and verify that the details of her previous and current story matched up. alice didn¡¯t mention her ability to see magic seeds yet, since she wanted to first get a better idea what [knight] arin¡¯s current stance towards her was and make sure nothing felt ¡®off¡¯. therefore, she provided the information she had given to the [guard] earlier, without any revelations about samantha¡¯s messed up magic seed.


    ¡°have samantha¡¯s family members woken up yet?¡± asked [arin]. ¡°also, you say that the mage¡¯s face suddenly changed after you started the fight?¡±


    ¡°yes, his face changed after the fight started, probably indicating some sort of shapeshifting perk. samantha¡¯s family hasn¡¯t woken up yet.¡±


    arin nodded. ¡°in that case, i¡¯ll need to ask them some questions once they wake up, but we can wait for that. there are a few perks i know of where trying to wake up someone placed in an unnatural sleep can cause major harm to the sleeping person, usually used by [assassins] to silence information about them if they get discovered partway through a job. besides, i don¡¯t have any tracking abilities, and we still have another thirty minutes or so before the [tracking specialist] i know comes to help.¡± alice nodded, relieved that arin had mentioned a [tracking specialist]. calling over arin really had made it much easier to get people needed for the job in a timely manner. then, as alice shuffled nervously, trying to think of how to broach the topic of magic seeds, arin turned towards her, and paused for a moment, as if falling into thought. then, he gave her a reassuring smile.


    ¡°you seem nervous. is there something you want to talk about?¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°i wish to speak with you about a few things that i have not mentioned before. previously, i had felt that by pretending to have no interesting abilities, the society would ignore me and i could grow and experiment in peace, but after their actions today i have realized that even being average isn¡¯t a guarantee that i won¡¯t be targeted anymore, if they targeted samantha randomly and not as part of a targeted attack. so i want to instead talk about some things i¡¯m researching, and see if the crown has any interest in helping or protecting me during my research. i would love more resources, as well as some protection against possible society attacks while i grow and do experiments. are you able to help me with that?¡±


    arin frowned ¡°kind of. i know almost nothing about research and academic topics. however, i do recall you mentioning a rather unique ability last time i saw you, which was the ability to detect mages easily. is this related to that abilty? if so, while i may not be able to directly get you in touch with research related resources, i can still provide some form of protection if you¡¯re willing to work under me. being able to see mages in advance would make it much easier to find society [infiltrators], assuming they use the front gates and don¡¯t climb the city walls or something.¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°is there a way to keep our conversation private? just in case a society [spy] is nearby or something.¡±


    arin frowned for a moment, before he beckoned to the [guard] who had spoken with alice earlier.


    ¡°do you have any perks that can help us have a private conversation?¡±


    the [guard] nodded, and a bubble of rainbow mana fizzed into existence around alice and arin. the [guard] retreated to the sides again, keeping an eye on the area, as alice began to speak again.


    ¡°let me be blunt. my ability to see who is or is not a mage is an extension of a much different ability. that is the ability to see inside of a mage core, and understand some of what¡¯s going on inside of them. this ability can be applied in a very wide field of research, including but not limited to the study of mage biology itself, the nature of mana, and the study of how to make mana baptisms safer and more successful. since magic seeds are located inside of a mage core, my ability to identify mages and what kind of magic seed they possess is just the logical extension of this ability. given my lack of resources, it¡¯s pretty hard for me to pursue some of those research topics in great detail right now, since some of the perks i rely on while studying my favored topics of research take some time to cool down. however, perks are starting to be only one of the many limiting factors i¡¯m working with, and i¡¯m also getting a bit more worried about the society attacking me. in short, i want protection against society attacks and resources to keep pursuing my research in an ethical fashion. can you help me with this?¡±


    [knight] arin¡¯s eyes widened, as he looked at alice. for a few moments, he simply stared at her, before he closed his jaw. ¡°the ability to see inside of a mage core?¡± [knight] arin¡¯s eyes twitched as he seemed to imagine something, before turning back to her. ¡°no wonder you didn¡¯t want to say anything. if it¡¯s just sensing who¡¯s a mage and who isn¡¯t, or even if you can see their specific magic seeds, that sounds like some sort of weird achievement-based ability a [guard] might get. the society might find you annoying, but since you¡¯re part of a magic academy and have a schedule, and you can only be in one place at a time, i doubt the society would really care about your presence at all. you wouldn¡¯t be worth specifically targeting, whether they wanted revenge against you or to kidnap you. but being able to look inside of a mage core and see how it works is such a unique and critical ability for magic research that the society would absolutely target you if they learned about it. because as long as they can make you tell the truth and report what you see, just sticking you in a room with some of their experiments and making you watch would tell them a lot.¡±


    arin shook his head, before sighing.


    ¡°you mentioned earlier that you were fairly high level for your age? i can see why now. the achievement that you got for starting to unravel the secrets behind mage biology must have at least rarity eight, if not nine or ten. you must be getting a huge experience bonus from it, too... and it¡¯s probably also easier to pick up other weird achievements get new abilities as well. someone opening up the field for research would be able to rake in levels and achievements at an unbelievable rate. as long as you don¡¯t slack off, even reaching immortality might be possible.¡± arin nodded. ¡°i need to rethink my plans a little. i don¡¯t want you working under me to find society spies anymore. that would be such a massive waste of your potential that it¡¯s not even funny. even as a non-mage, i know how important your research could be if you succeed.¡± arin turned towards her. ¡°i probably shouldn¡¯t say this as a loyal servant of the crown, but if you make this information known to the crown they will probably pressure you to research how to make mana baptisms safer and more successful. any hope of making mana baptisms safer could put illvaria into a golden age that might allow us to finally get some payback against the sigmusi colonia for the war several decades ago. it might even let us kick the sigmusi off the continent entirely, if things went really well. if you have me pass on this information to some of the people who can do something with it, you¡¯re going to face a lot of pressure afterwards if you don¡¯t research the topics. i¡¯m willing to pretend i didn¡¯t hear anything today if that¡¯s not a price you¡¯re willing to pay. this is probably your last chance to reconsider.¡±


    alice spent a few moments thinking about it, making sure to give her decision the weight of thought it deserved. then, she smiled at arin.


    ¡°i¡¯m more than happy to work with the crown in making safer mana baptisms, as long as some conditions are met. i want to stay safe, keep my friends safe, and keep learning about the nature of this world. as far as i can tell, with the society escalating their actions in illvaria by the day, this is the best way to do that.¡±


    arin nodded thoughtfully. ¡°in that case, i¡¯ll see what i can do. someone will hopefully get in touch with you within a few days. in the meantime, you can leave. the [tracker] will probably take a day or two to track down the society member, and i have no clue when samantha¡¯s family members will wake up. you don¡¯t need to be here anymore.¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°thank you again for coming over to help me even though we have only met once before. i really appreciate it, and thank you for working to help samantha as well. even though i got to know her because she¡¯s relevant to my research, i don¡¯t want anything bad to happen to her. keep me updated and let me know if there¡¯s anything else i can do to help find her and keep her safe.¡±


    arin nodded and smiled at her.


    ¡°no problem.¡±


    * * *


    one day later, a [messenger] from the [guard] station came to pick alice up the moment she finished working with ezrien¡¯s team, before she even had time to get through her classes for the day. alice immediately realized this [messenger] was quite a bit higher in level than most people she had met. this [messenger] was probably at least level 80 or 90, and seemed to be in his late fifties. even though he probably wouldn¡¯t reach immortality before dying of old age, his level was quite impressive compared to most people she had met in this world.


    ¡°lady alice?¡± said the [messenger].


    ¡°yes?¡±


    ¡°i¡¯m taking you to see someone important. i bear no hostile intentions towards you, and don¡¯t expect that to change in the future. is now a good time?¡±


    ethan cracked a grin as he heard alice¡¯s out of the box reasoning for rescuing her friend, before he nodded. ¡°i¡¯ll make extra sure to pay attention to this matter when we¡¯re done talking. anything else?¡±


    alice thought for a moment longer. ¡°i¡¯d like to talk with one of my other friends a little more first, but if the society starts attaching more importance to me, do you think they would target my friends and acquaintances?¡±


    ethan thought for a moment. ¡°it¡¯s possible? your friends might get attacked, or might not, but there is no harm in taking precautions in advance. who do you have in mind that might need protecting?¡±


    ¡°a friend of my named cecilia...¡± alice described cecilia in a bit more detail.


    ethan nodded. ¡°it shouldn¡¯t be too hard to at least get a few level 75¡¯s to protect her if you can demonstrate some value to the crown. i can get a few people i know to protect her for a while until then, to give you a chance to prove yourself. anything else?¡±


    ¡°funds and resources?¡±


    ¡°given your ability to potentially improve mana baptisms, the crown will practically shove those down your throat, especially if you can produce any results at all. you probably don¡¯t even need to request them. if you stand a good chance of making safer baptisms, the crown will cram resources into your lab until the door explodes. as for your personal pay... you don¡¯t need to worry about that either. if you succeed in your research you¡¯ll probably be rewarded with more gold than you can plausibly spend in a century, and during your research i¡¯ll make sure you get enough money to live comfortably on. you can work out specific numbers with my [assisstant] later.¡±


    ¡°hmm...¡± alice frowned for a moment, before she remembered something. ¡°umm... would it be possible to get a permit for researching dimensional magic?¡±


    ethan frowned and gave her a much more measured and cautious look. ¡°that one... might be a tough sell. after the tragedy of allenheim, most countries are still pretty wary of dimensional mana experimentation. i mean, there is a process for getting a permit to study dimensional magic, but it¡¯s a major pain to get ahold of. getting a permit issued requires a majority vote from the representatives of the mage estate, approval from a high ranking member of the crown and noble estate, and the immortal estate has the ability to veto any grant of a dimensional study permit if any of illvaria¡¯s six immortals think that you¡¯re likely to cause a serious problem with dimensional mana. it¡¯s pretty dangerous stuff, after all. i could personally promise not to offer a veto, and i can swing over a noble and crown estate member, but while i have good relations with the other immortals of illvaria i don¡¯t know if i could convince all of them not to veto you. and the same goes for the mage estate vote ¨C i have a fair amount of influence in that estate, obviously, but there are different factions in the mage estate and i might struggle to get a majority vote. so it might work out, but don¡¯t hold your breath.¡±


    ¡°how many people in the country actually have a dimensional research permit?¡±


    ¡°just me, right now.¡±


    alice frowned. ¡°it would make me happy if i can get a permit for it.¡±


    ¡°if you really find a way to make mana baptisms safer, your request would probably be looked pretty favorably upon. other mages would look at your reputation for getting things done and think that you stood a reasonable chance of finally creating safe dimensional travel, and that would give you a level of influence you wouldn¡¯t otherwise have. otherwise, it¡¯ll probably be a tough sell.¡±


    alice sighed, but nodded. it wasn¡¯t exactly what she wanted, but it was better than nothing.


    ¡°what¡¯s expected of me in this agreement?¡±


    ¡°well, first thing¡¯s first, you¡¯ll be working under me. in other words, i¡¯ll be your direct superior, and you¡¯ll be seeing me pretty often.¡± ethan treated her to another cheerful smile. ¡°i¡¯ll expect you to check in with me about your research once a week, and i would frankly prefer it if you did more important experiments with me watching as well. you¡¯re now valuable enough that you can¡¯t accidentally die in a random experiment if you mess up, so you need to pay attention to your safety as another expectation.¡± alice felt one of her eyelids twitch, and wondered if using herself as a lab rat for her strange system-related experiments counted as ¡®paying attention to her safety.¡¯ she had {moderate tissue regeneration} and used {safety analysis} before her experiments, so it was fine, right?


    ¡°apart from that, i¡¯d like to get to know you a little better as well. i think it¡¯s important for us to know each other if we¡¯re going to be spending a lot of time together, after all. and i would also like to get a fair amount of information about your actual progress in understanding mana baptisms, so that i can understand your experiments. if we¡¯re lucky, maybe i¡¯ll have ideas to improve them or solve problems you face, but even if i¡¯m useless i still need to make sure you¡¯re spending resources in the right places and making progress. so i would expect you to spend a certain extra amount of time with me, observing my experiments, socializing, and otherwise interacting with my social circle. this will be beneficial to you as well, since even as an immortal i can¡¯t get access to every resource in the country. you¡¯ll need to develop some of your own connections and contacts as time passes, and i will introduce you to some potential avenues of resources. of course, what you do with those opportunities will be up to you. i¡¯ll give you more details when you¡¯re a bit more ready though, so you won¡¯t need to think about interacting with others for a while.¡±


    ¡°meeting once a week makes sense, but squeezing it into my schedule is a little difficult,¡± said alice, frowning. ¡°i guess i could cut enchanting out of my schedule, but it would stop me from levelling two of my classes, which i don¡¯t really like...¡±


    ¡°what does your schedule look like?¡±


    ¡°well, during the weekdays, i start out by working with ezrien¡¯s team to fix the problems with the kinetic plates they are trying to make. then i eat lunch, go to the library, then go to class. then i return home, eat dinner, work on enchantments, and then pass out for the night. on weekends, my perks come off cooldown, so i usually mess with those, check up on boris, work on more detailed enchantments, and on saturdays i also play board games with my friends for a few hours. the people participating changes each week, but cecilia at least is pretty consistent...¡±


    ethan¡¯s eyes twitched as he listened to alice talk.


    ¡°are you a workaholic? actually, how many sleep reduction perks do you have?¡±


    ¡°i only have {lesser reduced sleep requirement} from the scholar class. why?¡±


    ¡°i have a new demand for you. take a day off sometime this week. if you crack from stress and pressure you won¡¯t be discovering much of anything. do you have... any way to free up a little bit more of your schedule? if not, i¡¯m going to force you to cut something out of your schedule, because this just sounds impossible to balance if you try to add new obligations to your time.¡±


    ¡°ezrien¡¯s team is getting close to finished with their project, which means that i might be done working with them after that? theoretically i¡¯m supposed to help them for a year, according to the contract we signed, but i¡¯m not sure what they¡¯re planning on doing after they finish the kinetic plates. i probably need to ask...¡±


    ¡°after working under me, you¡¯re going to have plenty of money. if you need to you can pay for breaking the contract fees with them. though, honestly, if you tell them you¡¯re working on a project for the crown and working directly with me to get it finished, they should be pretty forgiving about you needing more time. i¡¯ll personally show up to their research lab and let them know if need be. you need to free up some time so that you can meet with me a few times a week without cutting sleep out of your schedule, and then you need to schedule more than two hours a week of break time. if you really want to you can see through the end of whatever project you¡¯re working on with them, but after that you need to have a less ridiculous schedule. understood?¡±


    ¡°understood,¡± said alice, resisting the urge to flinch.


    ethan smiled at her again, the sternness fading from his voice. ¡°good. now, i hope we have a pleasant time working together. i¡¯ll get someone to start trailing you to keep you safe from the background, just in case the society is somehow already aware of your existence. i¡¯ll see you again on... sunday? you can bring me up to date on what you¡¯ve observed regarding magic seeds and baptisms then, and hopefully by then we¡¯ll have found your friend.¡± ethan nodded at her before gesturing towards the door, and alice took that as her cue to leave. as she walked back towards her inn, she couldn¡¯t help but think about how interesting life was sometimes. from what ethan had said to her, and the way he had treated her, if he was only planning on seeing through her research on magic he had no specific need to introduce her to resource channels and introduce her to other important people. in a sense, alice almost felt like ethan was treating her like an apprentice.


    it felt strange, but it also wasn¡¯t a bad feeling. being apprentice to an immortal was an excellent position to have in society, and alice had come out of the negotiation with most of the things she wanted. she even had a chance at getting a dimensional research permit now or in the future, even if the odds weren¡¯t great. she wasn¡¯t sure if it would lead to anything, but now that she had finally made up her mind and decided to confront the danger of the society of starry eyes, her steps felt lighter than before. she was no longer forced to worry about each of her actions, trying to calculate how much attention this would bring her or how to escape the notice of the society. she could openly help people she wanted to help, work on her projects with adequate resources and funding, and she even had a someone to help her along the way. it was a decision that felt nerve wracking, and forced her to face more danger than she had ever previously faced on this world, but...


    it also felt like she was standing up for herself and her dreams a little more. and psychologically, that was worth a lot to her.

 Chapter 93

    chapter 93


    the following day, the school¡¯s more gossip-prone students were finally starting to spread word about samantha¡¯s disappearance. samantha had been missing since monday, and it was wednesday now. even though there hadn¡¯t been any public announcements similar to the ones after the hunting trip, samantha¡¯s disappearance wasn¡¯t a private matter. several members of the crown estate and the mage estate were furious, and both political factions had begun rallying manpower together to put the fear of the system in the society. after a day and a half, due to the efforts of more well-connected [students], everyone was becoming increasingly aware of the fact that the society had kidnapped a mage in the middle of metsel, and her whereabouts and safety were completely unknown. even if samantha didn¡¯t have major connections with anyone, most of the [nobles] and mages in the country had been brought to the sudden realization that it wasn¡¯t just helpless tramps getting abducted anymore. this time, it was a relatively unimportant mage, but next time, it might be one of their children, or even a [noble] or fully grown and trained mage that disappeared. thus, plenty of mages who had retired from the battlefield were pulling together under various factions, preparing to punish the society for their actions while [nobles] started complaining about the crown for not properly securing the city while they raised the patrols and security measures of their houses and villas.


    when it came to [students] spreading information about samantha¡¯s kidnapping, there were two other things alice noticed that were quite important, at least to her. the first thing was that most people had already started to give up on samantha. she had been missing for a day and a half now, and most people were starting to assume the worst, and were preparing to avenge her and punish the society. this, obviously, was only partially what alice hoped for, and idea that samantha might already be lost reaffirmed her decision to get some other high level people involved. frankly, most people weren¡¯t worried about samantha herself ¨C they were only worried about what the implications of her being kidnapped were, and how it applied to them. alice still hoped that samantha would come out of this incident alive, even if the possibility of samantha¡¯s survival was slim, so having a group of high level people dedicated to getting samantha out alive at least raised the odds of a happy outcome for this incident.


    the final thing that interested alice was that any mention of her participation in the incident was gone, and even the better informed [students] had no knowledge of her presence during samantha¡¯s kidnapping. nobody stopped by to ask her for more details about the incident, and nobody even seemed to be aware that she had been asking about samantha¡¯s health the day that samantha had disappeared. the only person who displayed any awareness of alice¡¯s involvement in the incident was arsi, who she had directly consulted on monday. but when alice saw him again, arsi had simply winked at her and then pretended he didn¡¯t know anything.


    alice quickly realized that ethan, her new... boss, had done something behind the scenes to stop people from talking about her presence. which wasn¡¯t that difficult, now that alice thought about it. the only people who really knew that alice had been involved in samantha¡¯s disappearance were arsi, taylie, the [guard], and [knight] arin. arsi was someone who wasn¡¯t too hard to convince to stay quiet ¨C after all, arsi was intelligent enough to know that alice facing off twice against the society and having partial success both times might put her in danger, and arsi wasn¡¯t the kind of person to put his friends in danger for no reason. the [guard] and [knight] both ranked well below ethan, making it easy for him to keep them quiet. that left only taylie as a potential leak. alice didn¡¯t know taylie particularly well, but she doubted it would be hard to get her not to say anything if an immortal was pressuring her into it. and even if some people learned of alice¡¯s presence in the incident, according to [guard] reports and such she would probably be written off as an unimportant side character in the whole story if at all. thus, reducing alice¡¯s sense of presence in the entire incident was surprisingly easy as long as one had connections and the desire to do it.


    as alice thought about the changes metsel had experienced over the past few days, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder how illa was doing in all of this chaos, down in cyra. if the society was increasing its activity even in metsel, the capital of illvaria, was it worse or better in the south? alice wasn¡¯t sure, but she hoped that her friends and acquaintances like milo and illa were doing well. if she had time later, she decided it wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea to send a letter to the south and see if she could get any news.


    after alice finished her classes for the day, she started heading towards her inn room, preparing to do some enchanting. however, less than two streets away from her magic academy, she noticed a high level person had suddenly appeared from behind her, stalking her from a few feet away. she frowned, trying to pretend she hadn¡¯t noticed anything as she took another step forward. meanwhile, she used her mana tendrils to grab cobblestones and various objects in her surroundings. a moment later, the stalker spoke to her.


    ¡°the fact you noticed me right away is pretty good, lady alice,¡± said the [messenger], stepping out of the shadows and giving her a respectful nod. alice realized that she wasn¡¯t being stalked by the society, as she had first assumed. instead, ethan¡¯s [messenger] had come to find her. ¡°however, your reactions need a little bit more work. if you notice someone is preparing to ambush you, it¡¯s good that you pretended not to notice anything while searching for a way to turn the tables. however, your first reaction when you saw me was to pause for a fraction of a second. this isn¡¯t a huge reaction, but it¡¯s a dead giveaway to anyone paying close attention to you. it¡¯s fine if they¡¯re busy with other things or distracted, or if they dismiss you as a nonthreat. but honored immortal ethan has told me you might be targeted heavily by the society in the future. that means they¡¯ll be paying very close attention to you, and your instinctive pause might be a dead giveaway. you should make sure you train yourself a little more, in order to make your reactions look more natural. perhaps look into getting the {acting} skill ¨C it¡¯s quite helpful for situations like these, and also helps with interacting with [nobles] if you ever feel the need to do so. the requirements to access the skill are a bit annoying, but it¡¯s not too bad. but anyway,¡± said the [messenger], giving her a more relaxed smile now. ¡°my employer requests that you join him. the research base that kidnapped your friend has been found.¡±


    ¡°really?¡± alice felt a surge of excitement. ¡°is she all right? where is she?¡±


    ¡°i don¡¯t know,¡± said the messenger. ¡°she hasn¡¯t been rescued yet, and the base hasn¡¯t been raided yet either. we only found it an hour and a half ago. that¡¯s why ethan wants you to come.¡±


    alice felt a bit surprised by ethan¡¯s efficiency, but also pleased. the faster they found samantha, the better the odds of her survival. she followed behind the [messenger] as he used his perk to increase their walking speed. they quickly arrived at an inconspicuous house a few streets away from the [guard] station.


    ¡°lady alice, it is good that you have come,¡± said ethan, greeting her with a nod.


    ¡°thank you, honored immortal ethan,¡± said alice.


    ethan turned to the [messenger] and nodded. ¡°how was her reaction to being shadowed?¡±


    ¡°not terrible, but not great. she noticed me, but a high level [assassin] would notice that she found out and make preparations. however, she¡¯s not a lost cause either.¡±


    ¡°thank you. you can leave now,¡± said ethan, and the [messenger] took a few steps back before suddenly flashing with rainbow mana and suddenly speeding up, before quickly departing from the area. alice turned back towards ethan and gave him an inquisitive look.


    ¡°your [messenger] told me that samantha was found?¡±


    ¡°more accurately, we tracked down the base of the [flesh trader] who kidnapped her in the first place. while there is some possibility that she was moved away using a different perk that can store prisoners, odds are pretty good that she is still there,¡± said ethan. then, he turned to her and gave her a polite, happy smile. ¡°now, i have another question for you. do you have any combat related classes?¡±


    ¡°kind of?¡± alice wondered if [survivor] counted as a combat-related class. [kinetic manabinder] also sort of gave her combat skills, although the class was unquestionably focused more on enchantments. however, it was also... kind of a combat class. and [scholar] and [explorer of magic] also gave her a few random combat boosting perks, even if the classes definitely weren¡¯t focused in that direction.


    ¡°what do you mean by kind of?¡± asked ethan.


    ¡°i have a few classes that sometimes give me combat related perks, but are fundamentally geared towards other concepts. however, the combat abilities they do give me are still decent, even if they aren¡¯t the focus of the class,¡± said alice.


    ¡°hmm... is that so? show me. defend yourself.¡± ethan took a step towards her, and suddenly, from out of his body, twenty mana tendrils launched themselves towards the floorboards, before twenty wooden planks suddenly flew straight towards her body.


    desperately, she used her mana tendrils to start deflecting the floorboards sailing towards her head and stomach. she used {extended organics} to materialize and dematerialize her mana tendrils at will, grappling with the twenty objects as she tried to deflect the floorboards. some of them went flying in random directions, and some of them were fired back towards ethan. once the smaller floorboards were dealt with, alice found the three biggest objects and used {reflection}, instantly sending them straight back towards ethan with no pause or concentration needed to redirect them. alice also used {combat seed} to attach an extra layer of her mana to these three objects, making it harder for ethan to stop them.


    ¡°not bad, lady alice,¡± said ethan, giving her a courteous nod and smiling at her.


    then, another twenty mana tendrils popped out of his body, bringing his total up to forty mana tendrils.


    alice¡¯s eyes barely had time to widen before her sloppy countervolley of floorboards was neutralized in midair. only the three objects alice used {combat seed} on kept moving for another quarter of a second, before another three tendrils attached themselves to each object and shredded apart her extra layer of mana like tissue paper. then, ethan sent all of the objects right back towards her, with another twenty floorboards added on for good measure.


    since {adrenaline rush} was still on cooldown from her fight with the society mage two days ago, there were too many objects for her to defend against now. she began dodging backwards, hoping to avoid some objects from the wave of attacks with her physical abilities instead, but this time the objects flashed with rainbow mana. then, they accelerated in midair and began tracking her, as if they had turned into guided missiles. alice¡¯s attempts to dodge the floorboards failed miserably, and she hurriedly began repositioning her mana tendrils to fend off the wave of attacks.


    sluggishly, she tried deflecting a few more objects, but there were simply too many to stop now, and alice only had four mana tendrils against forty objects. a fraction of a second before the first object would have torn a fist-sized hole through her brain, all of the objects flashed with rainbow mana again, and then stopped dead in their tracks. they clattered to the ground, before ethan picked them up with his tendrils and shoved them back into the floor of the house.


    ¡°hmm... it looks like you¡¯re very used to a perk that is on cooldown right now. {deadly crisis}, perhaps? hmm... it could also be another perk with similar effects... {adrenaline rush} or {accelerated perception} could also be one of your perks, or some variant of them... hmm...¡± ethan took a few steps closer to alice, as if he was looking at a student who had just scored well on a test, before giving her a grin.


    ¡°i¡¯m not going to lie, i was expecting less when you said you didn¡¯t have a dedicated combat class. based on the way you fight, you¡¯re very used to having boosted reflexes from some kind of perk that you don¡¯t have active right now. perhaps it¡¯s on cooldown? in any case, you seem overly reliant on it. however, even with that flaw, and with your limited access to combat related perks, you¡¯re not a bad fighter for your level. with the perk active, maybe you can even be considered top tier for however long it stays active. however, this has also created some major flaws in your fighting style. you¡¯re too used to deciding fights quickly and efficiently ¨C you aren¡¯t good at dealing with a prolonged encounter. once any temporary perk ends, you lose a lot of your combat ability, and while it¡¯s only natural to be weaker afterwards, you shouldn¡¯t be so used to fighting with a temporary perk that you can¡¯t function without it.¡±


    ¡°may i ask what the point of this assessment was?¡± asked alice, still reeling from the sudden near death experience.


    ¡°i needed to get a feel for how good you are at fighting, lady alice,¡± said ethan, still giving her a pleasant smile. ¡°fundamentally, there are always going to be situations where a [hidden bodyguard] can¡¯t protect you from the society, and while i¡¯m doing my best to tamp down on the spread of information regarding your entanglement with the society, i doubt it will hold forever. sooner or later, the society will learn that i¡¯m paying special attention to you, and they will make a variety of guesses about what that means. i have some ideas for solving this problem, but... well, in any case, you may eventually come under threat of society attack, and your bodyguard won¡¯t always be able to keep you safe. the combatant you fought with last monday also escaped, meaning the society will also be receiving a report that you¡¯re surprisingly dangerous from him. in that case, the best thing to do is ensure you¡¯re able to defend yourself. i was trying to figure out where you sit on the combat spectrum so that i can figure out what targeted training needs to be applied,¡± said ethan, giving her a strange, slightly sadistic grin. alice got a strange feeling in her stomach.


    ¡°so i¡¯ve decided that, in addition to being protected from the shadows, you also need to learn how to fight better. your weird perk that added a layer of magic coating to the objects threw me for a loop, and if i had been a mage around your level, there¡¯s a good chance it might have just killed me on the spot. whatever perk is letting you freely move your mana tendrils around gives you a reaction speed most combat mages won¡¯t have, even if it only works when close to your body. for your level you can be considered a decent combatant. but there¡¯s a lot more that could be done,¡± said ethan. ¡°as a potential future immortal, you¡¯re going to need to be more well-rounded than this if you don¡¯t want to get assassinated. so i¡¯m going to run you through some targeted training. and i don¡¯t mean basic combat exercises, or just throwing objects at you and making you dodge them. that¡¯s fine for normal mages, since they will mostly fight in the back of an army and will pick up better combat experience when they actually join the army. and if they don¡¯t join the army, odds are pretty good they won¡¯t need more than basic self defense skills anyway. but you don¡¯t have that luxury anymore.¡±


    alice started to get a bad feeling about where this was going. ethan smiled at her, and the grin tugging at his lips started to remind her of a cheshire cat.


    ¡°no, you¡¯re going to learn to fight by actually fighting. some immortals have died to level 80 or 90 [assassins] in the past, however rare it is, and it¡¯s always quite an embarrassing way to go.¡±


    alice noticed that ethan wasn¡¯t referring to her as a mage, but as a potential immortal. at the same time, a few vague comments she remembered allira making about illa drifted through her thoughts.


    ¡°a decade ago, illa was considered to be one of the people most likely to join our little community of immortals, so i spent some time getting to know her.¡± this was a remark that alice remembered allira making when she had been back in cyra. alice hadn¡¯t thought much about it at the time, but suddenly, she felt that she was being given a similar treatment. not only was an immortal relevant to her field of expertise personally looking over her experiments and helping her develop a way to make mana baptisms safer, he was also explicitly pushing her to see how immortals worked behind the scenes, as well as develop well-rounded combat skills. after all, if ethan was only interested in pushing her to finish her research project as fast as possible, there was no reason for him to encourage her to learn more about combat, or encourage her to develop more resource channels that she would be able to use with or without his help. this wasn¡¯t really the treatment a researcher with potential would get ¨C it was closer to training for how to operate as an immortal in illvaria.


    alice was so immersed in her thoughts that she missed a few words from ethan, until she snapped back to reality and heard the tail end of his words.


    ¡°-why i¡¯ve decided that you¡¯re going to personally rescue your friend. you need some more practice in a real fight, especially without using your more limited, reaction-boosting perks. do you already have the {murderer} achievement? if not, you will be getting it today. also, do you have any remaining limited-use perks? if you do, tell me so that i can help you get rid of them for the day. i want you to fight without them this time.¡±


    alice was stunned, before taking a glance at her status screen.


    name: alice verianna


    age: 16


    strength: 110 -> 113(123%)


    perception: 133 -> 135 (183%)


    dexterity: 111 -> 115(125%)


    intelligence: 165 -> 167 (148%)


    endurance: 125 -> 127 (119%)


    willpower: 145 -> 147 (107%)


    charisma: 129(107%)


    magic: 150 -> 159( 123%)


    primary classes: 6/6


    survivor: 50 -> 53


    explorer of magic: 55 -> 63


    scholar: 40 -> 51


    scientist: 43 -> 52


    kinetic manabinder: 23 -> 31


    careful enchanter: 13 -> 20


    evolved classes: 2


    student of kinetic magic: 25


    (apprentice) enchanter: 25


    secondary classes: 2


    fisherwoman: 3


    student: 2 -> 7


    perks:


    skills


    academic skills:


    english (language proficiency): 100


    illvarian (language proficiency): 100


    sigmusi (language proficiency): 7


    russian (language proficiency): 1


    basic mathematics: 122


    intermediate mathematics: 78


    advanced mathematics: 18


    basic human biology: 33 -> 35


    mana-biology: 0 -> 2


    magic skills:


    kinetic manipulation: 66 -> 68


    mana control: 48 -> 50


    mana precision: 48 -> 50


    kinetic force: 45 -> 47


    projectile awareness : 25 -> 29


    divided attention: 27 -> 31


    basic enchanting: 24 -> 29


    broken mana purification: 15 -> 18


    mana filtering: 17 -> 22


    seed formation: 12 -> 16


    crafting skills:


    weaving: 27


    woodworking: 28


    cooking: 12


    stoneworking: 11


    physical skills:


    dodge: 25 -> 28


    spearmanship: 19


    sprinting: 21


    climbing: 9


    fishing: 9


    digging: 8


    stealth: 4


    basic medicine: 3


    magic seed: 5/6


    (unused seed has 15% conversion rat. max)


    (note to self: the electromagnetic magic seed is {degraded seed slot}. for that seed, perks = no, achievements = yes).


    kinetic seed (145%) -> 146%


    organic seed (25%) -> 34% (3% from expanding comp.)


    pure mana seed (21%) -> 36% (8% from expanding comp.)


    healing mana seed (23%) -> 25%


    electromagnetic seed (15%)


    achievements:


    outworlder (rarity: 10)


    seeker of truth (iii -> iv) (rarity: 9 -> 10)


    baptized by broken mana (rarity: 6)


    survivor of winter (rarity: 3)


    monstrous encounter (rarity: 1)


    monster slayer (iii) (rarity: 2)


    well trained (rarity: 4)


    murderer (rarity: 4)


    bookworm (rarity: 3)


    kinetic manabinder (rarity n/a)


    careful enchanter (rarity n/a)


    capable enchanter (rarity: 5)


    seed creator (rarity: 8)


    scientific discoviers (i) (rarity n/a)


    ¡°i don¡¯t have anything left that¡¯s useful for combat besides a healing perk.¡±


    ¡°keep that one ready. i want you to learn from this experience, not die because of it. we¡¯re going to rescue your friend, or her corpse, in three hours. you are going to join us. don¡¯t worry about enchanting for the night ¨C you need to work more on protecting your own neck first, and i¡¯ll be giving you your first payment this weekend. you won¡¯t need to worry about money anymore. instead, you are going to be on the front lines during this rescue operation, fighting for your life and developing the skills you need to avoid dying in an ambush in the future. don¡¯t worry ¨C i¡¯ll be near you the whole time to save you if you screw up badly enough. and your [hidden bodyguard] will also be following along, as per usual. but don¡¯t count on our aid, either ¨C both of us will be hidden, and you must do your best to fight without our aid.¡± ethan chuckled a bit at alice¡¯s confused expression, before she slowly thought through ethan¡¯s proposal... no, ethan¡¯s demands would be a more accurate term.


    alice felt a strange mixture of fear and concern after she worked through her thoughts. she knew that these skills would probably be useful in the future, now that she was hoping to out-develop the society¡¯s ability to harm her. however, she was also nervous. she was going to be facing high level combatants in an open fight soon. the other party wouldn¡¯t be fleeing for their lives, the way the [flesh trader] who had kidnapped samantha had been, and also wouldn¡¯t be overwhelmed by high level combatants on her side, the way they had been in most of her previous combat encounters with other humans. instead, she would be fighting them in their home territory. at the same time, this was a legitimately useful way to train. alice wouldn¡¯t always be able to fight under the umbrella of other high level people, and the small test against ethan had shown her just how terrifying an immortal mage could be. if alice wanted to stay alive and free in the future, she needed to develop her combat skills a bit more heavily, and this was a good way to do so. if alice wanted to become someone able to defend herself against most unexpected scenarios, she needed to make sure she could at least match most other combatants of her own level.


    mixed in with her nerves about how well she would do during the fight, however, was a different fear. she was afraid of what she might find in the research base. for some reason, the society had gone crazy recently, and wasn¡¯t afraid to kick over a hornet¡¯s nest to conduct research as fast as possible. alice didn¡¯t know why that was the case, but she might find the answer in this base. and on a more personal note, alice had spent the last two days wondering if samantha was still alive. in three hours, she would have her answer. for better or for worse.

 Note - I am probably getting sick, and may need to delay Chapters for a while.

    note - i am probably getting sick, and may need to delay chapters for a while.


    i¡¯m probably sick. throat is starting to hurt, i¡¯m starting to get a headache and feel dizzy, and i¡¯ve started coughing a little bit in the last hour or two. i¡¯m hoping i¡¯m just imagining things, but a few other family members got covid recently and it looks like one of them passed it on to me. it¡¯s pretty hard to focus on writing right now, and my headache really isn¡¯t helping anything, i might need to put off story updates for a bit for for a bit if the symptoms get any worse, and they seem to be growing notably more irritating and noticeable by the hour. i¡¯ll try keep writing until it gets to a level that feels hard to handle, and hopefully the half-finished budding scientist chapter for this week won¡¯t get delayed, but i make no promises. hopefully it¡¯s not covid, but the odds seem low for that. i¡¯ll try my best, but i make no promises.no?vel binz was the first platform to present this chapter.

 Chapter 94

    chapter 94


    the next hour was spent tensely waiting with ethan, as more people slowly trickled into the house. a few of them paid attention to the ruined floorboards or the signs of a recent fight, and gave ethan a slightly confused look before shrugging and ignoring the damage. apparently, while they were curious, they didn¡¯t care enough to ask.


    meanwhile, alice took careful note of the levels and magic seeds of the newcomers. she was very curious to know how influential an immortal was, and what kind of power ethan could exert over illvaria¡¯s military and other influential people. while the people who came to this meeting wouldn¡¯t be a perfect indicator of ethan¡¯s influence, it would still give alice some extra clues about how immortals worked behind the scenes.


    the first three people to come to the house after alice entered together, as a group. they were all non-mages, and seemed to be moderately high level [soldiers] of some sort. alice estimated their level to be around sixty or seventy, and were in their late thirties or early forties. each of them gave her a curious glance, before shrugging and turning towards ethan.


    ¡°honored immortal ethan,¡± one of them said, giving him a respectful nod.


    ¡°ah, it is good to see you, orith. i was under the impression you were with my father in the north?¡± said ethan. alice was a bit surprised to hear ethan mention his family. she didn¡¯t know much about ethan¡¯s family, since she and ethan didn¡¯t know each other very well yet, but she was suddenly curious. in her impression, most immortals should be decades old at least, and possibly centuries old. was ethan¡¯s family still alive? if ethan was really centuries old, was his father an immortal as well? alice made a mental note to ask ethan later, when she got to know ethan better.


    ¡°i was, but your father heard that the society has been ramping up their activity recently. he sent me and some of the men under my command back south to help deal with it. i just got here yesterday. i have also been informed that they kidnapped a mage this time?¡± said orith, frowning. ¡°if that is the case, they are truly intent on ramping up their conflict with illvaria. if they dare to kidnap a mage, they might even attack nobility or the royal family in the future. since that¡¯s the case, i¡¯m glad that my men and i returned in time to assist you.¡±


    alice realized that these people weren¡¯t [soldiers], as she had first assumed. instead, they were probably military leaders or higher ups, and each of them probably had troops under their command or some sort of high rank. although she had no idea how many troops each person had under their command, it was obvious that this group of three men didn¡¯t just represent themselves, but a significant number of people who weren¡¯t present in the room right now.


    ethan dismissed the man with a nod, and the three [soldiers] stopped talking with ethan and found a place to sit down at the edge of the room. a few moments later, they began talking with each other again, this time about much less serious topics. as far as alice could make out, they seemed to be debating what supplies for the northern forts would look like this winter, a topic which alice knew almost nothing about. apart from the fact that illvaria had a nomad problem to the north and the sun knight guarded the border, alice didn¡¯t really know much about the regions north of metsel.


    as alice listened in to the conversation and tried to pick out new information about the north, another group of people walked in. this group was comprised of five elderly mages. alice was rather impressed by their levels when she observed them ¨C each of them was probably above level ninety, and each of them had either a kinetic or organic seed, sometimes in addition to a few other magic seeds. most of them also looked quite old, with physical ages approaching sixty at minimum. even though alice didn¡¯t think they would reach immortality before dying of old age, it was still quite impressive to see several mages above level 90 gathered under ethan¡¯s command.


    ¡°[teacher] ethan,¡± said the five of them, greeting ethan with nearly perfect synchronization. their tone was much more casual than that of the military people who had entered earlier, and alice could even detect hints of friendliness from their words and relaxed facial expressions. clearly, they were well acquainted with ethan, and didn¡¯t feel the need to address him as ¡®honored immortal,¡¯ or even as ¡®sir mage.¡¯


    ¡°it is good to see the five of you. take a seat,¡± said ethan, gesturing towards the area alice was sitting in as he gave them fond smiles. seeing how high level the mages were, and ethan¡¯s invitation for them to sit near her, alice wondered if ethan often tried to teach potential mage immortals. if ethan had five older [students] and was also teaching alice, it meant that ethan didn¡¯t pick alice as an apprentice immortal on a whim.


    the five elderly mages took seats around alice, before giving her looks filled with undisguised curiosity.


    ¡°nice to meet you, little lady. oh, you¡¯re a mage,¡± said the oldest mage as she eyed alice¡¯s mage emblem. the mage was an elderly lady who looked to be about seventy. ¡°who might you be?¡±


    alice was vaguely reminded of her grandmother on earth, and felt herself relax a little bit as she took in the elderly mage¡¯s smile. ¡°i¡¯m alice. nice to meet you.¡±


    ¡°i¡¯m sujia,¡± said the elderly lady, reaching out her hand for a handshake. ¡°why are you here? are you ethan¡¯s new project?¡±


    sujia, however, revealed a small, sorrowful expression, and alice noticed a small bubble of rainbow mana cut off the group from the rest of the room.


    ¡°it looks like you really didn¡¯t know about ethan¡¯s family. it isn¡¯t really a secret, so i¡¯m a bit surprised. however, if you¡¯re ethan¡¯s newest project and you don¡¯t know, there are a few things to keep in mind about his family. [teacher] ethan is on very good terms with his family ¨C they love each other very much, as far as i have ever witnessed, and they have very close bonds with each other. every year they make sure to spend a month or two together. however, ethan isn¡¯t an only child. or, more accurately, he had several siblings. none of them reached immortality, and so every single one besides ethan died of old age. being the child of an immortal means that you have a lot of access to resources other people don¡¯t ¨C the best teachers, knowledge about how to get some perks that aren¡¯t recorded by the church of the system, the influence of your parents... but even so, the odds of reaching immortality are incredibly low. in illvaria, we have a population of over a million people. and in all of the time this country has existed, only six immortals have been produced, and ethan and his father are two of them. this is incredibly unusual among most immortals throughout the world, because the odds of reaching immortality even with those bonuses are so low. his siblings are a sore subject, so don¡¯t mention it with him or his father, if you see them. or ethan¡¯s stepmother,¡± said sujia, with a serious expression. ¡°it¡¯s less of a serious subject with her, because she¡¯s a rather warm person, but it¡¯s still not nice to poke other people¡¯s wounds. also, his senses are quite good, so if you don¡¯t have a perk like mine that prevents casual eavesdropping, he can probably hear you if you¡¯re nearby. so don¡¯t gossip about it with other people unless you know he¡¯s somewhere far away, all right?¡±


    alice nodded, wondering how many of ethan¡¯s siblings had perished of old age before and after ethan was born. alice made a mental note not to mention the topic to ethan, or the sun knight if she ended up ever meeting him.


    after that, the five mages and alice began discussing more casual topics as other small time military leaders trickled into the room. many of the topics the mages spoke of were about more harmless topics, like sujia¡¯s bad habits when the five had been learning from ethan, or one of the more embarrassing stories of ethan¡¯s misinterpretation of an article regarding kinetic enchantments from a hundred years ago. ethan was a very battle-oriented mage, and didn¡¯t have a high level of specialization in enchantments at the time, so his misinterpretation had caused a minor lab explosion. ethan had shrugged it off with his perks and high stats, but he had done the experiment in the same building he usually taught the five of them in, so when they had come to class the next day they had found a rather embarrassing crater where they usually listened to ethan¡¯s lectures. ethan had since improved his knowledge of the subject, but alice was amused to see that, like allira, ethan also had a human side to him, for all of the extra centuries and power he had compared to most people.


    as the group conversed, more people trickled into the room and greeted ethan before settling into other groups to talk.


    as the various small-time military leaders trickled into the base, alice grew increasingly curious about how many people ethan could actually command. it was clear that ethan didn¡¯t intend to treat her as some massive secret, even though he had hidden her participation in the fight against the society member who kidnapped samantha just a few days ago. alice was a bit puzzled by this, but decided to wait and see what ethan was planning.


    the people who entered the house were very curious about alice, as well. many of them gave her curious glances from the corners of their eyes from time to time. ethan, however, didn¡¯t address alice¡¯s presence, instead simply leaving her to chat with his five [students] on the sidelines.


    finally, after another half hour ethan stopped talking to individuals who showed up and made his way to the front of the room. he turned to alice and gestured towards her, inviting her to stand next to him. uncertainly, alice also made her way through the crowd towards ethan¡¯s position. the crowd of chatting [captains] and assorted military leaders quieted down after alice reached ethan¡¯s position and he raised his hand in the air.


    ¡°all right, now that everyone is here, there are a few things i want to address,¡± said ethan, his voice amplified to reach the entire room via some sort of perk. ¡°first and foremost, this is alice,¡± he said gesturing towards alice. ¡°she is my newest apprentice, and she stands a good chance of reaching immortality if she continues to work hard. she has some specialization in combat, and has had the skill needed to acquire some pretty decent achievements related to fighting. i intend to raise her for a while, and see if she can become illvaria¡¯s seventh immortal within a few decades. now, as i¡¯ve already told many of you, i intend to raid the society today and have located one of their bases. i intend for my apprentice to join the fight and get some more combat experience, as well as hopefully a few levels and achievements under her belt to help prop her up. she will be fighting with some restrictions, since i¡¯ve forced her to use some perks in advance, but she should still be able to make a decent showing of herself, especially compared to others in her age group. are there any questions or objections?¡±


    nobody said anything, while alice finally realized what ethan was planning. it would be impossible to hide the fact that ethan had a new person tagging along with him for an extended period of time, so ethan instead decided to pretend she was a combat mage. since ethan apparently had a habit of trying to raise immortal mages, nobody would look too closely at her as long as she could adequately mimic a combat specialist. and if alice had an open reason to tag along with ethan, any of her more unique abilities could be hidden as ¡®honored immortal doing impressive, hard to understand stuff.¡¯ this would make ethan the target of potential [assassins] and [spies] instead of alice, and ethan was obviously much more well equipped to deal with any potential danger than she was. at the same time, it would give alice a good reason to be near ethan constantly. it wasn¡¯t perfect, but it was pretty good, and should buy alice quite a bit of time as long as nothing went wrong. by the time the society realized something was wrong, alice would have hopefully reached a high enough level to fend off [assassins] and [spies] without any need for assistance.


    as alice mused to herself, ethan smiled and lightly clapped his hands together. ¡°good. now that that¡¯s out of the way, let¡¯s start talking about the base we found. through the tracking of samantha, the young mage who was recently kidnapped, we found a society base near metsel. it was hidden through the use of a large-scale optical illusion enchantment, and is out of the way of the main roads and near a smaller river. there should be around seventy or eighty mages inside the base, based on the recount of the [tracker]. we have about three hundred troops represented in this room, along with five high level mages and a smaller number of average-level mages scattered across various units. i will also be participating, but i intend to mostly take care of my new apprentice, so while i will step in where needed, you should also take into account that my presence will be minimized this fight. i think it would be best if the [special guards] attack from the south, appearing behind this river bank...¡± ethan gestured for alice to sit down as he began to detail how he wanted each group of [soldiers] and [guards] to move during the attack at the base. occasionally, a military leader would raise a question or make a suggestion for how to improve ethan¡¯s plan, some of which he added into his planning and some of which he rejected. after several minutes of discussion, the group left the out of the way house and began fetching a variety of [soldiers], [guards], and a few lower level mages, before several perks were used.


    the group speedily left the city, where a few [messengers] and [scouts] who were travelling with the group used their perks to speed up the group¡¯s march. alice was thankful the group was walking, because she had no idea how to ride a horse.


    eventually, the group arrived outside of the area indicated on the map. it was an area alice would never have paid attention to if she wasn¡¯t already aware there was something here ¨C the society had clearly used some sort of mix of enchantments to make the mana in this area look as natural as possible, disguising it from various types of mana vision, and then disguised it from regular eyes as well. alice swallowed nervously, looking at the dome of inconspicuous air she had seen on ethan¡¯s map. she knew that on the inside of that dome, the society of starry eyes had set up a place to carry out their experiments. there, she would learn the fate of samantha and any other victims of the society.


    as alice mentally prepared herself, the dome of inconspicuous air suddenly fizzled, turning into a spray of jagged colors of mana before the illusion collapsed entirely. then, a wave of giant boulders suddenly appeared in midair, flying towards the group of [soldiers] and three elderly mages alice was standing near.


    the society knew they were here, and they were prepared to defend their base against the attackers.

 Chapter 95

    chapter 95


    the boulders sailed through the air, before gravity dragged them towards the illvarian troops around alice. alice waited until the boulders were within range of her tendrils before she reached out to stop them. she nearly dropped one of the two boulders near her, because they were much heavier than she had been prepared to handle. luckily, she still managed to stop it before it crushed the nearby troops. the other illvarian mages did the same, protecting the [soldiers] around them before they threw the boulders back in the direction they had come from. most quickly dropped to the ground or flew in random directions, but it still damaged the concealment enchantment even more.


    alice was surprised by how much slower her responses and actions felt without the boost from {adrenaline rush}, and how much harder it was to stop massive, heavy objects when she had less time to process how much mana she needed to influence things. the boulders the society had used also looked and felt like catapult ammunition, instead of the hand-sized stones and beads alice normally saw in fights. these factors made it much harder for alice to respond to changes on the battlefield, because she was very unused to this kind of fight. she wished that she still had access to {reflection}, since it would have made stopping the boulders and even counterattacking with them trivially easy. however, even without her limited-use perks available, she had still managed to protect the nearby troops from the first wave of society attacks.


    meanwhile, the nearby [soldiers] began quickly grouping up around the kinetic mages of illvaria, actively making sure that all of the [soldiers] were within range of someone¡¯s mana tendrils. average level soldiers had a hard time dealing with massive missiles, so they would need to either get close enough to the enemy troops that their mages became afraid of friendly fire, until they were closer or until the other side ran out of mana to start truly deciding the course of the fight. however, that didn¡¯t completely stop the non-mages from helping. several of the [archers] unslung their bows, before nocking their arrows. some of the [archers] shone with rainbow mana, before they released a coordinated volley of arrows into the half-broken enchantment hiding the society base.


    the enchantment hiding the society base was already on the brink of collapse after the society and then the illvarian mages had thrown a bunch of boulders through it. with the hail of perk-boosted arrows peppering its edges, it finally collapsed completely. the jagged bits of random colored mana in the air disappeared, and for the first time alice got a good look at the base they were attacking.


    it was a squat, stone building, around the size of alice¡¯s magic academy. similar to alice¡¯s magic academy, it had a variety of strange enchantments sprinkled through the building, boosting its durability and adding other special functions alice couldn¡¯t make out. behind the building was a river, cutting off any easy access to part of the building, while the trees inside of the enchantment had been cleared out to make it a killing field for good [kinetic mages]. a small moat had been dug around the society base as well, ensuring that troops would need to cross a moat or river no matter which direction they approached from. the roof of the building was shaped like the top of a castle, giving the society mages on the roof a good angle to rain projectiles on the [soldiers] below, and also gave them cover to duck behind in case of return fire. on top of the wall, fifteen mages stood next to a pile of large round stones, ready to hurl more missiles at the illvarian army.


    on the ground in front of the castle, another fifty or so mages stood, these ones holding swords, spears, bows, and shields. unlike the mages on the castle wall, they were close enough for alice to see some of their magic seeds. and without fail, every single society mage on the ground had access to an organic magic seed. alice could already tell that these [organic mages] would be a terrifying melee unit if they were proficient in weapons.


    the first volley of arrows shot by the illvarians weren¡¯t aimed very well due to the previously limited visibility, so they ended up hitting nothing. however, they had served their purpose and broken down the rest of the concealing enchantments surrounding the base.


    with the enemy finally revealed, the [soldiers] holding bows quickly reloaded and fired a second volley of arrows at the [organic mages] on the ground. a hail of arrows zipped through the air, before several of the arrows turned rainbow and sped up. a few of the arrows, instead of speeding up, simply disappeared from alice¡¯s physical and mana-based sight. their rainbow-colored silhouettes were still easy for her to spot, but to most people the arrows would have simply seemed to vanish in midair. a final portion of the arrows began zig-zagging in midair, making their trajectories strange and hard to predict or interfere with using kinetic magic.


    since the society [kinetic mages] were focused on offense and weren¡¯t positioned to protect their [organic mages], the society members on the ground were on their own for defense. the ones holding shields raised their shields towards the skies, and some of the higher level ones flashed with rainbow mana. as if they were drawn to magnets, most of the arrows in midair slowed down as their trajectories changed, before they all flew directly into the rainbow society shields and bounced off. luckily, a few of the invisible and zigzagging arrows ignored the shield-related perks and struck their targets. however, it didn¡¯t seem like any of the injuries were fatal, so the society members quickly healed away the various injuries from the arrow volley.


    alice also realized something interesting ¨C many of the society mages on the ground didn¡¯t seem to have perks supporting their combat abilities at all, at least so far. after a few moments of thought, alice realized that many society members were fundamentally researchers, not combatants. while magic still gave them a massive advantage over regular people, and the society obviously had combat-trained mages, some of the mages on the ground didn¡¯t seem very threatening. even with the help of their magic, their levels were quite average, and some of them didn¡¯t hold their weapons with much proficiency or move with the fluid grace those with high [dexterity] and battle experience naturally had.


    furthermore, the society¡¯s troop placement was also rather questionable. their [kinetic mages] were placed near ammunition, but they weren¡¯t close enough to their ground troops to protect them, and alice also questioned whether having the society organic mages line up in front of their research base was really the best tactical decision. although she was a novice at military strategy, she felt it might have been better if they had hidden inside of the base and ambushed illvarians as they went inside, or just stuck their entire army on the roof and collapsed the entrance to the building at some point in the fight. while the society might have their reasons for arranging their troops the way they did, alice felt it was more likely they didn¡¯t have a [commander] who knew what he was doing.


    the society mages on top of the wall launched another volley of boulders, and alice and the other illvarian [kinetic mages] struggled to keep the boulders away from the [soldiers] who didn¡¯t react quickly enough. alice tried to find an opportunity to counterattack the society [kinetic mages], but she was having a hard time even handling the boulders thrown her way. there were maybe nine or ten illvarian [kinetic mages] fighting against fifteen society [kinetic mages]. if elder sujia and the other two mages in alice¡¯s group weren¡¯t much higher level than average, they wouldn¡¯t have even been able to keep the [soldiers] on their side safe. besides, even if alice sneaked in a few projectiles, the society mages would just stop them in midair and send them back to her. since illvaria¡¯s side was barely holding on, it wasn¡¯t the right time to start counterattacking.


    meanwhile, sepplo, the [commander] ethan had put in charge of the illvarian troops, frowned as he analyzed the situation.


    alice quickly prepared to block the next wave of attacks. however, this time, elder sujia¡¯s twelve mana tendrils suddenly tripled, becoming thirty six magic tendrils. the twenty four new tendrils looked different from regular magic tendrils. they were made partially out of rainbow mana, instead of the more ¡®normal¡¯ color of mana tendril alice was used to. these mana tendrils also extended much farther than a few meters away, allowing elder sujia to stop all of the boulders in midair well before they got near the illvarian army. for the moment, the society mages paused, looking at elder sujia¡¯s and her terrifying perk.


    then, like a giant slamming things into the ground in a fit of rage, elder sujia flung all of the boulders towards the ground, aiming directly at the moat that stopped the illvarian melee troops from accessing the society¡¯s base. the kinetic mages of the society tried to intercept the boulders in midair, but they were too far away to easily touch the boulders, and sujia¡¯s rainbow tendrils let sujia channel way more mana per second into the boulders than a regular mana tendril. she successfully fought off the influence of the society mages for a few seconds as she firmly slammed the boulders into the moat and ground them into the dirt, forming an unsteady but usable bridge for the troops.


    then, elder sujia immediately grabbed some of the other boulders the society had thrown at the illvarians earlier. most of them hadn¡¯t been thrown back at the society, because the illvarian mages had been pressured enough that they couldn¡¯t find time to counterattack. however, elder sujia was no longer playing by the rules, and it was clear that she wanted some payback for earlier. with sudden speed and dramatically improved aim, she hurled the boulders at the [organic mages] on the ground.


    the society mages on the ground, seeing the boulders flying towards them, scrambled out of the way, but even with their physical attribute bonuses boosted by organic mana, some of them didn¡¯t move fast enough. four society organic mages became paste. the boulders had been slammed into the ground with such intensity that they bounced away, flying forward for another few dozen meters before the [kinetic mages] of the society got the boulders back under control. one of the ¡®corpses¡¯ healed his injuries before getting right back up and retreating, but the other three remained very dead.


    the society retreated away from the now useless moat, wary of elder sujia¡¯s strange mana tendrils, while elder sujia rushed towards the front of ethan¡¯s army and used whatever she could to bombard the society. arrows, rocks, anything that was nearby became a missile heading towards the [organic mages] on the ground, while the [kinetic mages] of the society tried to defend their allies despite the range limitations of their mana tendrils. alice and the other illvarian [kinetic mages] took advantage of the situation, adding on to elder sujia¡¯s torrent of missiles, and for nearly ten seconds the society¡¯s members could only flee in terror as illvaria¡¯s mages tore holes in their ranks and took down the more vulnerable [organic mages]. even though a wound wasn¡¯t fatal unless it was a one hit kill, some mages and [archers] got in lucky hits here and there, and the [organic mages] were also forced to waste a lot of mana healing away their injuries. finally, the society¡¯s [organic mages] got close enough to the research base that the [kinetic mages] could protect them, allowing the society mages to counter the illvarian volley. but in the time elder sujia had rampaged unchecked, nearly a dozen society mages had died.


    then, elder sujia¡¯s perk ended. the partially-rainbow mana tendrils disappeared into thin air, leaving sujia looking for more exhausted than before. the society immediately began to counterattack, throwing a new wave of boulders and arrows at the illvarian side. two illvarian [archers] died when one of the boulders landed in an area that wasn¡¯t protected well enough, and a few more were injured badly enough that they would need to see an [organic mage] or they would die soon.


    the shields at the front of the illvarian lines didn¡¯t light up with rainbow mana this time. alice realized the soldiers couldn¡¯t use their perk anymore, and tried to figure out whether she should stop the boulders or stop some of the arrows heading towards the [soldiers] in the front lines. no matter which she chose, some of the [soldiers] would die.


    before she finished deciding, ethan, who was hiding near the back of the army and keeping an eye on both her and the fight, finally intervened. from a hidden point behind the illvarian lines, forty mana tendrils snaked their way into the air, completely ignoring the range limitations most magic tendrils suffered from. then, most of the arrows were halted in midair, allowing alice and ethan¡¯s other disciples to freeze the boulders and prevent them from crushing the [soldiers] nearby. however, even an immortal couldn¡¯t control every aspect of a battlefield. another three [soldiers] dropped at the edges of the army, where it was harder to protect them.


    the illvarian front lines finally crossed sujia¡¯s makeshift bridge and reformed ranks on the other side. then, they pressed forward, braving the storm of flying arrows and random missiles until they caught up to the society¡¯s [organic mages]. the two sides engaged in a chaotic melee. alice watched from near the back of the front lines as perks from the [commander] buffed illvarian troops, society mages used their own perks and magic seeds, and the illvarian troops with shields formed a shield wall before stabbing society mages through the gaps in their shields. the society [organic mages] were no ordinary humans though, and after temporarily boosting their own strength many times with their perks and mana, they suddenly flung themselves forward, ripping apart chunks of the shield wall with their bare hands before attacking the soldiers behind with their weapons. even if some of them were obviously untrained for combat, they could compensate for that with their incredible physical abilities and regeneration.


    several illvarian [soldiers] died, and ethan was forced to increase the scale of his presence on the battlefield as the society mages punched through the front lines and began tearing apart the illvarian [soldiers]. alice fought desperately to keep her corner of the battlefield under control, using clothes and projectiles to trip up, injure, or kill society members when she could get a good angle on them. however, alice quickly realized that this type of battle was the one she struggled the most with. [kinetic mages] were combatants specialized in precise, surgical strikes using projectiles, or hurling massive objects at their enemies. this kind of chaotic melee, where indiscriminate massive objects would hit allies and where tracking who was friendly and who was hostile became difficult, was hard for alice to seriously impact the battle. her perks from [kinetic manabinder] made it easy for her to sense movement around her and see in all directions, but she didn¡¯t have any special method of figuring out who was illvarian and who was from the society unless she used her physical eyes to pick out the mana seeds in each person.


    however, the [soldiers] in this operation weren¡¯t pushovers either. with a mix of perks and better coordination, they quickly regrouped after the shield wall broke, before again protecting the mages while forcing the society members back. some of them were killed, and many more were forced into retreating as they tried to heal their injuries. finally, the society front line detached from the illvarian front line as they used their superior speed to retreat and regroup behind the protective fire of their [kinetic mages].


    as the society members were reorganizing and regrouping, some of the society mages on the roof of the building suddenly turned around.


    climbing onto the other side of the society research base was the remaining third of ethan¡¯s army, led by ethan¡¯s two remaining disciples. ethan, naturally, had felt that the society members may try to flee if things turned poorly for them, and also felt that flanking the society might be the most effective way to control the battlefield. thus, from the very beginning, the group alice was part of was meant to serve as a distraction while the other troops got into position. the society research base was now surrounded.

 Chapter 96

    chapter 96


    the society members who had survived the first engagement with illvarian troops gritted their teeth, looking at the troops that had crept up behind them as they tried to assess their current situation. after the chaotic melee with the illvarian front lines, as well as the losses from the ranged battle earlier, perhaps twenty of the original sixty five society mages had died, and several more were sporting injuries that were in the process of healing. the society¡¯s [organic mages] looked tired, and the [kinetic mages] looked like they were starting to run out of mana. the illvarian soldiers were more tired, since most of them relied on perks instead of magic, but they had sustained far fewer casualties than the society. only seven or eight [soldiers] had died, and with the high [endurance] most [soldiers] had they were still able to push on if the fight continued. while alice didn¡¯t let her guard down, she started to realize that the outcome of the battle was a foregone conclusion. the society mages were better individual fighters due to their magic, but they had no competent commander and much less battle experience, and now that they were starting to run out of mana their only major advantage would soon disappear.


    the society mages seemed to realize the same thing. they looked behind them, at the detachment of illvarian troops flanking them from the rear, and then back at the troops led by ethan. alice could see some of them beginning to despair, growing frantic and desperate as they realized they were surrounded and had no way to win the fight.


    then, the [kinetic mages] from the society jumped off the side of the roof, before trying to use their kinetic mana to push themselves up in midair and soften the pull of gravity. the [kinetic mages] landed on the grass, with several of them breaking bones on impact as they mismanaged their kinetic magic. however, the [organic mages] quickly healed them, and apart from the [kinetic mage] who landed poorly and died, the others were back in fighting shape within moments.


    alice started to get a bad feeling as she saw the society rally for a last, desperate struggle. then, the [kinetic mages] quickly folded themselves into the [organic mages] on the ground, and yelled something alice couldn¡¯t make out.


    as one, the remaining society mages arrayed themselves into a desperate, ragged formation and began charging straight towards the flank where alice was located.


    ¡°fuck! they¡¯re making a break for it!¡± yelled one of the nearby [soldiers], as everyone rallied around the nearby mages for one last struggle. alice quickly examined what mana reserves she had left, before realizing she had maybe 20% of her mana remaining. it wasn¡¯t much, but it should see her through the rest of the fight. she grabbed some nearby arrows and peppered the society with another round of attacks, followed by the other [archers] and [kinetic mages] near her.


    unlike before, the society¡¯s [kinetic mages] were positioned to defend their [organic mages] this time. they halted the spray of arrows, before returning a volley that alice and the others were hard pressed to stop. luckily, ethan intervened again, and stopped the rest of the volley before it could kill more illvarian troops. ethan followed up by throwing another round of boulders at the society, along with a massive spray of arrows, downing several society mages before they reached the illvarian flank.


    then, the society met the [soldiers] again, cutting down [soldiers] as they tried to find a way out. alice grabbed arrows, pebbles, globs of dirt, and anything she could get ahold of as she threw everything she had left at the society. ethan flew above the battlefield like a miniature god, giving himself a full view of the battlefield as he began fully participating in the battle. he quickly began establishing aerial dominance, raining down waves of arrows, pebbles, and boulders on any society mage that lost focus on him. two of the remaining society [kinetic mages], in their desperation, launched a projectile attack on ethan, which he easily halted in midair, before the mages were torn down by fragments of stone. meanwhile, the remaining society mages found themselves halted by the illvarian front line. they madly tried to punch through the shield wall again, but with most of their mana drained they didn¡¯t tear through the shield wall the way they had earlier. as the other groups of illvarian troops closed in on them, their struggles began more and more desperate, and more and more society mages fell.


    finally, when half of the would-be escapees had fallen, the society mages realized that there was no escape. one of the [organic mages] threw down her weapons, raised her hands above her head, and knelt on the ground. the illvarian [soldiers] near her didn¡¯t totally lose their wariness, since a mage was always a threat if they had mana, but they didn¡¯t kill her on the spot. instead, the [soldiers] surrounded her, warily eying her while waiting for someone else to deal with her. seeing that one society member had surrendered and lived, the other society members rapidly began to surrender, throwing down their weapons one after another. alice heaved a mental sigh of relief, as she checked her mana seeds and realized she only had a few mariums of kinetic mana left. if the society had kept fighting, alice would have probably become dead weight in less than a minute.


    ethan, unlike alice, was nowhere near out of mana. he strode to the first society mage who had surrendered with a relaxed and confident gait. he called for one of his apprentices, before speaking loudly enough for the illvarian [soldiers] and surviving society mages to easily hear him.


    ¡°cut out their mage cores, then heal them up. we¡¯ll take them back to metsel where we can run them through the court system.¡±


    after the [organic mage] acknowledge ethan¡¯s words, he took a dagger from a nearby [soldier], and, while the entire illvarian army remained tense and kept their weapons at the ready, he began slicing out one mage core after another. the society mages quivered and shuddered, sometimes twisting in pain and screaming as their mage cores were removed, but after hearing they might have a chance to survive in the court system and seeing they had no way to survive if they fought back, they allowed their mage cores to be cut out. after the society mages had their mage cores cut out, they were tied up and placed under guard.


    alice breathed a small sigh of relief once she saw the last society member¡¯s mage core removed. the amount of pressure she had been under during this battle had been massive, and during the fight she had directly been responsible for keeping a dozen men alive. even if ethan probably would have corrected her mistakes, alice had done her best to make sure she didn¡¯t need ethan¡¯s help. she looked over the illvarian troops again, taking a last look at the final casualty count. she could see that eleven illvarian [soldiers] had died during this battle, mostly during the two melee engagements. several more had been seriously injured, but the illvarian [organic mages] were nowhere near as drained of mana as the [kinetic mages] and thus had promptly healed their injures. alice sighed, thinking about the troops that had died.


    even though ethan and his apprentices had made it possible for an army of non-mages to fight a large number of mages, the battlefield was filled with unpredictable perks, skillsets, and strategies. the fact that eleven [soldiers] had died was a reminder that, for all of their power and influence, an immortal wasn¡¯t a god. they were dozens of times stronger than an ordinary troop, and could swing small battles in their favor with their presence ¨C but they couldn¡¯t completely control a battle, and they also couldn¡¯t completely prevent their side from sustaining casualties. if alice succeeded in becoming an immortal, she would need to keep this lesson firmly in her mind at all times.


    after the society members were dealt with, ethan walked up to alice and gave her a grin. ¡°well done, kid. you survived. and you didn¡¯t rely on just your limited use perks ¨C you managed to keep your group of [soldiers] alive with only your baseline abilities as a [kinetic mage]. i admit, i thought i would need to intervene much more in your area, but you did well. is this your first time in a battle?¡±


    ¡°mage cores,¡± he said.


    ¡°mage cores? all of them?¡± alice asked. she had thought the enchantment supplies looked decidedly human, but she had no idea how the society could have acquired so many mage cores.


    ¡°it¡¯s highly illegal to use mage cores as an enchanting material in illvaria,¡± said ethan. ¡°after all, the country is trying its hardest to encourage mages to migrate here, and most mages are pretty uncomfortable with the knowledge that behind their heart is another enchanting material. since most mages don¡¯t like it, and it also encourages criminals to hunt mages where they can, illvaria bans any experimentation or use of mage cores as an enchanting material. in fact, most governments ban the use of mage cores as an enchanting material, because the potential gains from this field of research don¡¯t outweigh the downside of pissing off most of the mages inside of the country. of course, the society has no such limitation on their experiments, since their entire organization is founded on illegal experimentation.¡±


    then, ethan pointed to one group of mage cores, redirecting her attention to it. ¡°it¡¯s a disgusting way of fueling enchantments, but the society does have a sort of twisted rationale to their actions. if you look at the cores there, many of them look very similar, don¡¯t they?¡±


    alice didn¡¯t want to look more closely at the cores, but since ethan wanted her to analyze them, she unwillingly redirected her gaze towards the enchanting materials.


    ¡°human cores, like monster cores, run out of mana after a while. in order for a mage core to provide mana, the human mage it¡¯s taken from must first have a sufficient amount of mana stored in their magic seeds. however, if a human is kept sedated and has their mage core continuously cut out and regrown, they can keep providing mage cores once every day or two. an [organic mage] may not be able to help someone survive a mana baptism, but once someone has grown a mage core once, all they need is an infusion of organic mana and the right perks help to regrow their core. the society makes full use of this to exploit captive mages, apparently."


    alice felt a strange sense of morbid curiosity surface, as she examined the mage cores in the building. it was gross and made her uncomfortable, but in a horrifying sort of way it was also an incredibly creative solution to the problem of enchanting material shortages.


    ¡°if that¡¯s the case, can a similar method be used to harm monster cores?¡±


    ¡°sort of? monsters die almost the moment you cut their core out of their body, unlike human mages. however, while monsters clearly rely much more on their cores than humans do, you can still sort of get around this problem by rearing monsters. some people have tried to set up farms where they rear monsters, in order to ¡®harvest¡¯ their cores when the monster finishes maturing and reproducing. however, it¡¯s also important to keep in mind that most monsters have magic abilities of some sort, and only a few species like spidercrabs have no real ability to threaten people. if one doesn¡¯t have a good way to keep the monsters in the farm from breaking out and killing and eating the owner, as well as nearby [farmers] and such, monster farms tend to end up going catastrophically wrong sooner or later. but a few farms dedicated to farming monsters have found some limited form of success. it¡¯s dangerous and needs to be dealt with properly, but as a field of economic growth, it does have some potential. it¡¯s too risky to just let people set up monster farms without regulation and permits, but i have hopes for the field developing sometime within the next century or two.¡± ethan shrugged. ¡°but others aren¡¯t quite as interested in the field as i am, and cite the potential risks in expanding monster farms throughout the country.¡±


    having said his piece, the team continued to make their way through empty room after empty room in the base. with the [archers] scouting the way, the main group didn¡¯t need to be too cautious of their surroundings, even though a certain level of tension remained as they scouted room after room of records. ethan immediately grabbed any form of writing the group came across, before sticking into a storage perk and moving on. luckily, the group hadn¡¯t found any of the actual experimentation rooms or remaining society mages yet, and the society hadn¡¯t set up any traps inside of the building, so the danger level remained low throughout the group¡¯s exploration.


    finally, after checking several rooms, one of the [archers] called out to the others.


    ¡°we found a prisoner.¡±


    alice and ethan waited for the [archers] to ensure there were no traps in the area, before they stepped into a room.


    there, alice finally found samantha. thankfully, she was still alive. however, while she was still alive, that was the only positive thing about her condition.


    sitting next to samantha on a table were two mage cores, both of which seemed to contain the same broken kinetic seed samantha had formed. one of them still had chunks of spine attached to it, probably from when the core had been ripped out of samantha¡¯s body. the table she was tied to had bloodstains and human waste on parts of it, but nobody had bothered cleaning it up, leaving samantha laying sedated on the table. her body currently didn¡¯t seem to have a mage core inside of it, and while there wasn¡¯t other evidence of samantha being abused or tortured, she looked rather thin and dehydrated. alice shuddered as she took in the scene, before she slowly calmed herself down. at the very least, no matter what she had been through, samantha was still alive.0v3lb1n.

 Chapter 97

    chapter 97


    after the group found samantha, ethan wasted no time in turning back towards alice.


    ¡°is this your friend?¡±


    alice nodded. ethan grinned at her.


    ¡°well, in that case, congratulations. at the very least, we aren¡¯t rescuing a corpse, the way i feared we might be. she doesn¡¯t look like she¡¯s in the best condition, but she¡¯s still alive. mental and physical trauma can be healed, with time and help, but once someone is dead there¡¯s no way to fix it. so i can honestly say i¡¯m very happy with this outcome.¡± ethan took a look at samantha again, before sighing. ¡°i admit, it does look like she¡¯s had a pretty rough time of it. with any luck she might have been unconscious during all of this, but we won¡¯t know until she wakes up. but at least she¡¯s alive.¡±


    alice felt a grin tug at her lips as she nodded. even though samantha had doubtlessly been through a lot in the past few days, the fact that she was still alive meant recovery was possible. in this world, if there was a class like [psychiatrist], healing mental trauma would probably be much easier than back on earth. as long as alice¡¯s plan to break samantha¡¯s kinetic seed worked out, samantha should be able to get her life back on track even after this horrible run-in with the society.


    while the [archers] kept an eye on the group¡¯s surroundings, ethan quickly walked over to samantha and began inspecting her injuries. after that, he used organic seed to heal samantha¡¯s more egregious injuries. alice used {lesser organic vision} to watch as samantha¡¯s mage core grew back. strands of flesh quickly sprung out of samantha¡¯s internal organs and wriggled their way into the spot where samantha¡¯s mage core was supposed to be, rebuilding the mage core the society had cut out as ethan¡¯s magic tried to make samantha¡¯s body whole again.


    samantha¡¯s healing treatment seemed to be going well. her damaged skin and the various sores and cuts on her body began to heal up, and the girl was clearly recovering from the physical injuries she had suffered over the past few days. however, once samantha¡¯s mage core was mostly restored, samantha¡¯s body immediately stopped getting better, and instead began to rapidly deteriorate. her strange kinetic seed reappeared inside of her body as her mage core finished regenerating, and the process of healing suddenly seemed to reverse completely. within moments, samantha¡¯s body began to grow weaker, and even while unconscious samantha began coughing and shivering. ethan frowned, then glanced at alice, who also frowned as she observed samantha¡¯s body. ethan turned to alice again and shook his head.


    ¡°how odd. and interesting,¡± he said. ¡°i¡¯ll have to put fully healing her on hold. sorry that i can¡¯t fully heal her right now,¡± he said, giving alice a regretful frown. at the same time, a tendril of ethan¡¯s organic mana wormed its way behind samantha¡¯s heart and destroyed the mage core he had just regenerated. within moments, the strange symptoms of illness that had begun spreading through samantha¡¯s body quickly disappeared, and her condition rapidly improved again.


    ¡°it¡¯s not a big deal,¡± said alice. ¡°we can look at her more closely after we finish clearing out the society base,¡± said alice. she could tell that as long as samantha¡¯s mage core remained missing, her body seemed to be in decent shape after ethan¡¯s healing. while samantha definitely needed medical treatment, it wasn¡¯t urgent. ethan turned to one of the [archers].


    ¡°there seems to be something wrong with her mage core. i can¡¯t figure out what it is, and i¡¯ll take a closer look at her later. take her out of this place and get her to a healer so they can double check my work, but make sure to tell them not to fix her mage core for now. i¡¯ll treat her later, and maybe i can teach my new apprentice a bit about some of the more interesting interactions between healing and organic mana. even if she¡¯s mostly battle oriented, it never hurts to know a bit more about healing too, right?¡± ethan gave the [archer] a friendly grin before handing the [archer] in question samantha. the [archer] nodded, before heading back out of the base through the path the group had already taken.


    after that, ethan turned back to alice, and a rainbow perk shimmered into existence around the two of them.


    ¡°do you have any thoughts on what the society was doing to her?¡± he asked, looking at the two samantha mage cores visible on the table nearby. ¡°honestly, if you hadn¡¯t given me the hint that her mage core had a problem during our first conversation, i wouldn¡¯t have been able to figure out why her condition deteriorated just now. i might have accidentally killed her while trying to heal her. the problems samantha is experiencing are very unique...¡±


    alice nodded. she was a bit surprised that ethan had such a hard time finding the problems with samantha¡¯s mage core, but without the ability to see magic seeds and alice¡¯s extensive familiarity with weird and broken magic seeds, it would indeed be hard to find out why samantha was sick. if anything, she was more surprised by the fact that the society of starry eyes had tracked down samantha and seemed to be heading in the right direction with their research. ¡°i expect that the society explicitly targeted samantha, after seeing all of this. they were probably interested in whatever error cropped up while samantha was forming her magic seed, and found the opportunity to kidnap her and study the anomaly,¡± said alice, wincing as she looked at samantha¡¯s mage cores on the table and imagined what it must have felt like to have them cut out. ¡°i wasn¡¯t sure before, but i can see both of her mage cores have the same weird magic seed problem samantha originally did, and i can¡¯t think of any other reason why they would so specifically target samantha and continuously cut out her mage core to study. i¡¯m not sure how they found out that she has a malformed magic seed, but it¡¯s obvious that they were targeting her specifically because of her abnormality.¡±


    ethan frowned. ¡°perhaps they¡¯re aware of what a malformed magic seed looks like from other cases, and kidnapped samantha after learning of her condition? that would indicate that they¡¯ve seen other cases, and have at least a good guess what they¡¯re looking at...¡± he sighed, shaking his head. ¡°i¡¯ll look through the documents we¡¯ve seized after we return to metsel. hopefully they¡¯ll shed more light on what the society was doing here.¡± then, he seemed to focus on samantha¡¯s plight again, as he turned back to samantha¡¯s mage cores on the table.


    ¡°do you have a plan to help her? i can absolutely just leave her with no mage core and it seems like that¡¯ll keep her sickness from cropping back up, but it would also mean the end of her future as a mage. since her family wasn¡¯t exactly wealthy even with a mage, they would be pretty hard hit financially, but i can definitely help you cover the issue if you have no ideas...¡±


    alice shook her head. ¡°i¡¯ve mentioned before that i had the ability to see inside of mage cores, but i have a few other weird abilities that come from my perks and achievements. one should help fix samantha¡¯s issue, and also remove any interest the society might have towards her. i¡¯ll need her permission, though, and i¡¯ll also want your help covering it up.¡±


    ¡°that¡¯s fine. we¡¯ll talk later, once we finish dealing with the rest of the society base,¡± said ethan.


    after that, the group continued wandering through the society base. they found another society member guarding a larger set of prisoners, this one comprised of a dozen children who were locked up in a room. ethan almost immediately killed the society member, before the group rescued the kids. luckily, the illvarian army seemed to have gotten there before anything happened to this group of children, so the ones in this room were relatively unscathed so far. after that, the group continued sweeping through the base, rescuing prisoners where they found them, administering first aid where needed, grabbing documents when available, and dealing with the last couple society members in the base. a few of the society members weren¡¯t accounted for no matter where the group looked, leading ethan to believe that they had either hidden themselves very well or had somehow escaped the encirclement of ethan¡¯s troops and apprentices. it was unfortunate that a few of them escaped, but there was ultimately nothing that could be done about it. apart from the groups of people the group rescued, there were also some prisoners who were dead, either having been torn apart or experienced some level of organ failure as a result of the experiments they had been subjected to. the number of corpses and the skeletons of former prisoners in the base numbered a horrifying amount as the group moved from room to room, and alice also saw some mid-progress experiments she would never forget. some of the victims of those experiments were still able to be rescued, and some... weren¡¯t.


    when they finished sweeping through the base, another hour or two had passed. ethan quickly regrouped with the rest of the small army outside of the base, which had turned into something of a makeshift medical camp as the illvarian forces tried to treat and accommodate the people who had been recovered from the society base and were still alive. ethan nodded to the [commander] who had led most of the fight, and a rainbow perk sprang into existence around the two before they started talking again. a few minutes later, the perk disappeared, and alice could hear the two speaking again.


    ¡°i¡¯ll do as you say, honored immortal,¡± said the [commander] with a nod.


    ¡°good. keep me updated on progress if you find anything new later on,¡± said ethan, before nodding. the [commander] kept around thirty troops as they began to look over the base again. the remainder of the [soldiers] formed around ethan, before the group began to regroup around ethan instead.


    with the prisoners rescued, the society members captured or killed, and ethan having swiped almost all of the research documents, the group headed back towards metsel.


    then, alice turned to the perk from her [explorer of magic] class. unlike her first perk choice, this one was much more complicated, because she also needed to figure out whether she wanted a new perk or whether she wanted to combine some of her older perks to make them into something new.


    eventually, after looking over the new perk options for level 65, alice settled on another perk combination, because it seemed more valuable than the new options available to her. she spent some time fiddling with menus and trying to figure out what she needed, before she combined {magic proficiency} and {mana construct modelling}. she hoped that the combination of the two perks might help her make a system magic seed, since her first attempt at making a system magic seed had gone wrong in such strange ways that she wasn¡¯t sure what all of the problems were yet.


    mana construct modelling


    requirements: explorer of magic level 45 or higher, unique achievement related to the exploration of the system


    allows you to temporarily ''break down'' a complex mana construct into its constituent parts by creating a mental model of the construct in question. this will also inform you of all of the kinds of mana present in the mana construct in question. this is an extremely accurate model which exists only in your thoughts. it will react to perk analysis and projected mana manipulation accurately, but does not exist outside of your imagination.


    magic proficiency


    requirements: explorer of magic level 5 or higher


    grants a greater level of intuitive control over your mana and its effects on the world around you, along with improved understanding of manipulating magic in general.


    magic proficiency had become nearly wholly useless to alice ¨C it had originally been a very helpful training crutch, one that she had needed to adapt to using and manipulating magic during her time in this world. however, by now alice had spent several months training her magic and using it almost every day. she no longer needed the small amount of help the perk provided her, so she had no qualms at all about sacrificing the perk.


    {mana construct modelling} was a perk alice was slightly more hesitant to throw away, since it was still sometimes useful for helping her research new enchantments and helping her figure out how strange and complicated mana constructs worked. however, the usefulness of the perk was also starting to drop off, and the amount of help the perk could provide was getting lower and lower as alice got more and more in-depth while researching strange and obscure topics. since that was the case, alice hoped combining the two might provide her with a more helpful combination of the traits of both perks, hopefully letting her take another step towards creating a working system magic seed.


    intuitive magic modelling (tier 2 perk, level 65 explorer of magic) (level 5 explorer of magic perk + level 45 explorer of magic perk)


    perk costs: magic proficiency + mana construct modeling sacrificed to create this perk.


    note: because this perk will drastically alter the way you perceive the world, you must take a few hours of time to ¡®update¡¯ your perception. until you activate this perk and update your senses, the perk will do nothing. it is strongly recommended you start this process before you go to sleep, as trying to process your changing senses while awake will be highly unpleasant and will seriously impact your sense of balance.


    you intuitively mentally ¡®model¡¯ any form of mana within ten meters of you, whether they are complex mana constructs, forms of mana, or enchantments. you will intuitively know what kinds of mana they are made of and have an intuitive understanding of some of the simpler components of anything you model. in short, this will give you some level of understanding of what an enchantment or mana construct is, how it works, and what it does, although it won¡¯t feed you information beyond a certain level of complexity.


    after alice saw her upgraded perk, she felt she had probably made the right decision. she wouldn¡¯t know until tomorrow, since she planned to ¡®update¡¯ her senses tonight, but being able to understand the composition of all nearby enchantments, as well as intuitively understanding how simple parts of enchantments worked would make learning new enchantments much easier. she wasn¡¯t entirely sure whether this perk would be helpful in making a system magic seed, since she couldn¡¯t use the perk yet, but she retained at least some hope that the perk would be useful for more than just enchantment analysis. of course, she still needed to actually update her senses, so she shelved her thoughts about her new perk and resolved to investigate it more thoroughly tomorrow.


    once alice was done dealing with her perks, she caught up with ethan, and after ethan put up a perk to deal with eavesdroppers alice quickly discussed her plans and ideas for how to fix samantha¡¯s problem, and what alice was hoping ethan would help her with. ethan agreed, and with a rudimentary plan for healing samantha in place alice felt a weight fall off of her shoulders.


    when the group arrived in metsel, most of the [soldiers] dispersed, returning to their original squads, dealing with administrative work, or otherwise finding a place to drink themselves into oblivion or chase [barmaids] or [waiters]. some groups of [soldiers] instead got the less enjoyable task of escorting the captured society members to prison, where they would await trial. meanwhile, ethan brought alice and the unconscious samantha back to a small mansion in the inner circle of the city. alice assumed this was either ethan¡¯s house or a research base he owned, but because she was focused on samantha she didn¡¯t spend much time paying attention to her surroundings. the most important thing she noticed about ethan¡¯s property was that it was mostly uninhabited ¨C there were a few [maids] keeping the place clean, but the small mansion was very quiet overall.


    upon entering the house, ethan laid samantha down on a cot in one of the rooms. then, ethan placed a hand on samantha¡¯s head, and rainbow mana colored his eyes as he investigated samantha. unlike the rushed healing job at the society base, this time ethan was very careful, the perk he was using poking through samantha¡¯s body as ethan tried to get an idea what was wrong with her. finally, he turned back towards alice.


    ¡°even with much slower and more detailed perks, i can¡¯t see her magic seeds or figure out what¡¯s wrong at all. if i hadn¡¯t seen it myself, i would have thought she just needed her magic core healed up, and i wouldn¡¯t have any idea that she had other problems on top of that. i must admit, i find myself increasingly curious what kind of information you can see with your specialized achievements and perks, lady alice,¡± said ethan, his eyes aglow with curiosity. finally, he sighed. ¡°is there anything we should do before waking her up? she might freak out or panic if we try to put her asleep after this, so if there are any medical procedures you think would help your treatment plan, let me know so i can do them now. i can¡¯t help you much with this treatment, sadly, although since you¡¯ve already picked up an apprentice healing license and i¡¯m supervising you there won¡¯t be any legal issues even if you fail to heal her. but apart from that, i can¡¯t help here.¡±


    alice shook her head. ¡°i don¡¯t need anything from you, medically speaking. i can directly solve the problem, i just need the patient to consent to my actions first.¡±


    ¡°i don¡¯t detect any problematic perks that will backfire if i wake her up now. are you sure you¡¯re ready for her to be awake?¡±


    alice nodded.


    ethan placed his index finger on samantha¡¯s forehead before he sent a jolt of organic mana towards samantha¡¯s brain. within a few moments, samantha¡¯s eyelids began to flutter. alice took a deep breath, feeding her ideas into {safety analysis} one final time as she prepared to heal her friend.

 Chapter 98

    chapter 98


    ¡°ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!¡± after ethan¡¯s organic mana made its way into her brain, samantha jerked awake with a scream. alice took a step backwards as samantha wildly thrashed around, and for a moment alice was afraid that samantha would fling herself off of the cot ethan had placed her on and hurt herself. as alice tried to figure out how to calm samantha down, samantha leapt off the cot and charged towards the door at top speed.


    ethan¡¯s body lit up with rainbow mana, before a perk enveloped the room. suddenly, alice felt an extraordinary sense of calm settle inside of her thoughts. it didn¡¯t make her feel sleepy, or dull any of her mental faculties ¨C however, it removed most of her emotions from her thoughts, allowing her to think calmly and clearly. alice felt very strange after ethan¡¯s perk was used ¨C she could see how useful it was, but she also wasn¡¯t sure if she liked having her emotions suddenly cut out of her thoughts like this. even if she loved being able to think clearly, this felt oddly detached from the experience of being human. after a few moments of thought, alice used {the science of mana deprivation} to cut off ethan¡¯s perk, isolating herself from the strange emotionless state.


    samantha¡¯s reaction was far more noticeable than alice¡¯s mild discomfort. her incredible panic disappeared completely, replaced with near total calmness in the span of a second. her frantic flight quickly wound down, as she took another good look at ethan and alice. then, she stopped moving, instead opting to eye both of them warily.


    influenced by ethan¡¯s calming perk, samantha¡¯s eyes contained a trace of clarity and sanity again. however, alice realized that ethan¡¯s perk didn¡¯t cut off emotions quite as cleanly as she had assumed. samantha was clearly at least somewhat lucid again, but she still incredibly jittery, even after seeing alice and realizing that her circumstances had changed. her eyes were still wide and filled with panic, and although she had calmed down a bit, she still looked like she might spring into motion and flee again at any moment. however, as she looked at alice, she finally managed to croak out a word.


    ¡°alice?¡± she asked. her voice had taken on a soft, pleading tone now, in stark contrast to the terror from earlier. samantha sounded as if she didn¡¯t quite believe in alice¡¯s existence.


    alice did her best to give samantha a reassuring smile. ¡°you¡¯re safe now. we rescued you from the society ¨C you¡¯re back in metsel, in a property owned by my new mentor.¡±


    samantha¡¯s eyes widened, as she seemed to realize she wasn¡¯t dreaming. she reached out with one of her arms, before patting herself on the back. she shivered, before she started frantically clawing at her back, pressing her fingers against a certain spot near her spine over and over again. then, with a manic fervor akin to someone drowning, she clawed at her heart.


    ¡°is it... is it really over?¡± samantha finally asked.


    ¡°it¡¯s really over. you¡¯re safe now, and we¡¯ll make sure the society can¡¯t hurt you again,¡± said ethan, giving samantha a gentle smile. unlike alice, his words were reinforced by a perk, but samantha seemed to find alice¡¯s words and presence more reassuring than ethan¡¯s. she turned back to alice.


    ¡°am i really back in metsel?¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°you¡¯re really back.¡±


    samantha shivered a bit more, but her fear was still heavily reduced by ethan¡¯s perk, preventing her from falling into another full-blown panic attack. ¡°did you ¨C how did you... i mean, what happened?¡±


    ¡°a lot happened in the past few days,¡± said alice. ¡°for one, the immortal of spells and seeds has taken an interest in your wellbeing, which is a big part of the reason you were successfully rescued. a small army was put together to rescue you, as well as to deliver a heavy blow to the society and inflict heavy damage on them. we succeeded in storming the society base, where we rescued all of the prisoners in the base, including you, and dealt with all of the society members we could find. it has been a few hours since then, and honored immortal and i just woke you up,¡± said alice.


    ¡°is... is that so,¡± said samantha, still faintly trembling and jerking around from time to time, but finally starting to relax. she closed her eyes for a moment, before she suddenly snapped to attention. ¡°honored immortal?¡± samantha¡¯s eyes widened as she gave ethan another look.


    alice nodded again. ¡°i would like to introduce you to my new mentor, the immortal of spells and seeds. he helped me rescue you from the society base, and was largely responsible for putting together the small army that made the rescue possible.¡±


    samantha finally stopped rubbing her spine and checking it for injuries, and then tried her best to perform a very clumsy, half-baked curtsy.


    ¡°thank you for saving my life, honored immortal,¡± she said. ¡°i apologize for not recognizing you earlier ¨C i¡¯ve heard a lot of stories, but i don¡¯t know what immortals look like.¡± she paused for a moment, before glancing at alice. ¡°and... congratulations to you.¡±


    ethan simply nodded at her, maintaining his relaxed and reassuring smile. now that samantha had more time to process the situation, and had realized she was in the presence of an immortal, she seemed to have calmed down much more. the traces of panic in her eyes started to completely fade away, and she no longer looked ready to bolt for the door the moment she saw an opportunity. after a few more moments, she calmed down enough to walk back towards the cot ethan had originally placed her own. she sat down on the cot, and then took several deep breaths, slowly working to calm herself down more and more. neither alice nor ethan interrupted her while samantha slowly worked through what she had seen and experienced in the past few days, as well as the fact that she was suddenly free again. then, finally, she opened her eyes and looked at ethan again.


    ¡°if it can erase the society from my life, and doing this will make me no longer sick, i can lose my kinetic seed. will it be dangerous if i reform it afterwards?¡±


    ¡°it shouldn¡¯t be, but we aren¡¯t entirely sure yet, so it¡¯s up to you if you want to risk forming another kinetic seed,¡± said alice.


    ethan smiled at samantha, redirecting her attention to him. ¡°good. now that we¡¯ve obtained your consent, i¡¯m going to put you back to sleep. just stay calm. when you wake up, you¡¯ll be safe, and all of this will hopefully be behind you...¡± samantha laid down on the cot, taking a moment to get comfortable, before ethan placed his finger on her forehead. a burst of organic mana made its way to her brain, and five seconds later samantha was asleep. then, ethan quickly used a combination of perks and organic mana to regrow samantha¡¯s mage core. with her mage core regrown, and her broken kinetic seed back inside of her body, samantha¡¯s complexion began to rapidly get worse and worse, as signs of her previous illness flooded back into her body.


    ¡°it¡¯s your turn, lady alice,¡± said ethan.


    alice quickly stepped up to samantha and activated {broken seed}. since samantha had given ethan and alice permission to break down her kinetic seed, {broken seed} didn¡¯t encounter any problems. rainbow mana surged out of alice¡¯s body, before it wormed its way into samantha¡¯s mana core and shattered her kinetic seed. the signs of samantha¡¯s illness, which had been spreading throughout her body, rapidly disappeared again.


    ¡°how interesting,¡± said ethan, watching as samantha¡¯s body regained its former vitality and shrugged off its sickly complexion. ¡°i can¡¯t see magic seeds at all, but i can still see the effects of adding or removing a broken magic seed so easily. and yet, i can¡¯t figure out what¡¯s happening behind the scenes at all.¡±


    he turned towards alice, before giving her a nod. ¡°well done. even if i don¡¯t have the ability to see what¡¯s happening, this is still quite fascinating. i can see her getting better, even if i don¡¯t have the ability to observe the cause.¡± he trailed off, before giving samantha another glance. ¡°do you want to be around when i wake her up again?¡±


    alice frowned, thinking for a moment, before she shrugged. ¡°i think it¡¯s best if i¡¯m not in the room when she wakes up. the fact that i¡¯ve managed to apprentice myself to an immortal should be surprising for her, but not a cause for her or anyone else to raise eyebrows. people who are familiar with me already know that i have a couple high rarity achievements, and that i¡¯ve done a few interesting things with research. i even published a research paper through my magic academy¡¯s library, so people might think i caught your attention with that, and although it does slightly clash with my current image of a battle specialist, my display during the fight at the society base should make people think i¡¯m at least reasonably battle-oriented. however, if i¡¯m seen as being too actively involved in the healing process, the society might catch on to the fact that something is wrong with me, since there are already a few points of oddity they could pick up on. even if that might still happen eventually, it¡¯s best that it happens as late as possible, so i have as much time to grow as possible.¡±


    ethan nodded. ¡°well reasoned! i was worried you might want to stick around and show off, and i was prepared to give you a lecture if you asked to stick around. at least you¡¯ve got your head screwed on properly. since samantha knows you¡¯ve become an apprentice of mine, go shuffle some papers around in one of the other rooms ¨C i¡¯ll crack the door open so that samantha can catch a glimpse of you doing all of the boring and mundane work i¡¯m ¡®too busy and important to deal with.¡¯ it¡¯ll make it look like you¡¯ve been dealing with paperwork since shortly after i healed her, and it should also cause samantha to dismiss your presence in this incident. if all goes well, samantha won¡¯t suspect a thing. i¡¯ll wake her up in a few minutes and get one of the [maids] to escort her out of the building, and i¡¯ll make sure she catches a glimpse of you working hard on her way out.¡±


    ¡°thank you for your assistance, honored immortal,¡± said alice, taking a stack of documents they had taken from the society base. ethan pointed out a room for alice to occupy, before he ¡®set the scene¡¯ by cracking the door open with a mana tendril. alice quickly pulled over a chair from the corner of the room, before she started shuffling through the society documents they had taken from the base.


    alice began seriously reading through the documents. even though a large part of the reason she was going through the documents was to fool samantha, alice was genuinely curious to know what the society had been learning about and researching. with the help of {super speed reading}, alice was able to process the documents at an incredible speed, allowing her to read and analyze information far more quickly than before.


    however, as alice read through the documents, she began to frown.


    the documents she was reading through were a great deal more concerning than she had thought they would be. after reading through the notes she had procured from the society group she had fought during the hunting expedition, alice had been prepared for a wide variety of things. horrifying human experiments, for example, or records of all sorts of other atrocities. perhaps records of modifying and selling slaves to the sigmusi empire. however, what she found inside of the documents was rather different.


    it was a record of various phenomena the society of starry eyes was concerned about. it detailed three separate types of occurrence, and requested that any operatives take whatever measures they could to find out more about them.


    first, the phenomenon of children below the age of six acquiring classes for unknown reasons well before the time they should have access to the system.


    second, the increasingly frequent occurrence of people forming broken magic seeds, leading to illness and eventual death, along with all sorts of other bizarre medical and magical health problems.


    and third, the thirteen recent cases of random outbursts of dimensional broken mana. most of them had occurred away from human civilization, making them relatively unknown so far, but alice quickly noticed that the society was extremely meticulous about cataloguing each and every instance of broken dimensional mana suddenly flooding an area. and the outbursts of dimensional mana were getting increasingly frequent. the society¡¯s first records indicated that the dimensional mana outbreaks had mostly occurred in areas with higher mana density, but as time passed, they were starting to become both more frequent, and appear in lower and lower mana densities.


    alice felt a prickling suspicion when she looked over the society¡¯s records of dimensional mana outbreaks. a flood of strange dimensional mana sounded a lot like what she had experienced when she had been dragged into this world. and even though she didn¡¯t know exactly what these occurrences meant, by looking at the society¡¯s documents, and then combining it with her own experiences and investigations, alice was becoming increasingly aware of one fact.


    something was going very, very wrong in this world behind the scenes. and it was getting worse by the month.

 Chapter 99

    chapter 99


    as alice continued to look through the society¡¯s documents, she found more and more records of strange medical cases popping up recently. the society¡¯s later documents did include some of the things alice was expecting ¨C namely, records of horrifying experiments, kidnappings, and people¡¯s agonizing deaths after being kidnapped and used as experimental subjects. however, the documents also detailed, more than anything else, the society¡¯s attempts to figure out if there was a pattern to what the society called ¡®dimensional floods.¡¯ they had recently spent a great deal of time documenting and analyzing every single outbreak they were aware of, trying to catalogue each one and cross-reference them against maps, times, and mana densities in order to find out when and how they occurred.


    alice also realized that the society was terrified of this phenomenon. if anything, the society seemed to place dimensional floods at a higher level of importance than even the preservation of their research bases and personnel. their study of dimensional floods was reaching a point where it was genuinely harmful to the society to obsess over it so much. they were forcing uninterested and unspecialized personnel into looking into this matter, even when it was directly detrimental to the society. since many of the mages who joined the society from around the world did so primarily to have an easy method to gain levels and easy money, at the cost of their morals, this was causing the society to face internal problems. however, the higher ups of the society didn¡¯t care, and kept pushing their way through as they gathered as much information as they could about dimensional floods.


    alice¡¯s understanding of the inner workings of the society wasn¡¯t very good, so she couldn¡¯t figure out why they were behaving the way they did. she shrugged, and put aside the society¡¯s documents regarding their long term objectives after reading through all of them. her lack of understanding didn¡¯t change the parts that interested her, at least.


    namely, dimensional floods. a dimensional flood sounded... remarkably similar to the sudden teleportation that had dragged her to this world. while alice hadn¡¯t been able to see mana when she first came to this world, when she had gone back to investigate the area with illa later, it had basically been an ocean of purple mana. while alice hadn¡¯t seen any of these ¡®dimensional floods¡¯ firsthand, they certainly sounded like another teleportation point between this world and her original world. alice wondered if any other people like her, who had been dragged to this dimension, or if she was still alone. when she had first arrived, illa had confirmed that she had never heard of an {outworlder}. however, if random dimensional gates were starting to pop up left and right, it was possible that other people from earth might get dumped into this world sooner or later.


    however, dimensional mana floods suddenly appearing out of nowhere was also awful news for most residents of this world. mana baptisms were huge threats to people¡¯s lives, and an entire area suddenly being flooded with dimensional mana that most people couldn¡¯t see or protect themselves from was even more dangerous than an invisible volcano suddenly erupting in the middle of town. most people wouldn¡¯t even realize what was happening unless there was a mage nearby to warn them of the danger.


    alice felt that she needed to get a dimensional seed as soon as possible, so that she could get a better understanding of these dimensional floods. previously, getting a permit to study dimensional mana had been a huge hurdle for her, but with dimensional floods becoming increasingly common the illvarian government may become less strict about dimensional mana studies.


    alice made a mental note to mention this to ethan later, since he would know how to add the proper ¡®spin¡¯ to alice¡¯s hopes of getting a dimensional magic permit, and then turned her attention back to the other society documents.


    alice continued to parse through the documents as minutes passed by. as she continued to browse through the documents, however, alice got a sudden, seemingly random system notification.


    you have gained an achievement!


    legendary healer (rarity: 7)


    you have cured a medical condition which few, if any, people know how to treat. you have made an extraordinary contribution to the medical world!


    +30% mana conversion ratio for your healing and organic magic seeds. class experience to {organic mage} class is increased by 100%. growth of the [magic] stat is increased by 50%. when using magic, you can ignore a moderate amount of mana resistance.


    alice frowned. why had the system taken so long to give her this achievement? when she hadn¡¯t gotten an achievement for healing samantha earlier, she had simply assumed she wasn¡¯t going to get a reward and moved on. however, the fact the system had given her the achievement several minutes late felt very odd to her.


    she frowned, thinking back to the behavior of the system over the past few months. recently, there had been a lot of problems with the way the system interacted with the world. the assistance the system usually provided to people forming their magic seeds was occasionally breaking down behind the scenes, for one thing. alice had also noticed boris getting access to his status screen far in advance, and the society had noted down several other cases of children like boris appearing throughout the world. since the system was experiencing strange problems left and right, alice wasn¡¯t sure if the strange delay between her curing samantha and her receiving a new achievement was another manifestation of the system¡¯s increasing problems. even the society hadn¡¯t noted anything odd about achievements yet. was this due to the problem with achievements being recent? alternately, the strange delay could be some sort of hint about the true nature of achievements, similar to how the odd way class seeds absorbed mana seemed to be a hint about how class seeds actually worked.


    unfortunately, achievements were probably the part of the system alice understood the least out of all of the components of her status screen. she was starting to get a rough idea how some parts of ¡®classes¡¯ worked, and she had a good understanding of attributes. however, her understanding of achievements was still rather weak.


    she had nothing in particular that she needed to return to her inn room for ¨C after all, {sample collection} allowed her to store most of her stuff inside of her perk, meaning she didn¡¯t store very much in her room. her room was just a place to sleep for the night.


    ¡°that sounds good to me,¡± said alice, after a few moments of thought. ¡°does honored immortal have a room prepared for me?¡±


    ¡°yes. please follow me,¡± said the [maid]. alice was quickly led to a luxurious room, where the [maid] gave her a late dinner. alice quickly ate, before activating {intuitive mana modelling} so that her senses would finally finish upgrading. then, she went to sleep.


    * * *


    when alice woke up the next day, her perception of the entire world felt completely different from before. it was as if previously she had only been seeing the world in black and white, and suddenly her vision was upgraded to full color vision. she could now sense every single speck of mana in her surroundings, no matter how minute, and could get a sense for what kind of mana they were. it was like the vision {vastly improved kinetic vision} granted her, which had allowed her to see in all directions, but it was dozens of times more detailed and useful. alice was sure that if anyone stepped within ten meters of her, she would know. and with the help of her other achievements and perks, she would be able to guess their level, whether or not they were mage, and would even potentially know what kind of focus their classes had. this perk gave alice a level of observation that most weaker stealth perks would have a hard time working around. she now had a level of protection against [assassins] and any would-be kidnappers that she had never possessed before, meaning that the perk was already an incredibly valuable addition to her status screen. since alice was now more sensitive to mana than ever before, and had plenty of perks boosting her ability to observe things other people couldn¡¯t see, alice should be able to shut off most attacks as long as she reacted quickly enough. combined with {the science of mana deprivation}, alice would even be able to cut off perks other people tried to use against her, which was a fascinating thought.


    however, {intuitive mana modelling} didn¡¯t just make alice functionally immune to most lower level stealth perks and most covert attacks. it made it far easier for alice to understand enchantments in her surroundings, just as she had hoped it would. it didn¡¯t make it possible for her to replicate a new enchantment the first time she saw it, or anything quite that exaggerated ¨C however, if alice was studying a new enchantment and trying to replicate it, she could probably learn the new enchantment in half the time it would have previously taken her. the perk¡¯s information wasn¡¯t quite as detailed as she would have liked, but it was still certainly helpful.


    but those two upgrades paled in comparison to a third, more important use for her perk. alice was able to view system mana in her surroundings with far greater clarity than she had ever been able to before. however, the way the perk fed her information about system mana made it hard alice to sort out what she was seeing ¨C it was like trying to look at the sun, and describe a couple individual rays of sunlight. there was too much information to process at once. alice frowned, trying to figure out what her new perk was telling her. if there was one thing she was quickly realizing, it was that system mana was much more complex than she had previously imagined.


    ¡°lady alice, here is your breakfast,¡± said a [maid], breaking alice out of her thoughts as she set down a tray of food.


    alice gave the tray of food the [maid] had set on the table a single glance, then began shoveling whatever food was in front of her into her mouth. these foods all disappeared into her stomach, with alice completely missing the efforts a level 90 chef had put into the meal as she tried to figure out what system mana was.


    finally, as alice started to wrap her head around the flood of information, she realized something. something she never would have considered, and probably never would have noticed if she hadn¡¯t already spent months studying the system and the way it interacted with other types of mana.


    the system mana that she saw in her surroundings wasn¡¯t a type of mana. or, perhaps more accurately, it wasn¡¯t one type of mana. kinetic mana, organic mana, etc. were all pure kinds of mana. if alice were to compare mana types to vegetables, pure kinds of mana were sort of like potatoes, carrots, and other vegetables. they were all distinctly different from each other, and all had very distinctive flavors and textures. this made it difficult to mistake one for the other.


    however, system mana was completely different from these other, simpler forms of mana. this was because system mana wasn¡¯t actually a type of mana at all ¨C it was a compound mana, made of several other kinds of mana all woven together. if other forms of mana were like vegetables, system mana was like a vegetable salad. it didn¡¯t include literally every other kind of mana alice had ever seen, but it included a lot.


    alice finally realized why her first attempt at forming a system magic seed had failed so utterly, and why it hadn¡¯t even been the right color. from the very beginning, she had been going about creating a system magic seed in the wrong way. she needed a different process to create a system magic seed. instead of just focusing on what she knew about the system, pulling in mana, and then compressing all of that information and mana together into a magic seed, alice needed to grab several other kinds of mana before compressing them all together into a system magic seed. however, alice couldn¡¯t help but wonder how in the world system mana had actually come to exist in the first place. alice had already had similar thoughts in the past, but she really couldn¡¯t help but feel that system mana wasn¡¯t terribly... natural. all of the other kinds of mana she had observed were ¡®pure¡¯ kinds of mana. and yet, system mana was like a hybrid of several other kinds of mana working together. alice couldn¡¯t identify all of the types of mana combined to make system mana yet, but she seriously doubted that system mana had just... sprung into existence somehow.


    she sighed, rubbing her temples as she tried to get a better grasp of the smaller components of system mana. even though the information she was receiving right now gave her a mild headache, she finally knew where her first system magic seed had gone wrong. as alice pondered this information, she also had the niggling feeling that the system mana in her surroundings... reminded her of something. she couldn¡¯t quite put her finger on what, but she had the strangest sense that the system mana in her environment had a sort of pattern to it, once that she had seen before. but she couldn¡¯t quite put her finger on what she was looking at, or what it meant.


    alice sighed, shaking her head. at the very least, her new perk was far more useful than she had imagined it would be. it had given her a new layer of protection, boosted her ability to make money with enchanting, and most importantly of all, had given her new insights on the system. that, at least, was worth celebrating.

 Chapter 100

    chapter 100


    in total, alice spent another hour trying to untangle what types of mana actually went into system mana. since the idea of a ¡®compound¡¯ mana was so new to her, she felt that breaking down system mana into smaller chunks was a good way to start. she still wanted to create a system magic seed, after all, even if it would be quite a bit more complicated than she had originally expected.


    she was able to figure out organic mana and pure mana pretty quickly, since she was familiar with both kinds of mana. considering the fact that one of the bigger functions of the system seemed to be helping people convert muscle mass into mana step by step, alice wasn¡¯t particularly surprised by the fact that these two kinds of mana were part of system mana. however, seeing them literally work as part of system mana also confused her. plenty of things made by the system, such as class seeds, used system mana, and organic mana and pure mana. since organic mana and pure mana were already part of system mana, why were they included again as separate components in so many mana constructs made by the system? alice frowned, feeling that something was weird here. perhaps system mana lost some properties one could obtain from a ¡®pure¡¯ variant of mana, as a result of mixing together so many different components at once? or perhaps there was some other reason?


    alice had no idea. for now, she added it to her list of unanswered questions.


    apart from that, after an hour of poking at system mana, alice finally discovered a brand new kind of mana. a kind of mana she would have never, ever discovered the existence of, not because its existence was hidden, but because it seemed so utterly useless in any other context that nobody would ever bother forming a magic seed for it.


    alice realized that one of the easier mana types to identify within system mana was math mana. which, honestly, shouldn¡¯t have surprised alice as much as it did. after all, when she had done her initial research into mana seeds and kinds of mana, all those months ago back in cyra, she had learned that there were even kinds of mana such as hope mana. even though such magic seeds were considered worthless, if even emotions could be turned into magic seeds, it made perfect sense for math magic seeds and mana to exist as well. however, the very idea of math mana existing just felt so bizarre to alice that she never would have thought about it before.


    however, when alice looked at her status screen, it seemed surprisingly reasonable that math mana existed. after all, the neat numbers on her status screen didn¡¯t come from nowhere. alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure how the system made status screens work behind the scenes, but math mana certainly answered a few questions, such as how all of her abilities were evaluated and displayed in numerical form.


    alice ran out of time after screwing around with system mana for an hour, and had to rush to make it to ezrien¡¯s research team on time. the team was getting very close to finishing their research on kinetic plates, and they nearly had a working prototype of a kinetic plate that was cheaper and less time consuming to use than the cost of hiring a kinetic mage. since that was exactly what their team had been hired to do, this meant alice would be done working with this team soon. at that thought, she couldn¡¯t help but feel a little nostalgic at the thought of all the hours she had spent here. ezrien had sponsored her entry into a magic academy in her early days in metsel, back when she was barely scraping by economically and desperately needed access to the library of a magic academy to continue her research. theoretically, the contract she had signed with him stated that she was supposed to work for him for about a year, rather than the four or five months she had worked with the team, but ezrien had informed her that she was free to go the moment they finished making the prototype of the kinetic plates. since she had contributed a fair amount of her time to this research project, it was a joy to see it coming to life, even though it was also bittersweet to know that she would be ending her time with this team soon.


    however, ethan had also demanded that she free up some time in her schedule for relaxation purposes after she had told him what her schedule looked like. ultimately, freeing up her mornings was probably for the best, since it would give her some time each day where she wasn¡¯t obligated to work on other things. besides, ezrien and anna would sometimes pop in for board game night, so it wasn¡¯t like this was the last time she would see them. they just wouldn¡¯t be working together anymore. however, it still left a bittersweet taste in alice¡¯s mouth to know that her time with ezrien¡¯s team was coming to an end.


    after that, alice went to classes for the day. most of her classmates didn¡¯t seem to know about her newfound apprenticeship to an immortal, although that would likely change as word spread. alice was willing to bet that most [students] would know by next week. however, alice felt that her friends, at least, deserved a little bit more of an explanation, so she pulled them aside and gave them a quick update on the raid on the society base, ethan¡¯s claim that she was a combat mage, and samantha¡¯s rescue. since her friends would know that any claim she was a combat ¨C oriented mage was complete nonsense, alice also asked them to pretend she was a combat mage for as long as possible. all of them agreed, and the discussion quickly changed into a round of congratulations. nobody in the group had ever become the apprentice of an immortal before, and so they offered alice a round of congratulations for becoming one of the more well connected people in the country. being the apprentice of an immortal showcased just how hard one had worked to gain achievements and improve their potential, and alice becoming ethan¡¯s apprentice showed just how rare and valuable her hard work up until now had truly been.


    the only one of alice¡¯s friends from school who was missing from the meeting was samantha. samantha didn¡¯t show up to school that day, understandably enough, but alice was relieved to hear from other [students] that she had made it back home safely and was resting up. nobody seemed entirely sure of the details yet, but most people seemed hopeful that she would return to school soon. alice made a mental note to visit samantha the following day, when she was done with her classes.


    after alice finished her classes for the day, she was ambushed by professor feliza.


    ¡°alice! i meant to get back to you on monday, but after samantha got kidnapped, things got pretty hectic for a while. since i¡¯ve heard you were acquaintances with the girl, i felt it was a bad time to talk to you, so i originally intended to delay things for a few weeks. however, now that samantha is back, i wanted to follow up on our discussion from last week.¡±


    alice frowned, before recalling what professor feliza was referring to. with all that had happened in the past few days, the things that happened last week felt as if they had happened months ago.


    however, originally, professor feliza had promised to take a look at alice¡¯s research paper, and also expressed some interest in boris¡¯s situation. professor feliza had also stated that she was willing to try running a manaless room experiment on herself the previous weekend. afterwards, she had requested that alice show up in her office sometime soon so that they could discuss the results.


    it was now friday, and alice hadn¡¯t shown up to professor feliza¡¯s office. at the very least, the woman didn¡¯t seem mad that alice had been preoccupied with other matters. it wasn¡¯t every week that an acquaintance was kidnapped by the society, and the woman seemed unsurprised by alice¡¯s absence.


    ¡°how did the manaless room experiment go?¡± asked alice, a hint of nerves creeping into her voice. alice was fairly certain she already knew the answer, but having her results tested again by an actual academic authority set her nerves on edge in a way that was hard to describe.


    ¡°your paper was correct. after sitting in a manaless room, one will start to experience a reduction in their stats, and a mild reduction in the power of their perks as well. i have a few perks which are easier to quantify from my [organic mage] class, and i¡¯ve determined that each perk i had access to seems to lose about the same amount of power that your stats do. so, if a perk normally gives you, say, a 10% boost to your stats when you meet its activation conditions, and you suffer a 20% reduction to your stats from mana deprivation, the perk will only increase your stats by 8%. i recall you mentioning in your paper that you had a hard time testing the actual effects of mana deprivation on perks, so i made extra sure to evaluate that. now, it is possible that [organic mage] has some sort of unique reaction to mana deprivation, so it would be best to test how mana deprivation interacts with other perks and classes. however, it seems reasonable to assume that they are probably affected by mana deprivation the same way.¡± professor feliza gave alice an interested grin.


    alice felt that she wasn¡¯t doing the incident anywhere near the justice it deserved. the most important aspect of that fight, besides the studies about broken mana baptisms she had received from the corpse of a society member, had been centered around boris. she had also seen a [scout] die of a broken mana baptism at that time. however, since she was trying to avoid mentioning anything too sensitive in her note, she couldn¡¯t discuss many of her discoveries, just in case the mail did get intercepted, which seriously limited what she could discuss about the incident.


    alice frowned, wondering how she should continue the letter. finally, she put her pen back to the paper.


    i have also made a few new friends over the course of my studies. they are an interesting bunch, but i enjoy spending time talking with them before class. i have also started creating board games, which i enjoy playing with cecilia, along with some other acquaintances such as the mage who sponsored my first year in the magic academy. board games, if you aren¡¯t familiar with them, are kind of like the games [gamblers] play, but more elaborate, and without any money involved. if i see you again in the future, i would love to play one with you and a few other people.


    however, all of the more interesting tidbits of life i¡¯ve discussed so far pale in comparison to the incident i experienced earlier this week. an acquaintance of mine was kidnapped by the society of starry eyes, which resulted in a huge mess. you may have even heard of it as far south as cyra, although i¡¯m not sure if news has spread that far yet. by the time you receive this letter, i imagine some people may have heard of it, at least. the resulting aftermath was complicated, but by the end of it, i have become the apprentice of honored immortal ethan, the immortal of spells and seeds. the way this came about was rather unexpected for me, but due to my high rarity achievements and work ethic, he seems to see a certain amount of potential in me. i hope that i can live up to his expectations as a combat mage.


    of course, milo knew full well that alice wasn¡¯t particularly talented at combat. she got by using her perks and skills, but frankly, alice didn¡¯t have the natural mindset a truly talented combatant did. however, while milo wasn¡¯t the brightest man on the planet, he wasn¡¯t a fool either. he would probably realize from this letter that he shouldn¡¯t go around blabbing about alice¡¯s true interests, at least, after receiving this letter. admittedly, alice hadn¡¯t thought about that fact at all until now, and had originally just been planning to send a letter to someone who had helped her out when she was in cyra. unexpectedly, sending milo a letter was useful for helping her keep her fac?ade as a combat mage going for a little longer.


    i¡¯m also starting to reach a higher level of financial stability due to my work as an [enchanter] recently. it is the reason i can afford to send this letter to you.


    i¡¯ve never been great at writing letters, but i wanted to thank you for the help you gave me in cyra, and tell you what i¡¯ve been up to recently. i hope you¡¯re also doing well. if you can, send me back a letter, or at least update illa if you want to say anything to me. i¡¯m also sending her a similar letter.


    thank you,


    alice


    p.s. keep an eye out for any weird floods of dimensional mana. the society seems to be investigating outbreaks of dimensional mana that have been suddenly appearing across the world recently. if you see one, let me know ¨C i can probably inform my teacher in advance, and that will hopefully allow us to react in time to minimize the damage.


    after giving her letter another scan, alice folded it up and sealed it. after that, alice wrote a similar letter to illa as well. while the content differed somewhat, and also included a special note thanking illa for the help she and her husband had given alice in finding a sponsor when she was new to metsel and much weaker.


    even though many of the steps illa had taken to help alice also had clear benefits for illa herself, the help illa had given her was undeniable. alice wasn¡¯t an ungrateful person. giving illa a heads up about the society¡¯s hunt for dimensional mana would probably give the woman some idea what to look out for, and would also let illa know she needed to clamp down extra hard on any mention of alice¡¯s strange arrival in this world, as well as the giant outbreak of dimensional mana the expedition had investigated near cyra. alice didn¡¯t know if illa could shut off the news of the incident, now that it had happened so long ago, and alice also had no idea whether that would actually be an effective solution to removing the society¡¯s interest in the area. however, illa was a smart woman. she would know how to keep herself and her town protected as long as she knew enough information.


    when alice thought about her origins as an {outworlder}, she wondered if she should tell immortal ethan about her history. since he was working hard to protect her, it seemed relevant to inform him about this potential danger. however, it also didn¡¯t seem prudent to tell one of her most dangerous secrets to someone she had only known for a week, even if he was one of illvaria¡¯s immortals and seemed to have worked for alice¡¯s best interests so far. after a few moments of hesitation, alice added a final line to her letter to illa.


    p.s. how well do you know immortal ethan?


    alice wasn¡¯t good at scheming, but she felt that illa was someone who could read between the lines and realize that alice was looking for information on immortal ethan. since illa knew that alice was an {outworlder}, illa could probably sneak some advice into her letter if she sent anything back to alice. and unlike milo, illa could definitely financially well off, and so she could afford to send alice a return letter.


    after sealing both letters, alice went to a [messenger¡¯s] guild and hired a relatively high-level [messenger] to deliver her letters to cyra for her. it cost nearly a full gold sun to hire the man¡¯s services, which would have been a ruinously expensive price earlier. however, alice wanted to minimize the odds of the society reading through her mail as much as possible, even if she had removed any dangerous information from her letters. that required paying for a significantly higher level [messenger] than her messages would have otherwise required, but it was worth it.


    after sending letters to her closest acquaintances in cyra, alice grinned to herself. she spent the rest of the day thinking about finally fixing boris¡¯s problem this coming sunday, and preparing the materials she would need to enchant a ring that would keep mana way from the kid for now.

 Chapter 101

    chapter 101


    the rest of the day passed quickly. after treating herself to a nice meal and then enchanting for a few hours, alice returned to ethan¡¯s mansion for the night and slept. the following day was a normal saturday ¨C she played board games with cecilia and her schoolmates, spent some time putting together an enchanted ring that would ¡®expel¡¯ pure mana from its surroundings for boris, and then finally went to talk to ethan again. since ethan had told her he would pay her that day, alice felt it was a good opportunity to talk about her experiments. one of ethan¡¯s original requirements when she became his apprentice was that she needed to inform him about what she was trying test, and make sure that he understood what she was doing. while boris wasn¡¯t exactly linked to alice¡¯s attempts to improve mana baptisms, ethan might feel upset if she didn¡¯t inform him about her attempts to treat the boy.


    when alice went to ethan¡¯s mansion and requested a meeting with ethan, the [head maid] quickly guided her to the study. inside, ethan was sitting at a desk and reading through some documents.


    ¡°lady alice,¡± said ethan, taking a moment to nod at her after he heard her footsteps. then, he turned his attention back to the document in front of him. alice waited patiently as he scanned through the paper. finally, he frowned, pulled out a new piece of paper, and scribbled a few words on it before folding it up and setting it to the side. finished, he turned his full attention to her. ¡°thank you for your patience. i was just dealing with a few urgent letters. i take it you¡¯re here for your first payment? i do recall mentioning it would be today, but if you just wish to collect your allowance for the month, you can simply speak with the [head maid] or my [assistant]. they¡¯ve already been given the instructions on what to give you. or did you have something else to discuss?¡±


    alice spent a few moments wondering why ethan referred to her payment for the month as her allowance, before deciding the term was actually oddly appropriate right now. then, she shook her head and focused on the reason she was here. ¡°there is something i wanted to tell you about, honored immortal. tomorrow, one of my professors from the magic academy and i will be going to a village located around metsel, in order to treat a child with a rather strange illness. it isn¡¯t directly related to my mana baptism research, but i felt it was a good idea to let you know, in case you¡¯re interested in the subject. if you wish to, you can come with us, but if you aren¡¯t free or aren¡¯t interested in the topic, don¡¯t feel obligated to come.¡±


    ethan frowned. ¡°you¡¯re looking into another strange illness? is the illness similar to samantha¡¯s strangely malformed kinetic seed?¡± alice shook her head.


    ¡°no, honored immortal.¡±


    ¡°you said the village was near metsel, right? what specifically is the illness?¡±


    ¡°well, the short answer is that the child i¡¯m trying to treat, boris, has activated his status screen two years early, and it¡¯s causing him to behave... very oddly. he seems to have picked up a class such as [farmer] or [laborer], and is going completely mad trying to work and gain more levels. he no longer speaks to his mother, and seems more and more unrecognizable by the day,¡± said alice. rather than a human being, the more she and natasha observed boris, the more boris resembled a robot stuck in a loop. the boy still occasionally demonstrated signs of sentience, but they were becoming increasingly faint.


    ethan nodded thoughtfully. ¡°the society documents we recovered mentioned three oddities the society is paying attention to. specifically, dimensional mana floods, messed up magic seeds, and children unlocking their status screens too early. the society is paying the least attention to the last type of incident, and devoting most of their resources to investigating dimensional floods. however, they¡¯re devoting a fair amount of resources and manpower to all three oddities. and their test results seem the most strange when looking into the final kind of incident. how did you come across this boy?¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°i originally ran into him when i was doing the hunting training with my academy a few months ago. my group set out to hunt a pack of monsters. when we arrived near the hunting ground, instead of monsters, we ran into a group of society members, carrying several younger children they had kidnapped. we defeated the society members with the help of [knight] arin, before rescuing the children. after boris was returned to his mother, i learned that he had opened his status screen before it should have been possible. i asked the [guards] to keep an eye on boris, since the society would probably come after him again if they knew he was one of the children they were looking to investigate further. i also occasionally checked up on him myself, to make sure he was still safe. thus far, the society doesn¡¯t seem to be aware of his existence ¨C however, even without the interference of the society, his behaviors getting weirder and weirder.¡±


    ethan nodded. ¡°all right. while not directly connected to the study of mana baptisms, this is also a matter of importance for illvaria. what do you have in mind in order to cure him? the society¡¯s documents all detail the strange behavior of children who unlock their status screens early, but i¡¯m honestly at a loss for what the problem is, or how to cure it. do you have any solutions?¡±


    ¡°i¡¯ve been thinking that the best way to cure him is... well, my method of curing his will sound incredibly strange if you don¡¯t have some background information first. have you read my research paper? i published it through my magic academy, and the information in that paper is very relevant to my treatment plan.¡±


    ethan nodded. ¡°since you are my newest apprentice, i¡¯ve had one of my men look through most of your public activities. i¡¯ve already read through your research paper.¡± ethan gave her a grin, while alice felt her heart freeze. if ethan had looked into her past already, did he know that she suddenly popped into existence about a year ago? it would probably be hard to hide the fact that she had no past before encountering cyra, at least... alice didn¡¯t think it was a terrible idea to let ethan know she was an {outworlder}, but she wanted to see illa¡¯s return letter first, just in case.


    heedless of alice¡¯s inner turmoil, ethan kept speaking. ¡°you know, i am starting to see why you managed to get such a high rarity achievement at such a young age. although it seems very simple to check whether or not people actually need mana to keep surviving, it has remained as ¡®common knowledge¡¯ for centuries that mana is simply a requirement of life. the idea that we should test the idea is... well, much like someone proposing that we should check whether air is necessary for life, i suppose. and the fact that one¡¯s endurance drops when short on mana does indicate it can potentially be lethal, if one is already weak or ill. i imagine this is part of what propagated the belief mana is crucial for life in the first place...¡± ethan trailed off.


    ethan slowly nodded. ¡°i can see if there are any people willing to take up your offer to undergo a mana baptism in front of you, so that you may observe them. this can probably get by an ethics committee, but before i proceed any further ¨C if under a lie detection perk, can you honestly say that you have no better way to gather data, that you have no intention of persuading people to undergo a baptism if they otherwise wouldn¡¯t have, and that you have not influenced the success rate of the participants in a negative way?¡± ethan paused. ¡°it isn¡¯t a crime to think about doing research in an unethical way ¨C to be honest, i would be more surprised if there are any mages above level 70 who haven¡¯t thought about doing unethical research once or twice. it¡¯s such an easy path to acquire better levels and achievements with the same amount of effort that anyone interested in immortality might have their thoughts wander in that direction. your request isn¡¯t exactly the biggest red flag i¡¯ve seen, but it¡¯s definitely on the dodgier side of requests, and i can guarantee an ethics committee would take a second look at your proposal if they saw it. if you can¡¯t confidently make those claims under lie-detection perks, it would be best if you dropped this line of thought now.¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°i can firmly state that i¡¯ll pass the lie-detection test you mentioned without any problems.¡± alice said. ethan thought about it for a moment, before he relaxed. alice also thought for a moment, before adding a new condition to her request.


    ¡°though, you did mention something i didn¡¯t originally think of, which is the question of whether i¡¯m pushing people to undergo mana baptisms when they otherwise wouldn¡¯t have done so. i¡¯d like it if you had a few people with lie detection perks ensure that any participants in my request would have gone through a mana baptism either way, and then ensure that the money goes to their next of kin, if they fail. i don¡¯t want to persuade people to undergo mana baptisms when they otherwise wouldn¡¯t have done so. i only want a good way to observe mana baptisms that would have happened with or without my interference.¡±


    ethan nodded. ¡°if you¡¯re confident in making those statements under lie detection tests, we can proceed. i¡¯ll make the arrangements. and the fact that you¡¯re stepping up to help mages who have gotten ill from forming bad magic seeds will also help you a lot. it would be best if that wasn¡¯t revealed, because the society might take an interest in you afterwards, but if your request comes up in front of an ethics committee knowing that you¡¯re putting yourself at risk to help mages get well again would make you look much, much better.


    ¡°the second topic i¡¯ll deal with is your payment for the month. i originally intended to leave it to the [head maid], but since you¡¯re already here i may as well get it over with.¡± he handed alice a small bag of coins. ¡°take it as allowance, as well as a way to ensure that you¡¯re free from financial hardship. if you spend all of your time trying to earn money, it¡¯ll be difficult for you to focus on more important research projects. you can still work on making enchantments if you wish to, but making new and unique enchantments is far better for earning levels than creating large quantities of the same enchantment most of the time. so this should be useful for you, regardless of whether you want to keep enchanting things or not.¡±


    ¡°thank you, honored immortal,¡± said alice, taking a peek inside of the bag.


    inside of the bag were four golden crowns. in other words, 20 golden suns. alice suddenly felt very strange.


    she had scrabbled to put together a small amount of money over the past few months, and had worked her butt off to take advantage of the improved price of enchantments and make popular enchanted items to sell. and all together she had barely put together seven golden suns using her skills as an [enchanter] and hours upon hours of hard work. she had even felt proud of how much she had saved up, since seven golden suns was a huge amount of money for a regular family.


    and for one month¡¯s pay, for a research project she hadn¡¯t even really started yet, immortal ethan had simply tossed over three times the amount of money she had scraped together over three months of hard work. and he had hinted in previous conversations that if she produced results, she would get much greater quantities of resources and money. alice sighed, before shaking her head and tossing the coin pouch into her storage perk. rather than being frustrated at how little her previous efforts had meant, she decided to just be grateful that she had an excess of funding now.


    ethan thought for a moment, before shrugging. ¡°i mentioned this earlier, but i did also want to take a look at the results of your research paper in more detail. i¡¯m quite curious, you see. i¡¯ve set up a manaless room, and i intend to sit inside of it for a bit later today. are you interested in going over it with me? i would be curious to hear your thoughts on the matter, as the first one to have done this experiment.¡±


    alice resisted the urge to start grinning madly.


    as far as alice could tell, immortals seemed to be people who were made out of mana. the process of acquiring stats and levels seemed to eventually replace most of the regular flesh of the human body with some sort of new version of flesh and bones, constructed entirely out of mana. she had wondered for quite a while how this process worked, and how immortals differed from other humans when it came to their interactions with mana. what would happen if ethan walked into a manaless room for an extended period of time?


    alice quickly ran a check through {safety analysis}, and as far as she could tell, the experiment wasn¡¯t dangerous for immortal ethan.


    ¡°i would be glad to watch,¡± said alice. ¡°i¡¯ve never seen what happens if an immortal steps into a manaless room before.¡±

 Chapter 102

    chapter 102


    immortal ethan already had a manaless room set up in his mansion, so the experiment only took a few minutes to set up. after immortal ethan finished his preparations, he stepped into the manaless room while alice watched. alice activated her {timer} perk to get as accurate of a measurement of time¡¯s passage as possible, and kept her eyes trained on ethan as closely as she could. every single perk she had which boosted her perception of the world was activated as she tried to glean every speck of information she could from this experiment. it wasn¡¯t every day that an immortal volunteered themselves to be part of an experiment, and alice didn¡¯t intend to miss this chance. after all, she doubted it would be easy to get an immortal to help her with random experiments unless she became an immortal. this might literally be a once in a lifetime opportunity.


    once immortal ethan stepped into the manaless room, alice observed carefully. initially, ethan¡¯s body didn¡¯t react strangely at all. it just looked like any other person stepping into a manaless room. the system mana around him didn¡¯t react to ethan, but that was nothing unusual. ethan started out by lifting a few sacks of weights ¨C apparently, he intended to evaluate the decrease in his physical strength over time. alice was more than slightly amused to see how ridiculously heavy the weight sacks were ¨C even though ethan was almost entirely focused on magic, he had still slowly gained other stats over the course of his long life. the amount of weight he was picking up could probably rival the weight a level 70 [knight] used during training, despite the fact that ethan was obviously highly specialized in mage classes.


    the amount of weight that ethan could carry at decreased at about the same rate other people¡¯s stats decreased. according to alice¡¯s estimation, ethan seemed to be losing about 2% of his stats per minute, which about matched up with alice¡¯s previous results. so far, nothing particularly unusual was happening, at least as far as alice could tell. alice frowned, wondering if immortals would have no unusual interactions with a manaless room at all. she wasn¡¯t sure what she had been expecting, but she had thought something different would happen, at least. so far, ethan had lost some stats and his perks had gotten a bit weaker ¨C but that was it.


    that changed at around the fifteen minute mark. normally, after fifteen minutes in a manaless room, people¡¯s stats would stop dropping, and would start to stabilize. people would keep 70% of their stats, lose 30%, and then nothing new would happen until they left the room.


    however, after fifteen minutes, ethan¡¯s stats didn¡¯t stop decreasing. they just kept dropping. after 20 minutes, immortal ethan¡¯s stats had dropped by 40%, and still showed no sign of stopping yet.


    alice tried feeding the current situation into {safety analysis}, just to make sure this situation wasn¡¯t dangerous. ethan had just warned her about how the perk had small, subtle flaws in how it analyzed information, but he had also said that it was at least somewhat reliable. the fact that ethan¡¯s stats were still dropping was starting to make alice feel a little worried. if someone¡¯s endurance got too low, it was very easy for them to get sick or hurt, as long as they were exposed to even a minor problem. ethan¡¯s stats were still probably monstrous compared to hers, but if they kept dropping at 2% a minute, he would hit dangerously low numbers sooner or later. was this really a good idea?


    at 25 minutes, his stats had dropped 50%, and alice¡¯s uneasiness was climbing higher and higher. {safety analysis} still wasn¡¯t finding anything wrong with the experiment, but alice was half tempted to tell ethan to stop. however, ethan was an immortal, and he didn¡¯t seem to feel there was a problem with the experiment yet. this made alice wonder if she was overreacting.


    as alice was wondering whether she should say something or just keep observing, immortal ethan¡¯s expression changed. his previous expression of curiosity had warped into a full-blown frown as he eyed the manaless room around him. at the same time, alice noticed something very odd.??v€l?1n.


    normally, when a person sat inside of a manaless room, their class seeds would grow dimmer as time passed. alice assumed this was because their class seeds were receiving less and less fuel, and the fact that people¡¯s perks got weaker as time passed seemed to back up this theory. brighter class fractals meant stronger perks and classes, while dimmer class fractals meant weaker perks. however, once ethan had stood in the manaless room for more than 25 minutes, parts of the mana in his body just seemed to shut off. if previously they had resembled bright suns in ethan¡¯s body, now they resembled dim moons, instead. ethan frowned, eyeing his surroundings, and began walking towards the door. however, he seemed hesitant, as if wondering if he should actually leave or whether he should stay in the room.


    another two minutes ticked by. in that time, alice noticed the mana in his body had stopped changing. he no longer seemed to be losing stats, and his body had stabilized. however, the dim patches of his body remained dim. alice had no idea what that meant, but it was obvious some parts of his body were experiencing major weakness as a result of the experiment.


    finally, after two more minutes passed, ethan decided he was done. nothing had changed in the past five minutes anyway, so alice doubted anything would happen even if he stayed longer in the room, but ethan had also started to look distinctly uncomfortable. once he walked out of the room, the dim patches of mana in his body quickly lit up again, and he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as he scanned the manaless room with curiosity.


    ¡°interesting,¡± he said, but didn¡¯t elaborate. for a few moments, alice could only stare at him in curiosity. what had happened after 25 minutes?


    ethan looked at her for a few moments, as if thinking, before nodding his head. ¡°very odd.¡±


    finally, alice wasn¡¯t able to bear it any longer. ¡°what happened?¡±


    ethan fell into thought for a few moments, before he gave her a more curious look.


    ¡°well, a few things happened. first of all, my stats went down quite a bit more than a regular person¡¯s stats do, at least according to your sample information so far. most people¡¯s stats stabilize after 15 minutes, but mine just kept dropping. and instead of keeping 70% of my stats and perks, i was still losing more stats after 25 minutes in. i was down to about 50% of my power, which is the weakest i¡¯ve felt in... decades. it was very uncomfortable. after 25 minutes, i seemed to stop losing stats after that point, so if i assume the difference is my immortality, immortals probably stabilize at 50% of their stats instead of 70%.¡±


    alice nodded. so far, she wasn¡¯t terribly surprised. alice had always suspected that one of the reasons she lost less stats than natives of this world when placed in a manaless room was because she had gained a lot of her stats while on earth, rather than with the help of the system and its mana manipulation. this seemed to support her theory, which was nice, but wasn¡¯t particularly surprising. however, some of ethan¡¯s body suddenly switching off like a light powering down had caught her much more off-guard.


    ¡°is your second life activated again right now?¡±


    ethan nodded. ¡°if it had been ¡®used up¡¯ for the week i wouldn¡¯t have mentioned it to you. i don¡¯t mind helping you with experiments and gathering information, but there¡¯s no way i would compromise my safety if i was actually placed in more danger for the rest of the week. i would have waited until the achievement was reactivated to tell you what happened. the only reason i¡¯m willing to tell you this much is because there¡¯s no way i¡¯m trying this experiment again. it was like the achievement was temporarily turned off, but the moment i was exposed to mana, my second life was back.¡±


    alice nodded. however, she wondered why had ethan¡¯s achievement deactivated after 25 minutes. when she had tried her manaless room experiments with other people, stats and perks had both been temporarily weakened, but this was the first time she had heard of an achievement actually being ¡®turned off.¡¯


    ¡°were your other achievements still working? or was it just your immortality-related achievement that got turned off?¡±


    ethan frowned, as if he were trying to think.


    ¡°none of my other achievements were totally turned off, i think. only my ¡®second life¡¯ granted by my immortality was completely turned off ¨C everything else was weakened, but still worked.¡±


    alice fell deeper into thought. if every immortal had the ¡®second life¡¯ ability, and the achievement had turned itself off once ethan was deprived of mana for more than 25 minutes, perhaps the ability to revive once per week was simply a property of having a body made out of pure mana? that was her best guess for now, at least. the knowledge that immortals would still immediately die if their brain was destroyed was also interesting. it made alice wonder if the system was afraid of totally removing the ¡®human¡¯ parts of an immortal¡¯s brain for some reason.


    alice filed the results of the experiment away in her mind. perhaps in the future she would have a better idea what was happening behind the scenes. for now, alice decided to keep this experiment in mind as she collected more information about the system, achievements, and how everything worked behind the scenes.


    * * *


    the next day, before alice met with professor feliza and set off to meet boris, she took a few hours to stop by samantha¡¯s house and check up on the girl. now that samantha had some time to relax and see her family and closer friends after being kidnapped by the society, alice felt it was a good time to see how the girl¡¯s recovery was going, and to see if samantha needed anything. even if alice wasn¡¯t as close to samantha as she was with some of her other friends, she felt obligated to check up on the girl and see if she had any other lingering issues alice could help with. since alice could see some problems other mages weren¡¯t able to, she thought it was best if she didn¡¯t only rely on the words of other [students] to see how samantha was doing.


    ¡°alice! i¡¯ve been meaning to talk to you,¡± said samantha, when she saw alice knocking on her door. ¡°i really wanted to thank you for saving me from the society. i don¡¯t remember if i did so the first time i saw you ¨C things were a little chaotic at the time, and i wasn¡¯t exactly in my best state of mind, either. most of what happened after i woke up in honored immortal¡¯s mansion is a huge blur. but i bet a lot of the reason an immortal was willing to personally save me was because you became his apprentice. i won¡¯t ask about the details, and i don¡¯t know if you¡¯re trying to hide that fact, or if you¡¯re going to announce it later, but... thank you. really. you¡¯ve done a lot for me.¡± samantha gave alice a huge grin, and alice noticed that samantha¡¯s smile was brighter than before. the eye bags and signs of stress on samantha¡¯s face hadn¡¯t disappeared, but they had certainly started to fade. it seemed that she was doing well.


    ¡°don¡¯t worry about it ¨C i¡¯m just glad things worked out, honestly,¡± said alice. it wouldn¡¯t have been surprising if samantha had died after being kidnapped by the society, but fortunately, things had turned out all right. ¡°how are things working out for you now? is there anything i can help you with? or have you noticed any strange health abnormalities or problems? if you have, let me know ¨C i can inform honored immortal and see if he can give me any ideas or information, or even a follow-up examination if needed. don¡¯t be afraid to let me know,¡± said alice, scanning samantha carefully with all of her observation-related perks. she didn¡¯t notice anything particularly unusual so far ¨C samantha hadn¡¯t replaced her destroyed kinetic seed with anything yet, but she otherwise looked like a normal average-level young mage. but there was always a chance she could miss something.


    ¡°i haven¡¯t noticed anything odd after being rescued. my mental state is also recovering well. immortal ethan got me in contact with a pretty good [psychologist] ¨C he¡¯s level 80, if you can believe it. not someone whose services my family could afford under normal circumstances, but honored immortal was kind enough to pay for it. i wish there was something i could do in exchange for his help, as well, but... he¡¯s an immortal,¡± said samantha, before giggling. ¡°it¡¯s not exactly like he¡¯s lacking anything i can give him. i wonder if immortal ethan even needs anything in the first place... i¡¯ve never thought about what an immortal¡¯s life is like, because it always seemed so far away...¡± samantha began to ramble about immortals, which quickly changed into a recount of some of her favorite bedtime stories about the sun knight.


    alice often found the girl¡¯s digressions difficult to deal with, but for once, she found samantha¡¯s rambling to be comforting. a lot of the mental scars from being kidnapped by the society seemed to be shrinking by the day, and alice was relieved to see the girl recovering well. when alice looked at samantha, she found herself glad that she had helped save her from the society. alice¡¯s role may have only been to set things in motion, but ultimately, she had made someone¡¯s life far better as a result of her actions, and felt glad that she had tried so hard to make things right for samantha.


    she spent a few hours just chatting with samantha, checking up on various things in her life and seeing how she was doing. samantha¡¯s family was relieved to have her back alive and well, and were more than happy to see alice as well. alice was politely pressured into having a home cooked meal and was showered with thanks, while samantha rambled about her meetings with her [psychologist], mundane speculations about enchantments, and samantha¡¯s hopes of returning to school life soon.


    it was a pleasant morning.


    afterwards, alice met up with professor feliza and immortal ethan. shortly afterwards, they departed for boris¡¯s village.

 Chapter 103

    chapter 103


    when they arrived at boris¡¯s house, natasha warmly greeted alice, giving her an enthusiastic smile. she also gave professor feliza and immortal ethan a respectful nod when she saw their mage emblems, although the two of them got far less enthusiastic greetings than alice. alice was more than slightly amused to see that she had been given more respect and attention than an immortal. however, she also didn¡¯t want natasha to get in trouble, even if neither ethan nor feliza were likely to care about natasha¡¯s lack of information, so alice cleared her throat.


    ¡°natasha, thank you for entrusting the treatment of boris to me. these are two teachers of mine who have helped me greatly. this is lady feliza, who teaches organic magic. she has a healing license, and so she¡¯s overseeing my treatment of boris. in fact, she¡¯s the reason i can do this without being worried that i¡¯ll make a mistake and harm boris, as well as the reason i can do this without getting into legal trouble.¡± natasha gave lady feliza a much more warm smile after alice¡¯s introduction.


    ¡°thank you very much for your help, lady feliza. boris and i appreciate your help, and thank you for coming all of this way just to oversee the treatment of my son. it means a lot to me. really.¡±


    professor feliza gave natasha a light nod.


    ¡°it¡¯s no trouble. boris¡¯s case is unique, and it¡¯s best to learn as much as i can about new and troublesome diseases, in case they become widespread in the future. while i don¡¯t think boris¡¯s circumstances are likely to be replicated often in the future, helping the people is what a healer should do,¡± said professor feliza.


    with professor feliza¡¯s introduction finished, alice turned towards ethan.


    ¡°and this is honored immortal ethan. i got into some... rather chaotic circumstances recently, since the society of starry eyes kidnapped a friend of mine. he¡¯s here to help me with the treatment as well.¡±


    natasha¡¯s eyes bugged out when she heard alice mention immortal ethan, and she gave ethan a huge double take, before giving him a very nervous, very deep bow.


    ¡°it¡¯s... it¡¯s an honor to see honored immortal. i...¡± natasha looked incredibly out of place, and alice felt a sudden desire to laugh.


    immortal ethan didn¡¯t bother restraining a chuckle. ¡°i am not terribly concerned about manners and formalities, natasha. i simply found that some of alice¡¯s research interesting, and boris seems to be at least tangentially related to some of it. in addition, i¡¯ve been more and more concerned about the actions of the society recently, and since boris was kidnapped by them in the past, i¡¯m investigating some of their actions more closely. you don¡¯t need to be overly mindful of my presence; just pretend i¡¯m not here.¡±


    natasha gaped at immortal ethan, like a fish out of water, before she finally managed to get some of her bearings in the conversation.


    ¡°i... i see, honored immortal. and... ah... lady alice is your apprentice? when...¡±


    ¡°less than a week ago,¡± said alice. ¡°it was quite sudden.¡±??v€l?1n.


    natasha¡¯s eyes bugged out even further, before she visibly stopped. she took a few calming deep breaths, and alice swore that she saw ethan¡¯s lips curl into a mischievous grin out of the corner of her eyes. then, after a few moments, his smile vanished, and natasha looked at ethan again. the woman finally seemed to recover her bearings, before she managed to squeak out a more coherent sentence.


    ¡°thank you for coming all of this way to look after my son, honored immortal. your presence means a lot to boris and i, and...¡± natasha trailed off, and even though she looked more composed than before, alice could tell the woman was floundering for words.


    ethan gave natasha a light nod. ¡°i am simply looking after my apprentice. now, you say your son is ill?¡± with a topic to latch on to, natasha recovered.


    ¡°yes, honored immortal. my son is behaving very strangely, ever since he was kidnapped by the society, and lady alice has hinted that she might have a way to help treat him, or at least slow down how quickly his mind seems to be crumbling. he seems to be a little better this week, but... maybe i¡¯m just imagining things. i don¡¯t know. i¡¯m very hopeful that lady alice¡¯s treatment will be effective.¡±


    boris had gotten a little better this week? alice was suddenly very interested.


    alice took that as her que to start speaking again. ¡°so, natasha, about boris. i¡¯ve been working on an enchantment that i think should halt the progression of boris¡¯s oddity, as long as he keeps wearing it. with this, even if boris decides to work in the fields or something, his condition shouldn¡¯t worsen.¡± alice paused for a moment. she hadn¡¯t really filled natasha in on the nature of boris¡¯s problem, since she was worried it would put her own safety at risk. however, telling natasha nothing might make it less likely for the woman to help boris keep his enchanted ring on, and alice felt she could at least share some information without any problems. she hesitated for a moment, before she continued speaking.


    ¡°it seems like boris¡¯s primary problem is due to absorbing too much mana, coupled with a lot of other environmental factors...¡± like unlocking his status screen too early, thought alice. ¡°so this ring is created to regulate how much mana boris absorbs. it isn¡¯t a perfect solution, since i¡¯m not sure how to remove the excess mana in his body, but it makes it much easier to stop his condition from getting worse. the ring is relatively durable, and as long as boris wears it you should be able to fuel it with basic spidercrab cores or other low level monster cores. it¡¯ll only last a year or so if you use totally incompatible cores, but i hope to have a more permanent solution available by then. this is just a stopgap measure to keep boris¡¯s condition from getting worse. can we see boris, so that i can do some final checks and give him the ring?¡±


    natasha nodded gratefully.


    after that, alice and her teachers were quickly shown to the room boris was currently staying in.


    when the three saw boris, professor feliza and ethan frowned.


    the mana inside of boris¡¯s body was even more odd than it had been the last time alice had seen him. when alice had first seen boris, he had two different conflicting system fractals inside of his body, which had made him look incredibly odd in her eyes. the next time alice had seen him, the mana in his body had seemingly spiraled out of control. merely five days after alice had rescued boris from the society, he had somehow acquired as much mana as an average level 15, which was truly ridiculous for five days of farmwork, and the mana in his body had been rather oddly colored.


    after falling into thought for a few minutes, alice finally recovered. she gave boris her mana-blocking ring. however, her thoughts were even more focused on boris¡¯s strangely recovered class seed now.


    why did boris¡¯s class seed not do what it was supposed to until now? if alice¡¯s speculation was correct, class seeds purified and absorbed harmful mana before turning them into something useful. boris¡¯s class seed was now absorbing mana from his body, but last week, it had just sat there, doing nothing. and now, the rate of mana absorption was awful. if everyone else¡¯s class seeds absorbed mana in seconds, boris¡¯s class seeds would take months to do the exact same thing. if alice¡¯s assumptions were correct, the best way to help boris recover would be to make his class seed speed up. but alice had no idea how to do that. and alice still didn¡¯t know why the system locked the status screen until people turned six years old, either. why did it matter so much whether boris was six years old or not?


    even though alice had gotten a massive clue about the nature of class seeds, there were still a lot of questions left unanswered. alice frowned for a moment, before she smiled to herself. at the very least, she had more information now.


    professor feliza and ethan also observed boris after he put on the ring. naturally, nothing happened. since boris hadn¡¯t been interacting with the mana around his body before he put on alice¡¯s mana blocking ring, stopping him from interacting with mana wouldn¡¯t do much immediately. to be honest, this might be a process of observing boris for a few weeks, rather than ¡®treating¡¯ him in a single day.


    however, professor feliza was more than happy to start analyzing boris¡¯s condition on her own, now that alice had given him the ring. boris didn¡¯t seem to be conscious enough to consent to professor feliza¡¯s perks, which caused her to waste a lot of extra mana while she threw perks and tendrils of organic mana at him, but she seemed more than happy to do everything in her power to see what she could learn about boris. immortal ethan seemed more interested in observing professor feliza right now, so alice started to think about what came next.


    if her earlier speculation was correct, than the right way to treat boris was to make his class seed absorb mana faster. but she had no idea how to do that. she didn¡¯t even know why boris¡¯s class seed had barely done anything up until now, and had suddenly started working at a snail¡¯s pace sometime during the last week. she frowned.


    meanwhile, ethan turned towards her.


    ¡°i can see that you spent a while thinking about the ring, as well as boris¡¯s condition. while professor feliza is the one officially overseeing your actions here, do you care to explain what you¡¯re thinking about? it might help me understand what¡¯s happening here, and perhaps think of better ways to help cure this child. i can see that he¡¯s in some sort of... strange stupor. one that he does not seem capable of coming out of.¡±


    professor feliza nodded. ¡°i¡¯m also quite curious, lady alice. do you have any current ideas for follow-up treatment? i am fine with checking in on boris multiple times over the next few months, and i¡¯ve gotten a fair amount of initial information to compare future treatments with. but i want to know if you have any follow up goals.¡±


    alice frowned. ¡°right now, i have some ideas, but i¡¯m not sure how to go about making them a reality. well... hmm... first of all, you can see how much mana is built up in his body, right?¡±


    professor feliza nodded.


    ¡°i suspect that the best way to treat boris is to decrease the mana in his body somehow.¡± or, more accurately, get his class seed to do its job. ¡°but i don¡¯t know how to do that, especially without possibly harming him,¡± said alice.


    professor feliza frowned. ¡°i have to admit, that¡¯s not something i have familiarity with. i have no idea how you would even start a treatment to drain mana from a patient¡¯s body without harming them. perhaps using a pure mana seed? hmm... but the mana would be bonded to his body, meaning you would also need organic magic, and probably a few specific perks if you want to avoid breaking something... hmm...¡± both professor feliza and immortal ethan frowned.


    immortal ethan seemed even more baffled than professor feliza.


    ¡°this is... truly a rather odd case,¡± he said. ¡°i admit, if you want to remove the mana from someone¡¯s body without harming them, i¡¯m not sure... actually...hmm. let me ask a few people i know. someone else might have a way to drain mana without harming someone.¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°it would be good to have that information on hand, for possible future treatment, but right now boris¡¯s body seems to be flushing the mana out of his body on its own. i¡¯m not exactly sure why it suddenly started doing so over the past week, since i can assure you this wasn¡¯t happening before, but his body has started to fix its excessive mana problem. i want to talk to natasha again, and then i want to observe boris for a few more weeks to see if his condition starts improving. if the amount of mana in his body keeps decreasing, and boris gets better all of a sudden, i will at least know that my earlier hypothesis was correct. we might be able to use this as a basis for treating other children with boris¡¯s problem, if we can find them before the society does.¡±


    professor feliza and immortal ethan nodded. it seemed that both of them were content to let alice take the lead right now.


    and so, the three of them headed back towards natasha to see what had changed in the past week.


    however, when they questioned natasha, the woman claimed that nothing at all had happened. boris had sat in his room, ignoring his surroundings, and hadn¡¯t moved very much in the past week. natasha was still feeding him and helping him do basic day to day stuff, since boris had become nearly comatose, and she had no idea what could have been different in the past week.


    alice was left frustrated, wondering how boris¡¯s class could be encouraged to work faster, and wondering why his class seed had suddenly just... started working, when it clearly hadn¡¯t been doing much up until now. if she could figure out why boris¡¯s class seed had started working, she would have a viable treatment, not just for boris, but for any other children with the same problem.


    the three spent a few hours slowly going back over the past week, according to natasha¡¯s memories, as they tried to figure out what had changed. however, there was nothing at all.


    alice was left frustrated when she realized that the most important puzzle piece behind class seeds was still missing. she returned to metsel in a very strange mood, as she tried to figure out whether she was happy that she had new clues and boris seemed to get better, or sad that she was still missing important pieces of information on how everything fit together. at the very least, she got a few levels out of the ordeal.


    you have leveled up!


    explorer of magic: 66 -> 68, scholar: 51 -> 53, scientist 52 -> 53

 Chapter 104

    chapter 104


    five days passed by. during that time, alice spent a lot of time thinking about boris and his class seed. by using what she had already learned from previous experiments, alice eventually came to a few new guesses about how broken mana worked.


    alice remembered that when she had done a few other tests with the system, she had learned that she couldn¡¯t level up when mana wasn¡¯t present in her environment. if she stepped into a manaless room and then exercised or did an experiment, she wouldn¡¯t gain any attributes or levels in related classes.


    from this, alice realized that mana wasn¡¯t being created by people like [farmers] when they farmed. instead, they were probably breaking the mana they came into contact with. in other words, when someone farmed, the mana they were close to would probably become [farmer] broken mana, get absorbed by their body, and then their class seed would absorb it from their body and turn it into levels and perks. this had a lot of implications that she needed to sit down and think about, but it did allow alice to expand her thinking in a new direction.


    for a long time, people talked about how quickly dimensional mana could spread, and about how a huge amount of mana in the air around any portal would rapidly break. alice had originally had no clue why this might be true, but if a [farmer] could break normal mana and turn it into [farmer] mana, just by touching mana while farming... what if dimensional portals did the same thing? right now, alice assumed that mana would be converted from pure mana into broken mana if it came into contact with a certain ¡®concept,¡¯ such as farming. there were obviously some restrictions on this; after all, fires didn¡¯t leave ¡®fire¡¯ broken mana everywhere, and plants also didn¡¯t create ¡®plant¡¯ broken mana when they came into contact with mana. alice wasn¡¯t sure why this was the case yet.


    but the idea that pure mana was so easily influenced by its surroundings was an interesting one, and if every single chunk of mana that flowed through a portal became dimensional broken mana just by coming into contact with a portal, it would explain why any use of dimensional mana quickly flooded an area with broken dimensional mana. the mana in the air was always moving, and so any portal from one place to another would have small amounts of mana passing through it every second.


    she wasn¡¯t sure why some people became ¡®contagious¡¯ afterwards, polluting their environment with more broken mana after being ¡®baptized¡¯ by dimensional broken mana, but she did think she was on the right track for learning more about broken and dimensional mana. while she hadn¡¯t had time to set up a specific experiment to test her assumptions yet, she was getting all sorts of ideas she wanted to analyze in further detail.


    unfortunately, while alice had gotten some useful information out of boris¡¯s situation, she was still completely clueless about why boris¡¯s class seed was partially working when it previously hadn¡¯t. even though alice had learned all sorts of interesting tidbits that could help fuel research about the nature of mana, she had no idea how to actually speed up boris¡¯s recovery. she racked her brain, running back over natasha¡¯s recount of the past week, but no matter what she thought about, there just didn¡¯t seem to be anything that could have caused boris¡¯s class seed to change. and, more importantly, alice had no idea how to help it work faster, or help the class seeds of other afflicted start working. this caused alice no small amount of frustration.


    to work off some stress and raise her levels a bit, alice took some time to update her enchanted items. she had been meaning to swap out her enchantments ever since she picked up the {kinetic enchanting} perk, which allowed her to permanently increase the number of instructions an enchanting material could ¡®remember¡¯ by one. most of her enchanted items currently only had one or two instructions right now, and given her increasing skill as an [enchanter], and the increasingly dangerous threats she might face in the future, alice decided it was time to improve her items. the extra power her enchantments could give her in an emergency situation might save her life one day. since ethan was giving her enough money that she no longer cared about her income, alice decided to splurge on some materials to make her upgrades even bigger.


    alice¡¯s bracelet was the first object she updated. previously, alice¡¯s bracelet of stone beads had simply had beads that would turn into makeshift bullets when being thrown, and alice had eventually added in an organic component to further attack the flesh of people who got injured by the beads. however, now that alice had a little bit more funding and better perks, she decided to swap out the enchanting material entirely, replacing it with a kind of metal that was already able to hold three instructions on its own: one organic, one kinetic, and one pure-mana based instruction. then alice tried layering a few different instructions together to explicitly counter what she had faced during the fight to rescue samantha.


    first, she made the objects fire themselves like bullets upon activation towards a specific target. this hadn¡¯t changed from her original bracelet at all. then, she added in the instruction to make it hard to heal or manipulate flesh within several centimeters of a metal bead after it hit something. since many of the society members were organic mages, shutting down or weakening their healing abilities seemed like a good idea, even if the natural magic resistance all creatures possessed would weaken the effect of this enchantment instruction by a large amount. finally, she added in a layer of pure magic to the beads, in order to make them try to mimic the patterns of mana around them. alice wasn¡¯t sure if this idea would actually help or not, but she felt that it should make it a bit harder for mages to track the objects using most forms of mana related vision. some perks, such as alice¡¯s {vastly improved kinetic vision}, would still be able to track the beads easily. however, there were plenty of perks that relied on mana and mana-related ideas to track objects, and with alice¡¯s most recent addition to her projectile beads, she would be able to counter those perks in the future.


    with the extra instruction slot granted by {kinetic enchanting}, alice also made the beads explode like shattered glass when they hit something, making them into shrapnel-based enchanted bullets that avoided some detection by mages and made it hard to heal wounds caused by them. it was an effective counter to lower level society mages, although alice suspected the use of her enchantments would decrease significantly against higher level combatants. however, even against high level combatants, wave after wave of beads had a decent chance of killing them if they made a mistake.


    since alice was happy with her new bracelet, she made a {blueprint} out of it and made six more copies. then, she stuck them into {sample collection} for future use. after that, she made a necklace that detected and repelled objects that moved too quickly towards her as well. the detection part of the enchantment was rather tricky to figure out, but the perk alice got after making her new bead bracelets helped out a lot.


    you have leveled up!


    explorer of magic: 68 -> 69, careful enchanter: 20 -> 27, kinetic manabinder 38 -> 41, student 7 -> 8, student of organic magic 1 -> 3


    speed analysis


    requirements: kinetic manabinder level 40, intelligence 150 or greater, perception 100 or greater, great amount of time spent trying to manipulate object speeds using enchantments


    i can also see that you have gone far above and beyond any level of connection my husband¡¯s business network may have granted you. to be an apprentice of one of illvaria¡¯s six surviving immortals is a feat few people have achieved. i would like to claim that i had a hand in your success, but at this point, i do wonder if you wouldn¡¯t have reached the same heights with or without my help. congratulations to you, and i¡¯m glad to see that you are doing so well for yourself.


    my acquaintanceship with immortal ethan goes back to my days in the army. i served on the northern border under immortal ethan¡¯s father, and the sun knight spent a good amount of time and effort providing me with the materials and training i needed to succeed. i would not have reached the level i have reached today without his assistance, and i am grateful for his help.


    i have interacted less with his immortal son, but i have still spent some time with him. i have known him to have a somewhat... odd personality. he is sometimes frustrating to work with because his personality can come off as abrasive, especially in certain situations. however, while he can come across the wrong way, i have known him to be very... enthusiastic about the idea of another immortal showing up in illvaria.


    alice was highly amused to see illa, of all people, referring to someone as sometimes abrasive. while alice didn¡¯t mind illa¡¯s blunt, pragmatic personality, she was willing to bet it had also irritated plenty of people illa had worked with in the past.


    one of the things you should keep in mind is that most immortals are lonely. an immortal is still, at the end of the day, a human. they love their family, laugh with their friends, and cry when their loved ones get hurt. this is why many immortals are afraid to interact with non-immortals too frequently; they fear growing close to them because they are afraid of the day their friends will leave them, never to return because they, like many others, failed to reach immortality before old age took them.


    the sun knight, for example, grieved for nearly three decades when his first wife died of old age, or so the legends go. afterwards, he refused to even entertain the idea of remarrying until his current wife approached him. since she was also an immortal, he was more willing to entertain the idea of a relationship, and eventually they got married.


    they then had several children, most of whom died of old age.


    doll, the immortal of steel and fabric, is an even better example of immortal loneliness. she refuses to even see non-immortals for fear of getting attached to them unless they are effectively guaranteed to become immortals, meaning that they must have proven they have access to a tier 2 class and still be relatively young.


    the point that i am trying to make is that ethan is no exception to the concept of immortal loneliness. in fact, he might be the immortal who is most influenced by it, since he grew up with parents half-convinced he would die of old age like his siblings. he managed to beat the odds and become an immortal, but... being the child of two immortals means that he grew up with a very different view of life and death than most people. and he also had a very unique social status while growing up, making it even harder for him to connect with other people. this is the reason he continuously takes in apprentices and tries to raise them to immortality, although he has yet to succeed.


    if ethan thinks that you have a good chance of reaching immortality, he is likely to prioritize your safety and growth over almost everything else. the more you convince him that you have a good chance of reaching immortality, the more trustworthy he will be with all of your secrets, needs, and wants. the more he feels that you won¡¯t make it, and the more he worries you will die of old age and fail to reach immortality, the less trustworthy he will become. while i do not think of him as the kind of person who would harm one of his subordinates or acquaintances, either through malice or recklessness, your matters will certainly weigh less heavily on his heart if he thinks you will die in a few decades either way. he is more concerned with making friends who will be around for a few centuries than with friends who will disappear in the blink of an eye.


    considering your age and what i¡¯ve heard of your achievements, you should be very safe.


    it has been a delight hearing from you, and i hope to hear from you again in the near future.


    sincerely,


    illa weissarus


    milo¡¯s letter was much less concentrated on immortals and ethan than illa¡¯s letter, since alice hadn¡¯t asked him for any information on the subject. his letter was mostly a collection of ramblings about life in southern illvaria, talking about things such as the increased flow of trade and money in the south, the completion of illa¡¯s dock, and a pretty [barmaid] that milo had begun courting. alice read over his letter as a pleasant distraction, catching up with milo¡¯s life before she turned her attention back to the information given to her by illa.


    she had been debating whether to fully trust ethan for a while now, and while illa hadn¡¯t said she could trust ethan unconditionally with her secrets, alice was happy to have illa¡¯s thoughts on the psychology of immortals in this world. and, perhaps more importantly, while there were some conditions attached to alice¡¯s trust of ethan, based on illa¡¯s words it would probably make alice safer if she told ethan about her past as an {outworlder} than if she tried to keep things hidden. alice felt that her odds of reaching immortality were quite good; she was much higher level than most people her age, and while her experience multipliers still needed some work before they reached the levels needed for immortality, alice was definitely getting closer and closer as time passed. and so, that friday night, alice found herself once again outside of ethan¡¯s study, preparing to talk about the most dangerous part of her past.

 Chapter 105

    chapter 105


    alice knocked on the door to ethan¡¯s study, trying to quell the thrill of nervousness that ran down her spine as she thought about revealing her status as an {outworlder}. however, since she had made up her mind, she would follow her intentions through.


    ¡°yes?¡± asked ethan. ¡°you can come in.¡±


    alice opened to the door to ethan¡¯s study and walked in. as usual, there was a small mountain of paperwork in front of ethan, as well as a few letters laying in front of him. ethan gave alice a nod, then gestured for her to wait a moment he finished scanning a letter in front of him. several seconds later, he folded the piece of paper and placed it in the corner of his desk, before he turned back towards her and gave her a friendly grin.


    ¡°it¡¯s rare to see you come to my study. is there something you wanted to discuss?¡±


    ¡°i¡¯ve decided that i want to speak with you about something,¡± said alice, pushing aside her hesitation.


    ¡°oh?¡± ethan raised an eyebrow.


    alice took a deep breath, feeling her nerves and anxiety reach a peak, before she let out her breath.


    ¡°i¡¯m not from luliv. i was born on a planet called earth, and i was dumped here while i was asleep. i think it might be related to the dimensional floods the society of starry eyes has been recording recently, though i¡¯m not 100% sure that¡¯s the case.¡±


    immortal ethan paused, his eyes widening in surprise, before he took a closer look at alice and frowned.


    ¡°is that so? i... ah, so that¡¯s what it was. i knew there were a lot of weird parts about your past, so i was trying to figure out what was wrong.¡± ethan chuckled. ¡°i was originally hung up on the fact that none of my agents could find a trace of you before you showed up in cyra last year. and illa was quite reluctant to say anything, although she did say your past wasn¡¯t harmful to the country or myself. i thought perhaps you had grown up in the wilderness or something, which would also explain why you seemed to have no past, but your classes and perks are just not built for wilderness survival.¡± ethan thoughtfully nodded. ¡°i guess this information does finally resolve all of my questions.¡± then, ethan suddenly towards alice, and then frowned at her. ¡°it¡¯s good that you waited a while to tell me this, but shouldn¡¯t you have waited longer to verify my intentions and what kind of person i am? it would be very difficult for me to discover the truth about your past without your help, and logically speaking, i¡¯m someone who could pose a threat to you,¡± said ethan, his frown beginning to deepen.


    ¡°if you decided to just take a huge risk without verifying more information about me as a person, i¡¯ll be angry. i¡¯m a mage with a permit to study dimensional magic, and i have a much higher social position than you do. if i sent you on a ¡®training mission¡¯ for a while, people probably wouldn¡¯t question it. i have no intention of doing so, but you had no way of knowing that beforehand, and i¡¯m probably the person best situation in all of illvaria to make you disappear. why did you tell me information that might put you in danger?¡±


    alice felt more than a little amused by the thought of ethan being upset that she had shared more information with him. however, in light of illa¡¯s discussion about immortal loneliness, a lot of ethan¡¯s actions made more sense. he wasn¡¯t just thinking about doing the ¡®bare minimum¡¯ to get alice to immortality, or to create an asset to illvaria. instead, he seemed to be trying to ensure that alice would survive as long as humanly possible even after she became an immortal; in other words, while a lot of his words seemed to reprimand her, he was also lecturing her on ways to help her survive in the long term.


    ¡°i didn¡¯t share this information on a whim,¡± said alice, wondering if she should discuss how much information she received from illa via letter. after a few moments, she decided that immortal ethan probably wouldn¡¯t be angry that alice had asked for information about him, and would probably approve of her actions.


    ¡°i first asked illa what her impression of you was. i thought that she would understand what i wanted to know from that question, since she¡¯s aware of my... situation.¡± out of the corner of her eye, alice saw ethan¡¯s eye start twitching for a few moments. she pretended not to see it. ¡°after i got information from illa regarding you, i decided that telling you about my history as an {outworlder} would increase my safety, since you¡¯re more likely to help me than harm me, based on the information currently available to me. besides, the society is in a good place to put together how weird my past is, once they gather enough information, and while i don¡¯t think they know, it¡¯s entirely possible they¡¯ll figure it out in the future. since that¡¯s true, informing you in advance is one of the better ways to improve my safety and help prepare against a possible fight with the society. the longer i can put it off, the safer i¡¯ll be.¡±


    ethan¡¯s frown slowly eased, before he gave alice a more curious look.


    ¡°i¡¯m glad you at least put a reasonable amount of thought and assessment into it first. hmm... another world, huh...¡± ethan drifted off as he looked more closely at alice. ¡°what was your home world like?¡± unlike before, he no longer sounded critical of alice¡¯s choices. he just seemed curious.


    alice frowned for a moment, before she shrugged. she didn¡¯t mind talking about earth. she wasn¡¯t used to talking about it with people besides cecilia, and illa when she had lived in cyra, but it wasn¡¯t a terrible idea to talk about home.


    ¡°the world i lived in was one where there was no such thing as mana or magic. there was also no such thing as the system.¡± ethan¡¯s eyes widened in shock as alice spoke. ¡°instead, there was an awful lot of... you know, i¡¯m not quite sure how to describe what a machine is,¡± said alice. when she tried to use her illvarian language skill to translate it, the result she got was ¡®extraordinary metal contraption enchantment which is not an enchantment,¡¯ which was... hard to explain. thus, alice ended up using the english word for ¡®machine¡¯ instead.


    ethan thought for a moment, before he nodded. ¡°you can show me.¡±


    alice reached out a hand, before she made contact with ethan¡¯s arm. after that, she used {shared memory}, before she decided to show ethan an image of a car. it was easy to use as a comparison point, since horses and carriages were everywhere on this planet, and so ethan should be able to quickly figure out what it was and what its purpose was.


    as alice showed ethan images of cars, she also replayed a few of her own memories of riding around in a car, as well as the speeds a car could reach on a highway. embedded within the memory were chunks of other information; such as the highway network alice¡¯s previous world had constructed to service cars, and the size cities could reach in her previous life.


    at the end of alice¡¯s introductory memory montage on the nature of cars, ethan quietly removed his arm, before nodding thoughtfully.


    ¡°interesting. i¡¯ve never seen anything like these... cars, were they called? your memories didn¡¯t include much talking, but i think i heard that term thrown around a few times.¡±


    alice was rather surprised for a moment, because ethan hadn¡¯t spoken in illvarian when he used the term ¡®car.¡¯ he had spoken in english. it was a language alice didn¡¯t really hear spoken in this world, and it felt like it had been years since she last spoke in her native language. she had gotten used to speaking illvarian, but hearing someone talk in english felt strangely nostalgic.


    heedless of alice¡¯s sudden nostalgia, ethan continued speaking, a mixture of wonder and curiosity evident on his face.


    ¡°i¡¯m quite surprised. despite having no access to magic or perks, cars do seem quite a bit better than horses or a carriage, unless they¡¯re boosted by several perks. i mean, if an immortal threw a bunch of perks together to boost the speed of a horse, they could still outrun a car quite easily. however, the majority of the country simply doesn¡¯t have access to that level of perk. even if cars are inferior to the upper limit a perk can reach, your memories don¡¯t make it seem like cars are rare. if every single person in illvaria used cars, instead of horses or their feet, i imagine news and goods would flow much more quickly around the country. fascinating.¡± immortal ethan nodded. ¡°so are cars the ¡®machines¡¯ you were referring to?¡±


    ¡°it¡¯s an example of a machine that we created at home, yes. there are a lot more machines than just cars, but most of them are harder to describe. my homeland focused a lot on making these sorts of metal contraptions, in order to compensate for all of the things we lacked since we didn¡¯t have access to perks and enchantments. in the process, our machines reached a point where they probably match someone with perks at level 80 or 90. though, admittedly, that also varies a lot from one category of machine to another. while we had machines that helped us with medicine at home, for example, there¡¯s no way we could just help someone regrow a limb in a few minutes back on earth. i would say the medical treatments of this world are probably superior to those on earth, even though this world¡¯s understanding of what¡¯s actually happening at a microscopic level is much worse,¡± said alice. when she had first arrived in this world, she had thought the treatments of this world were only on par with earth¡¯s, but after seeing people routinely regrow limbs and instantly heal lethal injuries, she had been forced to revise her opinion. ¡°it¡¯s actually pretty interesting to see how some things are much worse here on luliv, but there are also some categories of technology and medicine that are oddly superior. but cars are the kind of thing i would see all the time at home.¡±


    ethan nodded thoughtfully, before his eyes darted back towards the mountain of paperwork on his desk. ¡°since you appear to have put a decent amount of thought into whether or not to tell me about your status as an {outworlder}, and even went as far as contacting illa and verifying information about me beforehand, i¡¯ll acknowledge the planning and thought that went into this. thank you for being willing to share this information. i will also tell you that if the society learns of this, they will probably hound you to the ends of the planet, so i very highly recommend you not tell anyone else, no matter what.¡± alice thought guiltily of cecilia, before deciding not to mention it. she trusted cecilia not to reveal her status as an {outworlder}, and she wanted to continue trusting her friends. ¡°i¡¯ll do my best to help create a ¡®fake past¡¯ for you as well. something a little obscure, so it would make sense that it didn¡¯t come to light, but something that can be found after a little bit of digging. hmm... perhaps you could be an escaped sigmusi slave? it would be a little difficult to interfere with any records the sigmusi have, since relations between illvaria and the sigmusi are practically only a step away from war, but i can probably slip a [spy] or two over the border to meddle with some documents. if it¡¯s obscure enough, it might work as a method of covering up your past for a while longer... if you worked to learn sigmusi, it might help as well. up to you, though, since this ruse will also fall apart sooner or later. it¡¯s just a question of buying time.¡± ethan trailed off for a moment, before nodding to himself. he turned towards alice. ¡°rest assured that i will do my best to keep you safe for as long as you remain my apprentice, and i will take appropriate steps to deal with this information. but also keep in mind that the society will probably come for you sooner or later. before that happens, you should strive to level up and grow stronger as quickly as possible, or your future might be very bleak.¡±


    alice nodded. she had always been aware of the looming threat of the society; otherwise, she wouldn¡¯t work so hard to grow. ethan¡¯s eyes darted towards his pile of paperwork once more, and alice took that as a cue she should leave. she gave immortal ethan a respectful nod, and after a few parting words, she left ethan¡¯s study.


    * * *


    the next day was saturday, which meant that it was board game day. as usual, alice went to cecilia¡¯s workshop, where cecilia was already setting up a table in one of the rooms and pulling over chairs. since everyone had gotten tired of the previous board game alice had recently made another popular board game from home, this one titled ¡®terraforming the western continent.¡¯ the original board game was based on terraforming and colonizing mars, but since alice figured it probably wouldn¡¯t make much sense to the people of this planet, she had made a few changes to the game to make sure everything made more sense to the inhabitants of luliv. instead of terraforming a planet, for example, alice found the best map of the western continent she could find (it was very, very dubious), filled in the blanks with geography she thought probably made sense, and then made the game instead focused on colonizing the western continent. some game mechanics also got slightly changed or reworked, as well. for example, instead of raising oxygen levels, players of the game worked to lower monster population in the area, and instead of managing the temperature of the planet, people instead worked to manage the mana level of the area by using enchantments that lowered or raised the quantity of mana and broken mana in the region. it wasn¡¯t exactly a perfect rendition of the original game, but alice felt it worked well enough, and the gameplay made much more sense to the inhabitants of this world, according to cecilia. which was what mattered to her.


    like every other morning alice ran a board game group, it didn¡¯t take long for a few other people to show up. ezrien¡¯s team of researchers sometimes came to board game day, and sometimes they didn¡¯t, and this week it seemed like they weren¡¯t planning to show up. erkki, arsi, and laila came, while luka was apparently dealing with some sort of party his noble family wanted him to host. alice figured nobody else was coming, and so she started explaining the rules of the new game, as well as the general background of it. however, partway through her explanation, there was another knock at the door of cecilia¡¯s workshop.


    ¡°i got it,¡± said cecilia, frowning. these days, cecilia was doing well enough financially that she closed the store on saturday mornings so that she could enjoy herself playing board games with everyone else. however, sometimes customers ignored the ¡®closed¡¯ sign and request new enchantments anyway. alice shrugged, and resumed her explanation of the new board game, before she heard something crash into the ground a few moments later.


    wondering if the society had come for her, alice prepared for a fight as she opened the door, only to be surprised in a different way.


    cecilia had knocked over a small crate of enchanting supplies. and standing at the door was immortal ethan, who gave alice and cecilia curious glances.


    ¡°excuse me, but i heard my apprentice runs something called a ¡®board game night¡¯ every saturday here? despite this clearly not being night? do you have an extra seat?¡± asked ethan.

 Chapter 106

    chapter 106


    alice stared at immortal ethan, who had shown up to her morning board game session, and tried not to feel awkward. after her conversation with immortal ethan yesterday, she had realized that ethan was more interested in her than before. alice suspected it was because ethan learned that she had reached her current level in a year, rather than sixteen and a half years. reaching level 68 in a class before turning seventeen was really impressive by this world¡¯s standards, since most people reached somewhere between level 40 and 60 in their primary class by the time they reached retirement. but doing the same thing in less than a year was several times more difficult.


    however, with an immortal showing up to her board game night, alice realized that she had underestimated just how much ethan valued her levelling speed. he wasn¡¯t just impressed by her levelling speed; he had now crashed the time she usually spent relaxing with her friends for reasons she didn¡¯t quite understand.


    she eyed erkki, arsi, and laila, who had frozen like frogs being eyed like a snake the moment immortal ethan had entered the room, and surpressed a sigh. cecilia was a little better, since alice had updated her on being an apprentice of ethan earlier, and cecilia was used to weird stuff happening around alice. however, even cecilia seemed nervous when standing in front of one of the most influential people in illvaria. alice had let most of her acquaintances know the board game nights were open for anyone she knew, as long as they felt like showing up. however, she had never expected a literal immortal to show up on a day like this, since she expected immortals to be off doing more important things.


    ¡°so how do we play?¡± asked ethan, seemingly completely unaffected by the tense atmosphere.


    alice cleared her throat. ¡°ah... well, this is a game called ¡®terraforming the western continent.¡¯ it¡¯s set someday in the distant future, when really powerful mages and [enchanters] are working to settle the western continent, using extraordinary enchantments and artifacts to drive back the monsters, control the massive quantity of mana present in the region, and turn it into a habitable place for humans to live.¡± alice said, trying to settle the tense atmosphere. if erkki, laila, and luka kept gaping at ethan, alice would probably die of stress.


    ethan nodded thoughtfully. ¡°is that so?¡± he said, looking over alice¡¯s board curiously. ¡°i don¡¯t think that a desert could exist on that spot. they usually form near mountains. they sometimes form for other reasons, but one definitely doesn¡¯t belong on that spot.¡± alice blushed. she hadn¡¯t noticed that mistake. she saw cecilia stifle a small chuckle, some of the other girl¡¯s tension leaving as an immortal poked fun at alice¡¯s game board. then, alice cleared her throat again. even if she was stressed out by the tense atmosphere, having the flaws in her game board pointed out wasn¡¯t the way she had hoped to remove the tension.


    ¡°i was trying to create an interesting game board. since there aren¡¯t any good maps of the western continent available, i made most of it up myself. i may have made a few small errors,¡± said alice, hoping ethan wouldn¡¯t look too closely at the rest of the game board.??v€l?1n.


    ethan shrugged, giving her a more relaxed grin, as alice went back to explaining the rules. by the end of it, she wasn¡¯t sure how much information erkki, arsi, and laila had retained. they were still paying much more attention to ethan than the board itself. however, alice didn¡¯t want to re-explain the rules, so she hoped they would probably pick it up after a game or two. honestly, she had only been able to play the original board game twice while back on earth, and so she wasn¡¯t entirely familiar with the rules yet. she just hoped that she was remembering how to play properly.


    after that, the board game began.


    turns passed as the group tried to get back to a ¡®normal¡¯ board game session, but alice noticed everyone but her was afraid to mess with ethan. even though terraforming the western continent was a game built around sabotaging each other¡¯s work, almost as much as it was built around actually terraforming the western continent and building civilization there, having an actual immortal sitting at the game board meant that most people were afraid to target him. laila, who was uncharacteristically prim and conscious of her image, eventually managed to make some awkward small talk with immortal ethan during the game session, which got erkki and arsi to open up a little bit to ethan during the game session as well. however, everyone was unusually on edge for the first half of the game, and nobody was willing to sabotage ethan¡¯s projects due to his status in real life. this led ethan to an easy victory during the first game.


    the second game was a little less tense. after having an immortal sit around the table and play terraforming the western continent for a few hours, the others finally started to warm up to immortal ethan. arsi was very happy to talk with ethan once he got more used to the immortal¡¯s presence, possibly because ethan knew a lot about magic, and arsi seemed to look up to the man. erkki, instead, seemed more afraid of messing up and causing ethan to form a bad impression of him; thus, he refrained from actively participating in the conversation. laila, for her part, remained uncharacteristically energetic, staying as prim and proper as possible. she was the most unnatural of the three, although part of that was just because alice knew how much laila usually enjoyed relaxing and taking things easy. seeing her try to look energetic and proper just felt wrong.


    all in all, the board game session was a fair bit more strained and less relaxed than usual, but by the end of the second game, everyone but laila had at least started to calm down. since they were running low on time, alice decided to end the session there.


    at the end of the board game session, erkki, arsi, and laila left the building as if they were fleeing for their lives, which made alice feel more than slightly amused. cecilia, however, couldn¡¯t leave, because this was her shop.


    after a few moments of hesitation, cecilia gave ethan a small, respectful bow. ¡°honored immortal,¡± she said, and alice could practically feel the desire to be somewhere else radiating off of her friend.


    ethan gave cecilia a small smile, before nodding at alice as well. ¡°is this your friend?¡± he asked. ¡°i recall hiring a [hidden bodyguard] for her as well...¡± cecilia seemed a bit surprised at that, before she glanced at alice and seemed to realize why it was relevant.


    alice nodded in response to ethan¡¯s question. ¡°this is my friend cecilia, yes. she knows almost everything about me, even from before i joined illvarian society,¡± said alice.


    cecilia frowned, giving ethan a closer look. there was a mixture of emotions on her face as she processed ethan¡¯s offer. excitement. confusion. worry.


    ¡°why are you so invested in my levelling speed?¡±


    ethan frowned, before sighing. ¡°i¡¯ve just seen too many promising people fail to reach immortality, especially because they didn¡¯t want to leave their friends or lovers behind.¡± ethan¡¯s eye twitched, and alice wondered if ethan was also pissed off about illa dropping her chances of becoming an immortal to get married. it seemed like most immortals and near-immortals were upset with illa for precisely that reason, which made her feel more than a little amused. if she were living in medieval europe, high class members of society would be angry if a woman tried to step out of her role in society and become someone important, like a [scholar] or a queen. here, people would be angry for exactly the opposite reason. they felt she had potential, and were pissed off that she had abandoned it to marry someone who had little chance of reaching immortality.


    cecilia sighed. ¡°i want to work towards immortality on my own. don¡¯t get me wrong ¨C i wouldn¡¯t mind becoming an immortal, and i love working with my friend,¡± she said, nodding in alice¡¯s direction. ¡°it wouldn¡¯t surprise me if alice reaches immortality sooner or later. but i don¡¯t want things to just be handed to me, either. i want to reach immortality with my own hard work, if i do reach immortality. and if i don¡¯t, then... i guess that¡¯s just what happens. it might be a foolish point of pride, but i want my actions to be mine alone,¡± she said.


    ethan frowned, before he nodded. ¡°i suppose you are free to do as you wish, [enchanter] cecilia. let me know if you change your mind.¡± after that, he turned towards alice. ¡°by the way, there was one other thing i wanted to inform you of. the first volunteer for your mana baptism observations has come. after some thought, i have let the ethics committee for metsel know of your experiment in advance, so that they may observe the screening process for your experiment, as well as the experiment itself. i think it will be much safer for you if you remain in close contact with them during your experiment, just to make sure you don¡¯t accidentally end up getting into conflict with them. normally, it would be hard to get a few members of the committee to observe an experiment, but i have a little pull with them.¡± he grinned. ¡°you¡¯ll probably need to answer a few questions under lie-detection perks, but you should be fine. they¡¯re ready tonight or tomorrow night. just let me know when you want to start.¡±


    with that, he left.


    the moment ethan left, cecilia whirled towards alice and frowned at her. she seemed to hesitate for a moment, before she sighed.


    ¡°you told him?¡± asked cecilia. ¡°i mean, he¡¯s an immortal, and i¡¯ve grown up hearing stories about him and the sun knight, but even so... i¡¯ve been questioning a lot of things recently. and while everything i¡¯ve heard about immortal ethan is good, telling him about your past still seems risky. are you sure it was the right move?¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°he¡¯s the primary defense i have against the society of starry eyes. doesn¡¯t it make sense to give him as much information as possible, to make it harder for the society to pick up my real past and attack me for it? the fact that i have no past before the age of 15 in this world is already very strange. if the society looks a bit into my past, and realizes i popped up near a giant chunk of broken dimensional mana a year ago, they might put everything together. especially since the society is actively researching dimensional magic and recording various broken mana floods throughout the world. it wouldn¡¯t surprise me in the slightest if they eventually put everything together and start coming after me. if he knows more about my past, he can make it harder for people to track down the relevant information. and creating multiple ¡®potential¡¯ pasts for me also isn¡¯t a bad idea, honestly. if there are a lot of people i could be, as long as there isn¡¯t a definite record claiming i¡¯m one particular person, it could also give the society a headache if they investigate my past. ethan mentioned trying to create a past making it look like i¡¯m an escaped slave of the sigmusi empire, and if i have a bunch of different ¡®possible¡¯ identities it could give the society a massive headache if they try to investigate me. i think that¡¯s immortal ethan¡¯s idea; even if it won¡¯t hold up long-term, we just need to buy time for me to level up and get stronger. making things as confusing as possible until then makes sense.¡±


    cecilia frowned, but finally, nodded. ¡°i suppose. just make sure he¡¯s really trustworthy.¡±


    ¡°to the best of my knowledge, he¡¯s fine. i asked illa about him through a letter, and according to the information she provided, he should generally be acting in my best interests, so long as i¡¯m still on track to becoming an immortal.¡±


    cecilia frowned. ¡°why only if you¡¯re on track to becoming an immortal? why does that matter so much?¡±


    ¡°immortal loneliness. apparently, most immortals are afraid of getting attached to people who might die in a few decades.¡±


    cecilia paused, as if she hadn¡¯t considered that before, and then nodded. ¡°i suppose. if you did your research before telling him about your past, i guess it¡¯s not that big of a deal. but be careful. even though ethan is trustworthy, the more people that know about your secret, the more dangerous things could be for you in the future.¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°i¡¯m being as careful as i can, cecilia. i just need to keep working hard and improving myself as best i can and stay safe until then. immortal ethan is the best chance i have of getting through all of this.¡±


    cecilia finally seemed at ease with alice¡¯s decision, so she changed the topic back towards the board game alice had created for the day. finally, after spending a few hours relaxing and chatting, alice also left cecilia¡¯s workshop. she had an observation experiment to do.

 Chapter 107

    chapter 107


    after alice returned to ethan¡¯s mansion, she let him know that she wanted to do her mana baptism observations now. ethan stopped what he was doing, wrote a few letters, and gave them to his servants, before excusing himself. this left alice alone with her thoughts.


    alice figured she could get her first round of observations underway, and then later today she could use {broken magic seed} and {expanding comprehension} to investigate more about system magic seeds.


    on some level, she found it a little grim that she knew the man she was going to observe today would likely die, and she was already making plans for how to cope with it and move on with her day.


    at the same time, since the person was going to undergo a baptism either way, there wasn¡¯t much alice could do about it. sure, if the reason this person was going through a mana baptism was poverty, she could save him from the risk of a baptism by giving him a bunch of money. that might remove his motivation for undergoing a baptism and possibly save his life. however, she couldn¡¯t do the same for however many hundreds of people went for a baptism in illvaria every year. and while alice¡¯s salary from ethan was quite high, alice certainly couldn¡¯t support all of the impoverished people of illvaria by herself. the best way for her to make a real impact on people¡¯s lives would be to find a way to make mana baptisms safer.


    and even though alice knew this on an intellectual level, she still felt quite bad about the observations she was about to do. finding a way to make mana baptisms safer would benefit the entire country, and probably the entire human race if the innovation spread. but alice would still need to watch a man fight for his life first. and he would probably die afterwards.


    alice wondered how many members of the society felt the same way about their own experiments. some members of the society were clearly in it for themselves, but alice was beginning to wonder if their leadership had a different goal in mind. she seriously doubted the average member of the society cared about anything besides the massive levels and economic advantages human experimentation and expedited research breakthroughs could give them; the behavior of the few society members she had met persuaded her of that fact well enough. however, based on the strange behavior of some of the higher ups that they had found recorded in society documents, such as the leadership¡¯s increasingly urgent demands that the society of starry eyes investigate dimensional floods, alice wondered if the leadership of the society might work for their own twisted version of the greater good. at least in their minds, they might be sacrificing their own morals for the sake of humanity, ignoring their own conscience to do what they thought was right.


    and in some sense, at least, the experiment alice would do today was a step in the same direction.


    which was a terrible feeling.


    she swallowed, and pushed that thought away. the difference was that she asked for consent first in her experiment, and had members of the ethics committee here to make sure her experiment today was justified. while this experiment may have some superficial similarities with the way the society members acted, it was also vastly different from kidnapping a four year old and trying to see if they died or not in a wildly unsafe experiment. or kidnapping someone like samantha and ripping out her organs over and over again to investigate what made them unique.


    alice wasn¡¯t even forcing the man to undergo a mana baptism; he was free to change his mind at any time and walk away. she was only paying him to change the spot where he went through his baptism. but despite her logical mind pointing out all of the differences between her actions and those of the society, a certain uneasy feeling remained in her gut.


    as alice stewed in her thoughts, a group of three people knocked on the door to ethan¡¯s manor. alice swallowed a hint of nervousness as she heard the sound, and realized that she was finally about to come face to face with some members of the ethics committee. after a few moments, a [maid] opened the door to reveal three people. they walked in, before giving immortal ethan respectful greetings, and then giving alice a more perfunctory one.


    one of them was a middle aged lady, who looked fairly attractive despite her aging appearance. alice wondered how high her [charisma] was, but didn¡¯t think much further about the subject. the middle-aged mage also seemed to be the lowest level member of the group; she was decidedly average in level.


    apart from the middle-aged woman, there was an old man who looked to be at least 60 years old. he wore a pair of spectacles that shone with rainbow mana, making alice wonder what the spectacles actually did. based on the flow of rainbow mana, alice was vaguely guessing that they boosted perception, or perhaps gave the man access to a few vision-related perks. he was around level 60 or 65, based on alice¡¯s estimation, and had an amiable grin on his face as he greeted both her and ethan. he seemed to be the most obviously friendly member of the group. however, something about his smile made alice think that he wasn¡¯t genuinely glad to see her or ethan; he was simply trying to be polite and appear amiable.


    the final woman was the highest level of the three, probably somewhere in her low-eighties. she was also the youngest of the three, and appeared to be somewhere in her late thirties. her [charisma] was barely over 100. given her age and level, combined with her low [charisma], alice assumed she didn¡¯t like socializing much. the woman had a distinct frown on her face as she looked at alice and ethan, and for a moment, alice wondered if she had done something to offend the woman. unlike the other two mages, the younger mage also had a clipboard with her, and was carefully inspecting a few sheets of paper as she walked into the room.


    after the other two mages finished greeting ezrien, the youngest female mage finally looked up from her papers, before she frowned at both alice and ethan. she gave ethan a shallow respectful nod, before finally speaking.


    ¡°i understand you¡¯re the one responsible for this experiment today?¡± she asked. alice was surprised that the youngest mage, and the one with the lowest [charisma], was the first one to speak. perhaps she had more authority in this group, due to her higher level?


    alice took another deep breath as she looked at the boy. she just hoped she wasn¡¯t about to witness him fail his baptism and die, even though there was a 96% chance that was exactly what was going to happen.


    ¡°we have finished questioning lady alice about this experiment, and found no problems. we must also ask the one who is about to undergo the baptism a series of questions, to ensure no foul play is at hand. are you prepared to answer our questions?¡± asked the older male mage, turning his attention to the teenage boy. ¡°please bear in mind that we will be checking all of your statements for lies.¡±


    the teenager looked at ethan, and then at alice and the other three mages. he shuffled anxiously for a few moments, before he gritted his teeth and nodded. ¡°please feel free to ask me as many questions as you like, sir mage. my little brother is counting on me, so i¡¯m willing to do whatever i need to for him.¡±


    following that, the mages started to run the teenager through a list of questions. the list was nearly as extensive as the one alice had been forced to read, and covered almost every situation imaginable. it included questions such as whether the teenager was being forced or coerced into the situation, as well as more open ended questions such as what specific motivation had led the teenager to join the experiment. even questions like his name, background, and what kinds of work he had tried to do before joining this experiment were included. alice learned a wide variety of facts about the teenage boy in the short period of time the ethics committee questioned him.


    his name was tavi. he had a younger brother who didn¡¯t have enough food to eat, and had even acquired the {malnourished} achievement recently. he had lost his arm in an accident while working at a [butcher]¡¯s shop, which had led to a huge downward spiral for both him and his younger brother. the two of them no longer had parents, since they had been lost in a monster attack several years ago.


    alice tried not to think too much about the fact that tavi might die soon.


    after several minutes of questions and answers, the mages finally finished asking the teenager questions. since the answers were to their satisfaction, alice swallowed another great, big gulp of nervousness. the more she knew about tavi, the more she hoped he would live through his baptism. she hesitated, wondering if she should just ask ethan to give tavi some money for his brother and send the boy away. watching him die would leave a sour taste in her mouth. but after a few moments, alice steeled her heart.


    the experiment could begin. and now that the time had come, alice wasn¡¯t sure if she was ready for this at all. but if she wanted to learn how to make mana baptisms safer, she needed information. and this was the most ethical way she could think of to learn more, even if it didn¡¯t feel great.


    ¡°is everything ready?¡± asked ethan, turning to alice. ¡°do you need any last minute modifications?¡± alice shook her head. she prepared to use {lesser organic vision} in conjunction with her various mana-sight related abilities, and turned to the teenage boy.


    ¡°are you completely sure you¡¯re willing to do this?¡± asked alice. ¡°this is your last chance to back out. if you change your mind right now, you can still leave. nobody will have a problem with you just walking out the door and forgetting about all of this.¡±


    the teenage boy¡¯s voice shook for a moment, but he still croaked out his answer.


    ¡°i am. start it please, lady mage.¡±


    ¡°if you¡¯re really sure, we¡¯ll hit the switch and start your baptism. you¡¯ll have a 96% chance of dying afterwards, and nothing i do will be able to save you from that point onwards. are you absolutely sure you¡¯re willing go through with this?¡±


    ¡°yes, lady mage. please start.¡±


    alice hesitated one final time, before she nodded, and a [maid] activated the enchantments on the boy¡¯s half of the room. mana started flooding the area near the teenage boy, rapidly flooding the area and filling it with mana.


    for better or for worse, alice¡¯s mana observation experiment had begun.

 Chapter 108

    chapter 108


    marium after marium of pure mana was dumped into the area where tavi was laying down and waiting for the baptism to start. since humans had the highest survival rate for mana baptisms when exposed to pure mana, every shred of broken mana in the area was kept away from the section of the room the teenager was in, to maximize his survival odds as much as possible. meanwhile, alice found herself hoping once more that the teenager would live through this. she didn¡¯t want to watch another human die.


    mana started to flood into the teenager¡¯s body as alice observed the process. rainbow fractals started to build up around the teenager¡¯s body, refining and converting the mana from its atmospheric form to one a little easier for his body to use.


    since alice had already gotten permission from the teenager before the observation process started, {lesser organic vision} didn¡¯t have any usage issues. she used the perk by spending small amounts of organic mana to look inside the teenager¡¯s body as his mana baptism began. much like the first time alice had observed a mana baptism in progress, the mana entering the teenager¡¯s body began to head towards the teenager¡¯s brain and heart.


    the first thing alice noticed this time was the fact that the difference between using broken mana and normal mana in a baptism was very easy to observe. even if alice hadn¡¯t been doing her absolute best to learn what she could from her observations, she would have immediately realized that there was a huge difference. the broken mana baptism alice had seen the [scout] go through during the hunting trip had been incredibly violent, because the dimensional broken mana the [scout] had used for his baptism had destroyed most flesh it had come into contact with. the system had tried to keep the [scout]¡¯s body from collapsing under the onslaught of mana, and had tried to use organic mana to keep the [scout]¡¯s body from ripping itself apart. this time, the system seemed as if it were struggling far less while trying to keep tavi¡¯s body intact.


    when a mana baptism occurred as a result of pure mana, the baptism mana clearly harmed the patient far less as mana made its way through tavi¡¯s body and towards his heart and brain. if the dimensional broken mana had nearly resembled pressurized acid ripping through the [scout]¡¯s body, pure mana was more like pressurized water. it was still violent and damaging, but with fewer immediately harmful aftereffects.


    now that alice had {lesser organic vision} and could properly see inside of tavi¡¯s body, she was able to observe something she hadn¡¯t noticed during the [scout]¡¯s baptism. the pure mana making its way through tavi¡¯s body wasn¡¯t just passing by; it was more accurate to say that it was fusing with the flesh of the teenager. the first time she had observed a mana baptism in progress, she had assumed that the mana itself was the reason the [scout] had started dying during the baptism while the system worked to control everything and keep the [scout] alive.


    now, alice realized that the truth was a little more nuanced.


    mages had higher mana concentrations in their body, and aged more slowly than other people. and alice was starting to realize that this wasn¡¯t just because of their mage core. instead, as mana wound through the teenager¡¯s body, alice confirmed that flesh was being created as tavi¡¯s body and the system processed atmospheric mana.


    during alice¡¯s earlier experiments, she had realized that during the regular process of gaining attributes, small bits of mana would be absorbed into the body, which then improved things like muscles, eyeballs, and other parts of the body. if one gained strength, their muscle fibers would integrate some atmospheric mana, for example.


    becoming a mage and creating a mage core required that one undergo a similar process... but instead of slowly absorbing little bits of atmospheric mana after being processed by the system, the entire process seemed to take place in the course of a minute or two. alice had no clue why muscle fibers and nerves were even being created by the atmospheric mana; becoming a mage didn¡¯t improve one¡¯s physique at all. since it didn¡¯t improve one¡¯s physique, why was the atmospheric mana bothering to create muscle fibers? since alice had concluded that magic muscle fibers were better than regular ones, how could a mage¡¯s body contain so much more mana-created flesh without getting any better?


    she frowned, mulling over this question as she observed tavi¡¯s baptism in further detail.


    this issue was more than just academic. tavi¡¯s body had no clue what to do with the newly created flesh, since it was continuously appearing inside of tavi¡¯s body with no real control or precision. the flesh being created was often placed in a terrible spot. it was either situated incorrectly, pinching off nerves the teenager needed to use his arms and legs, or cut off blood vessels tavi¡¯s body needed to keep functioning. worst of all were the chunks of flesh that tried to grow inside of the boy¡¯s bones and ligaments. as mana was refined by the system and then processed by the boy¡¯s body, the flesh created from mana continuously showed up in incredibly pointless and inconvenient spots.


    this was where system mana came in. it wasn¡¯t just corralling the mana in the boy¡¯s body and putting it where it needed to be; it was also helping the teenager¡¯s body cope with all of the problems being created by the newly-made flesh. it rearranged flesh and organs, shifting them around so that the newly made flesh didn¡¯t cut off blood vessels and ligaments that needed to keep working.


    ¡°i¡¯m glad to see another new mage join illvaria,¡± said the oldest mage from the ethics committee. ¡°it isn¡¯t common for people to live through their baptisms, but it¡¯s always happy to see someone succeed.¡±


    the youngest ethics committee member nodded. she didn¡¯t say anything, but alice could still see a trace of a smile lingering around her lips. perhaps she wasn¡¯t as averse to talking with people as she appeared to be, despite her cold demeanor. the middle aged mage was the most outwardly excited, grinning happily as she looked at the newly baptized mage.


    the enchantment flooding the area with pure mana was turned off, and a few minutes were given for the mana to clear out. then, a [maid] stepped over to tavi, before gently waking him up and helping him back to his feet.


    tavi, after climbing back to his feet, groaned a little as he shivered and rubbed at his limbs.


    ¡°that was awful,¡± he said, shuddering. ¡°the worst pain i¡¯ve ever experienced in my entire life. even losing my arm wasn¡¯t so bad,¡± he said. ¡°at least that was over quickly.¡±


    ¡°you made it,¡± said alice, giving him a grin. ¡°i¡¯m glad you did. i was prepared for people to die while i watched them, but i¡¯m glad you got through, at least.¡± it would have been a shame if tavi wasn¡¯t able to survive his baptism.


    alice, ethan, and the members of the ethics committee chatted with tavi for a few minutes longer, congratulating him and asking about his plans. tavi mentioned that he was planning on joining a magic academy and had originally planned to go into the military later. however, since ethan¡¯s payment for the experiment was rather generous, tavi intended to think about it for a while first. he was undecided on whether he wanted to find a mage to learn the basics from, before doing something like construction, or whether he wanted to join an academy and aim higher.


    the committee members gave tavi a few tips for what he should do if he was looking for an apprenticeship, and also gave him a very brief rundown on the four magic academies of metsel and their specialties, before eventually, tavi and the other committee members left. once again, it was just alice and ethan in the room.


    alice took a curious glance at ethan, wondering what he had thought of the whole experiment. she knew that her achievements, especially {truth seeker}, gave her the ability to see details of system mana and related interactions that normal people couldn¡¯t. she suddenly found herself curious to know what a mana baptism looked like from the perspective of someone without vision-related achievements.


    ¡°did you get anything interesting out of the observation process?¡± asked alice.


    ethan shook his head. ¡°i just saw mana flow into his body, before it seemed to disappear. then, chunks of his flesh started wriggling around sometimes, and the mana in his body got more and more dense for a while. then, his mage core formed, and mana stopped flowing into his body a while later.¡± he turned towards alice. ¡°did you get anything useful?¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°i have a lot to think about. i¡¯ll write a more formal report later, so that you can look over it. give me a bit to think over what i saw.¡±


    ethan nodded, and alice decided to finally look over her system notifications.

 Chapter 109

    chapter 109


    you have leveled up!


    explorer of magic: 69 -> 71, student of organic magic 3 -> 11, scholar: 53 -> 54, scientist 53 -> 55


    scientific discoveries (rarity: n/a)


    an achievement created by the ¡®for science!¡¯ perk. it currently has one -> two successful experiment catalogued. upon reaching five experiments, this achievement will receive a beneficial upgrade.


    an achievement created by the ¡®for science!¡¯ perk. it currently has one -> two successful experiments catalogued. upon reaching five experiments, this achievement will receive a beneficial upgrade.


    +20% -> 40% class experience for all research related classes, +5% -> 10% bonus to mental attribute growth


    alice looked over the first of her system notifications, and then grinned. technically, alice hadn¡¯t actually done an experiment. she had only started the process for learning how to make mana baptisms safer. so she was quite happy with the number of levels she had gotten for a simple observation experiment. three new perks wasn¡¯t bad at all.


    though, she did find the fact that this observation experiment counted as a successful experiment for the ¡®for science¡¯ perk to be quite strange.


    she went back to examining her other improvements. perhaps because the experiment was heavily related to how the human body worked, she had gained a large number of levels in {student of organic magic}, and a fair amount of levels in a few relevant skills as well.


    with some amusement, alice also realized that this was the first time she had ever gotten a perk from a secondary class. {student} was creeping closer to level 10 as time passed, but the class just didn¡¯t gain levels very quickly. by contrast, since {student of organic magic} had a huge number of high rarity achievements boosting its growth speed, even after its growth was dropped to 20% of its normal growth value it still grew faster than most people¡¯s main classes did. which was more than slightly ridiculous, but alice was glad that she had more perks to mess with. sadly, she would only get a level 5 perk from the class, even though it had reached level 10. but any perk was better than no perk. however, she decided to focus on {explorer of magic} first. it was her highest level class, after all.


    she looked over her older perks, hesitating as she considered her options for her new perk.


    should she combine some perks or get a new perk? she had four perks that she could still combine with each other to make new perks, but alice was unwilling to touch the {broken seed} perk. that perk was just way too critical to her studies and experiments, and losing it might cripple her ability to experiment with system mana in the future. therefore, she could only mess with {enhanced regeneration}, {seeds of magic}, and {three seeds}. {seeds of magic} was basically just a generic mana conversion ratio enhancement, which she had used on her kinetic mana seed back when she was still struggling to survive. {three seeds} gave her three seed slots which was quite useful. alice was chronically short of seed slots, so upgrading {three seeds} might not be a bad idea if she could find something to combine it with. {enhanced regeneration} boosted her mana regeneration rate, which wasn¡¯t really critical for anything. it had originally been incredibly useful, since stats grew from using them, and so regenerating mana faster meant that she could practice magic more, thus boosting her magic stat and increasing how much magic she could do per day. however, alice¡¯s mana pool was already fairly high now, so the perk was much less important than it had been in the past.


    she frowned, wondering if any combination of the three perks gave her anything she actually needed or wanted.


    the list of outcomes for combining perks had refreshed again, now that she had reached a new level threshold, and that meant that each perk combination gave a slightly different outcome than before. but they were still at least somewhat based on which perks she was combining, and alice just wasn¡¯t seeing how any of the combined results would actually help her.


    alice sighed, before turning her attention to new perk choices. it had been a while since she gotten something completely new from her [explorer of magic] class. perhaps it was time to get a new perk? alice could always combine it with another perk at level 75. {three seeds} being combined with another perk that increased her magic seed count might not be a bad idea. right now, alice didn¡¯t have another perk from the [explorer of magic] class that gave her more magic seeds, so she could just pick one up and then combine it next time. she started looking through her new perk options. after scanning her new options, she found a rather appealing choice.


    seedy ambitions


    requirements: explorer of magic class at level 70 or greater, intelligence 150 or higher, magic 150 or higher, at least 5 magic seeds, at least 3 perks related to studying and interacting with magic seeds


    with enough study, you can create an inferior magic seed for any subject of study you are interacting with. this requires you to have a strong understanding of the subject, and only one seed can be created this way per month.


    these inferior seeds will not count towards your magic seed limit. inferior seeds are limited to 25% mana conversion ratio. they cannot be upgraded via achievements, but other perks may interact with them.


    {seedy ambitions} was much better than her other two options for new perks, both of which were instead focused on upgrading the seeds she currently had.


    the ability to create one new magic seed a month that wasn¡¯t confined to her seed limits gave alice a few new and interesting options for future experiments. for example, given what she had learned about classes and magic seeds recently, alice absently wondered if she could create a magic seed that was actually a class. if magic seeds and classes were the same thing, what would happen if she created a [fishermen] magic seed? how would it compare to her [fishermen] class?


    of course, only one seed a month wasn¡¯t particularly impressive. for most mages, that might completely change how they thought about their seeds, but given how many magic seeds alice cycled through a month, adding one new magic seed a month had surprisingly little impact. alice figured that combining the perk with {three seeds} might triple the speed she generated new seeds, or something like that, which would make it pretty useful by level 75. while she might be misunderstanding how perk combination worked, she thought it was a reasonable assumption for how the two perks would combine together. and if she turned out to be wrong, she would at least learn a little more about how the system worked behind the scenes.


    of course, alice was also still interested in seeing what happened if she used {broken seed} on a class, and maybe seeing what happened if she made a [fisherman] magic seed and then broke it. there were simply too many unusual experiments she wanted to try, but most of them required that she have even more leeway to experiment with weird seeds and have more open seed slots. {seedy ambitions}, and whatever she got after combining it with another perk at level 75, would hopefully help with that.


    after that, alice looked at her [organic mage] perk next. since this would only be a level 5 perk, alice wasn¡¯t expecting much. she spent a few minutes looking over her options, before making another choice.


    improved organic manipulation??v€l?1n.


    requirements: organic mage level 5 or greater


    unless you are explicitly trying to cause harm, while using organic magic to heal a patient you are less likely to make mistakes that will harm the patient in question.


    after giving herself a very minor papercut and testing the result, alice confirmed that the improvement was rather minor. it helped, certainly, but she still didn¡¯t trust herself to heal any truly dangerous injuries without causing a lot of long-term harm. alice would probably need to pick up a better perk that did the same thing in the future. maybe it would turn into something useful if she combined it with another perk someday? alice shrugged. her first perk from a secondary class was rather... underwhelming.


    alice then turned her attention to her [scientist] class. what was still useful? what could be cut with little cost? what was kind of useful, but needed a bit of an upgrade?


    after some hesitation, alice eventually decided to combine {researcher¡¯s speed} and {timer}. after looking over her perks list, and the results for combining perks, alice was pretty sure that combining the two perks would improve upon both perks in a very interesting way. {researcher¡¯s speed}, in particular, was somewhat helpful, but as alice¡¯s stats and other classes improved, she was already starting to be able to do things faster and more effectively. the original reason alice had taken {researcher¡¯s speed} was because she didn¡¯t have enough hours in a day, and being able to think, process, and analyze information faster had boosted the speed she could do research. but alice was also becoming less stretched for time after ethan had helped solve some of her financial problems. she no longer needed to make every single marium of mana turn into money and scrape out every second she could for her experiments. with that in mind, perks devoted to saving time or maximizing the use of time seemed less important now.


    and {timer}, well... not many of alice¡¯s experiments had been related to specific timing recently. sure, knowing exactly how many seconds passed as alice tried and failed to form a weird magic system wasn¡¯t bad information to have, but... in all honesty, the perk¡¯s relevance had been slowly fading away for quite a while. not to mention, these days alice could actually afford a clock if she needed to keep track of time. they were expensive, since they required a lot of enchantments to become accurate, but with how much ethan was paying her, alice didn¡¯t need to use perks to compensate for her poverty anymore.


    thus, alice took one final, hesitant look at the two perks she was about to sacrifice, and then started the combination process.


    researcher¡¯s speed


    requirements: scientist level 40 or greater


    when you are working on an experiment, the pace at which you think, process information, and work will increase by a significant amount, allowing you to conduct experiments notably faster than before.


    timer


    requirements: scientist level 15 or higher, intelligence 150 or higher, perception 100 or higher


    you may always tell what time it is down to the hundredth of a second. you may also attach a ''timer'' to a specific object or area and measure the amount of time it takes for one condition of your choice to be met. (for example, you may attach a ''timer'' to a rock before throwing it off of a building and set the start and stop conditions to ''touching no physical objects'' and '' hitting the ground,'' giving you the exact number of seconds that it takes for the rock to fall). timers cost a small amount of mana to create (payable from any seed) and cannot last longer than 2 hours.


    speed experimentation (tier 2 perk, level 55 scientist) (level 15 scientist perk + level 40 scientist perk)


    perk costs: timer + researcher¡¯s speed sacrificed to create this perk


    while doing an experiment, you may force time to pass more quickly for yourself and all variables related to the experiment. these variables must be contained with an area no greater than 10 meters by 10 meters by 5 meters. (note: if used upon another living being above a certain level of intelligence, permission must be obtained first).


    this will place a significant amount of strain on your mind, and will also require some amount of mana to keep going (mana can be paid from any kind of magic seed, though the more related to time said magic seed is, the less broken mana will be produced, and the more efficient the conversion).


    after forming the perk, alice realized that she had gotten a very different perk than she had expected to get. and it was absolutely amazing.


    she had a freaking time manipulation perk now.


    it was a very limited time manipulation perk, and had all sorts of conditions required to function. but she had just gotten a freaking time manipulation perk. no matter how limited, specific, or difficult it was to activate the perk, she could now manipulate time. she had no idea how much she could speed up the passage of time, but she could apparently speed it up now.


    absently, alice wondered what counted as an ¡®experiment¡¯ for the purposes of the perk. if she was in a battle, could she decide that she was ¡®experimenting¡¯ with how fast an object moved if she applied a certain amount of kinetic mana to it? if she was in the middle of trying to form a system seed, did that count as an experiment?


    there were a lot of possibilities, but no matter what, alice was excited. it wasn¡¯t every day that one gained the ability to manipulate time itself.


    especially since it implied that time manipulation was possible using normal magic as well. the system still worked on the basic principles that the rest of reality worked off of, which meant that anything the system did was theoretically possible, even if the system didn¡¯t exist. in other words, time manipulation was a possibility for magic.


    alice frowned. she could have sworn that she had tried to form a magic seed from earth physics that was related to time, back when she had still been living in cyra and had nearly melted herself. it took a moment for her memory-related perks to bring the memory back to her, but she was pretty sure forming a spacetime seed had failed. what did a ¡®successful¡¯ time-related magic seed look like here?


    alice turned towards ethan, her eyes alight with curiosity.


    ¡°ethan! are there time magic seeds? or anything that related to the manipulation of time?¡±


    ethan stared with a baffled expression, before he nodded. ¡°they are terribly inefficient, and not very powerful. but they do exist. i believe most estimates claim that they lose around 70% of their mana as broken mana, which means it¡¯s ridiculously wasteful. it¡¯s also not like you can travel backwards in time with them, although i know many fictional stories written for entertainment involve travelling back into the past to make up for a regret or somesuch.¡± ethan shrugged. ¡°sadly, this isn¡¯t possible. though i suspect such stories have led many a hopeful mage into forming a time magic seed. but for reasons nobody seems to quite understand, time can only ever pass forward, not backwards. i don¡¯t recommend you waste a seed slot on time manipulation, if that¡¯s what you were considering.¡±


    alice shook her head. ¡°i was just wondering. the description for one of my new perks made me think about it, but i wasn¡¯t considering spending a seed slot on it.¡± unless it seemed interesting, thought alice.


    then, she turned her attention back to her status screen. for the first time in a while, she opened up her full status screen, to see what changes had happened in the past few weeks.


    name: alice verianna


    age: 16


    strength: 113 -> 115 (122%)


    perception: 135 -> 137 (165%)


    dexterity: 115 -> 118 (124%)


    intelligence: 167 (128%)


    endurance: 127 -> 130 (121%)


    willpower: 147 -> 148 (108%)


    charisma: 129 -> 130 (107%)


    magic: 159 -> 161 (122%)


    primary classes: 6/6


    survivor: 53 -> 54


    explorer of magic: 63 -> 71


    scholar: 51 -> 54


    scientist: 52 -> 55


    kinetic manabinder: 31 -> 41


    careful enchanter: 20 -> 27


    evolved classes: 2


    enchanter''s armory (careful enchanter 25)


    organic mage perks:


    improved organic manipulation (organic mage 5)


    skills


    academic skills:


    english (language proficiency): 100


    illvarian (language proficiency): 100


    sigmusi (language proficiency): 7


    russian (language proficiency): 1


    basic mathematics: 122 -> 123


    intermediate mathematics: 78 -> 79


    advanced mathematics: 18 -> 19


    basic human biology: 33 -> 38


    mana-biology: 2 -> 11


    magic skills:


    kinetic manipulation: 68 -> 70


    mana control: 50 -> 52


    mana precision: 50 -> 53


    kinetic force: 47 -> 51


    projectile awareness : 29 -> 32


    divided attention: 31 -> 34


    basic enchanting: 29 -> 31


    broken mana purification: 18


    mana filtering: 22 -> 24


    seed formation: 16 -> 19


    crafting skills:


    weaving: 27


    woodworking: 28


    cooking: 12


    stoneworking: 11


    physical skills:


    dodge: 28 -> 31


    spearmanship: 19


    sprinting: 21 -> 22


    climbing: 9


    fishing: 9


    digging: 8


    stealth: 4


    basic medicine: 3


    magic seed: 5/6


    (unused seed has 15% conversion rat. max)


    (note to self: the electromagnetic magic seed is {degraded seed slot}. for that seed, perks = no, achievements = yes).


    (final slot is one where alice keeps trying and failing to make a system seed)


    kinetic seed (145%) -> 147%


    organic seed (25%) -> 68% (6% from expanding comp.)


    pure mana seed (21%) -> 36% (8% from expanding comp.)


    healing mana seed (23%) -> 55%


    electromagnetic seed (15%)


    achievements:


    outworlder (rarity: 10)


    seeker of truth (iii -> iv) (rarity: 9 -> 10)


    baptized by broken mana (rarity: 6)


    survivor of winter (rarity: 3)


    monstrous encounter (rarity: 1)


    monster slayer (iii) (rarity: 2)


    well trained (rarity: 4)


    murderer (rarity: 4)


    bookworm (rarity: 3)


    kinetic manabinder (rarity n/a)


    careful enchanter (rarity n/a)


    capable enchanter (rarity: 5)


    seed creator (rarity: 8)


    scientific discoviers (i -> ii) (rarity n/a)


    immortal''s apprentice at the battle against the society (rarity: 4)


    legendary healer (rarity: 7)


    her improvements had been pretty good over the past few weeks. she felt more than a little happy with her gains. she decided that the first thing she wanted to do was test out how {speed experimentation} worked. she hadn¡¯t ever seen a temporal manipulation perk before, and she was very interested in seeing how it worked. at the same time, she wanted to test how limited the perk actually was. it was both incredibly useful for making sure that she could perform experiments as quickly as possible, and also potentially useful in battle. she also had a few perks that had come off of cooldown that she wanted to use, now that she had time. {expanding comprehension} was ready to use, and {broken seed} had been off of cooldown for a few days already. she also wanted to try using {seedy ambitions} and see if she could make a math mana seed; if she wanted to form a system seed, she would probably need to combine several kinds of mana together, and while alice didn¡¯t think she needed to have a magic seed for every mana type during the formation process, they would probably help.


    alice turned back towards ethan, who was giving her a curious look, before frowning to herself as she thought over tavi¡¯s observation experiment one last time. while she had gained a fair amount of information on how the system tried to help people during their mana baptisms, she still had a lot of questions left unresolved. she wasn¡¯t even sure if her ideas on how to make them safer were correct, and testing some of them seemed... unethical. alice felt a slight headache.


    she couldn¡¯t help but wonder if there was some sort of perk combination that could solve this problem. perhaps a way to simulate experimental results without actually performing an experiment?


    on the other hand, if such a perk was easy to access, the society of starry eyes probably wouldn¡¯t exist. alice sighed, before frowning. at the end of the day, there were always more things she was missing, and always more pieces of information she wished she had. at least she had {safety analysis} to help figure out when something was a bad idea. she could use that to make some informed guesses about which of her ideas she could test without hurting someone else, and develop a more informed course of action based on that information.


    alice thanked ethan for helping her set up the experiment, before promising ethan she would write a more proper report on what she had learned from the experiment later, after she had some more time to think.


    then, alice made her way to her room in ethan¡¯s mansion and began preparing to experiment with time manipulation.

 Chapter 110

    chapter 110


    alice looked over her new perks, as well as {expanding comprehension} and {broken seed}, before she grinned to herself. both perks were off of their cooldown, so she had four perks to use before she went to sleep for the day.


    first, she decided to test what she could define as an ¡®experiment¡¯ for the purposes of {speed experimentation}. time manipulation was far too exciting not to try out immediately, after all.


    alice spent a few moments thinking about the best way to test out her new perk. after some thinking, she settled on an idea, before asking one of the [butlers] to bring her two clocks. she set them up right next to each other, on a desk in her room.


    both displayed the exact same time: 7:07 pm. she observed them for a few minutes, just to make sure they were ticking through their seconds at the same speed, and after about two minutes of observation, she nodded to herself. they were synchronized.


    then, alice tried reaching for her new perk. a moment later, she felt it activate, targeting one of the two clocks. the other one was left alone as a control.


    alice felt an instinctive realization that she needed to pay mana of some sort to make the perk work, so she connected her kinetic seed to the perk.


    alice felt mana quickly drain out of her, flowing out of her kinetic seed and towards her brain, where her [scientist] class seed was located.


    then, a moment later, a cloud of thick rainbow mana condensed around alice, and simultaneously wrapped itself around the clock. alice saw a great deal of mana slide out of her body, and then, a new color of mana alice wasn¡¯t familiar with suddenly started to materialize in the air around her and the clock. alice quickly realized that it was time mana.


    apparently, time mana was a sort of mixed grey, black, and white color.


    alice felt the perk finally activate, and time sped up for alice and the clock she was testing.


    the clock that alice was testing, as well as alice¡¯s perception of time, started to accelerate by about 50%. for every second 1.5 seconds that alice and the test clock experienced, the clock she was using as a control only recorded 1 second passing. alice tried pushing the perk a little bit, to see if she could improve how much the perk accelerated time, but quickly realized that the perk couldn¡¯t accelerate time any more than that.


    in other words, the perk could speed up time by 50% at its maximum. however, alice was now pretty sure that her perk was, indeed, manipulating time.


    she was actually able to manipulate time!


    however, at the back of her head, alice was also calculating how useful this perk actually was. manipulating time was exciting, and alice couldn¡¯t deny that the idea of temporal manipulation appealed to her on a certain level just because of how fascinating she found the idea of speeding up and slowing down time.


    however, the mana consumption for this perk was awful. it was chewing through nearly 0.3% of alice¡¯s kinetic mana reserves per second. alice¡¯s magic stat was at 161, and she had a stat effectiveness of 122%, meaning she effectively had a magic stat of 196. combined with her mana conversion ratio of 147% for her kinetic seed, she had about 289 mariums of mana stored in her kinetic mana seed when it was completely full.


    to lose nearly 0.3% of her seed¡¯s reserves per second meant that the perk was eating around 1 marium of mana per second. which was, frankly, ridiculous. it was an incredibly high amount of mana to pay for what effectively amounted to a 50% increase to [dexterity].


    alice hesitated for a moment, before she shook her head. the perk was doing quite a bit more than just boosting her [dexterity] by 50%. it sped up objects, as well as her thinking and her ability to observe and understand the world around her. this meant that she was able to do much more with the perk, if she got clever about how she used it. she just needed to figure out a practical application for the perk. she absently drummed one of her fingers against the table, thinking over the experiment and what she had seen of her perk so far, and thinking about practical ways to apply the perk.


    now that alice had seen time mana for the first time, alice had been able to confirm that system mana did not include time mana in its composition. despite that fact, the system was somehow generating it when she used her new perk.


    at least for now, alice assumed it was related to mana filtering. the system seemed especially good at commanding and manipulating mana, as well as filtering it and changing its composition a little bit. alice wondered if her class seed was just somehow directly converting her kinetic mana to time mana on the fly whenever she activated her perk.


    alice sighed. currently, she could only keep the perk going for about five minutes before emptying her kinetic mana reserves. that was assuming her kinetic seed was full, and that she didn¡¯t spend the mana on other stuff. her kinetic magic seed was her largest magic seed, which meant that her other seeds would struggle even more with the mana costs related to her new perk.


    in other words, alice could make 7.5 minutes pass for whatever she was trying to observe while she would only need to wait 5 minutes for the results, which was certainly a small boost in speed. however, the fact that it only saved her 2.5 minutes for an entire 38-or so hours of mana regeneration felt rather lackluster. alice wouldn¡¯t really be saving very much time, bringing the usefulness of the perk into question if she was using it for science. of course, alice could also use her mana reserves from other magic seeds. but that didn¡¯t solve the fundamental issue of using the perk for experiments, which was that it just didn¡¯t do enough per marium, and alice simply didn¡¯t have enough mana to fuel the perk.


    however, after a few moments of thinking, alice reconsidered the way she was trying to use the perk. even if the perk was only somewhat useful for scientific experimentation, its applications in combat couldbe amazing. saving two and a half minutes during a scientific experiment was rather mediocre, but saving two and a half minutes during a fight could determine her life or death. one of the most surprisingly powerful perks alice had ever taken was the {adrenaline rush} perk from [survivor], which effectively let her enter a state of superspeed for a couple seconds whenever it was activated. when alice combined that perk with the incredible control a [kinetic mage] could exert on their, {adrenaline rush} went from ¡®not bad¡¯ to ¡®utterly and completely broken.¡¯ the combat style of a [kinetic mage] just synergized incredibly well with drastically enhanced mental speed and processing power.


    if {speed experimentation} could be used in combat, alice was willing to bet that its effects would stack on top of {adrenaline rush}, and it would be able to work as a kind of... weaker {adrenaline rush} with a much longer activation time. not to mention, it could allow alice to randomly speed up objects she was tossing at her enemies in midair. if she sped up an object in midair, without touching it with a mana tendril, enemies would probably be taken off guard, which could screw up the attempts of an opposing [kinetic mage] to interfere with her actions. when she looked at it that way, it was a rather mediocre perk for speeding up science experiments, but it was an incredibly powerful perk if she used it during a fight.


    she tried experimenting with a few new system messages, just to play with what she had figured out.


    you have rolled a 20! critical hit! you deal double damage!


    nobody expects the spanish system notification! our primary weapon is surprise!


    you have leveled up!


    survivor: 54 -> 54


    there were two oddities alice noticed, when she was creating her nonsensical system notifications.


    first, alice noticed that for some reason, if she tried to reference information about her actual status screen, she couldn¡¯t input false information. she had tried to make her nonsensical ¡®system¡¯ messages claim that she had reached level 100 in [survivor], just to mess around, but for whatever reason, she was completely unable to do so. there was nothing stopping her from making stupid jokes or totally random system messages, but whenever she tried to reference her status screen, no matter what she meant to add, any false information related to her status screen was immediately removed and replaced with the correct information. she could change how that message was displayed, and even change the system message itself. she could change the ¡®you have leveled up!¡¯ part of the notification to ¡®you haven¡¯t leveled up¡¯ or make the system notification say ¡®i like waffles,¡¯ or any other message she wanted to add. however, any actual numbers she referenced in the system message would be correct, no matter what she tried to do.


    second, alice realized after a while that all of her system notifications were in illvarian. which, up until this point, had never happened.


    all of her system notifications usually appeared in english. alice had both language skills at 100, so having her system messages in one specific language didn¡¯t really matter to her. however, the system had, at least thus far, stuck to the language she knew best, which was obviously the one she had spent fifteen years of her life speaking. now, however, the system messages were in illvarian.


    in fact, now that alice thought about it, the way system messages worked was still quite odd. when alice first arrived in this world, the system hadn¡¯t known enough about the english language to correctly name her language skill anything logical. it had just appeared as a glitch sign until the system finally renamed it {english (language proficiency)} a few days after her arrival. the same thing had happened when alice got the {russian (language proficiency)} skill. however, despite the system not knowing what the english language was, all of her system messages had still somehow appeared in english from the moment she arrived in this world.


    alice suspected this might be related to some of the other mana types inherently woven into system mana. perhaps this kind of mana mana was somehow preventing her from displaying incorrect information in a system message, and perhaps it also somehow directly fed her information in a way she could understand. or something. alice would have to try experimenting with more components of system mana in the future, to see if she could figure out how system messages actually translated themselves for users of the system. but at least for now, no matter what she tried, she couldn¡¯t add in completely false information to a made-up system message, and any system message she made up didn¡¯t seem to have the same... self-translating property normal system messages had. the system would display messages she made in whatever language she concentrated on using, but it wouldn¡¯t translate itself based on whatever language the user understood best.


    still, alice was delighted to confirm that she had figured out most of an entire, fully functioning part of how the system worked.


    by the time alice finished messing around with system messages, her time magic seed was ready to use. she quickly fixed the clock that she had messed up during her earlier experiment, before she tried using time magic on one of the two clocks.


    unlike when alice used a perk, when alice used a time magic seed, the broken mana production was atrocious, just like ethan had said it would be. alice estimated that she was losing around 80% of the mana she tried to invest into manipulating time as broken mana, which was a far cry from the 3-4% she currently lost when using kinetic mana, or the 6% she lost when using organic mana. for every one marium of mana she sank into the clock to make it speed up, another four mariums were turned into waste product.


    at least the clock did speed up, despite the massive waste of mana. however, it was nowhere near as significant as a 50% increase in speed this time. it was closer to a 15% increase.


    alice winced. she could definitely see why the time magic seed had been considered useless by ethan. if she was devoting a mana tendril to getting a mild, 15% speed boost, she might as well just use that mana tendril to fling more objects at an enemy instead. the magic seed just didn¡¯t seem very practical.


    alice frowned for a moment, before she reset the two clocks again and tried something else. this time, she tried slowing one of the clocks down. ethan had said travelling backwards in time was possible, but maybe slowing time down was viable?


    true to her suspicion, the clock did, indeed, slow down a little bit when she used time mana on it. for every 10 seconds one clock counted, the clock alice was slowing down only counted nine and a half. which wasn¡¯t particularly impressive, but it was certainly interesting.


    a few seconds later, alice ran out of mana. she frowned, inspecting her magic seed, before snorting.


    there was definitely a reason people didn¡¯t form time magic seeds. then, alice shrugged, before deleting the magic seed with {broken seed}. it had been an interesting seed to mess with, even if it wasn¡¯t particularly useful, and it had only cost her four days of waiting before she could try forming a new magic seed. this time, she would try forming a class seed.


    content that she had learned a huge amount of new information today, and happy that she hadn¡¯t needed to watch someone die, alice drifted off to sleep.


    you have leveled up!


    explorer of magic: 71 -> 72

 Chapter 111

    chapter 111


    ethan, immortal of spells and seeds, finished writing a letter. he frowned, using {examine paperwork} to make sure that he was happy with the letter¡¯s contents, before he handed it to his [combat butler]. ¡°give this to the ethics committee, along with my personal thanks for sending three committee members to oversee my apprentice¡¯s experiment. it made starting the process much easier,¡± he said. the [combat butler] nodded at ethan, before quickly exiting the room and leaving ethan alone again.


    ethan took a look at the next document he was supposed to deal with and began looking it over. it was a report on how the extended public fear of the society of starry eyes was continuing to cause a shortage of enchanting materials, even with the increasing influx of enchanting materials from the south. at the end of the report was a second, attached proposal, discussing potential plans on how to mitigate the impact on [students] learning to enchant.


    the proposal specifically suggested importing more materials from illvaria¡¯s eastern neighbors, essentially borrowing some of the crown¡¯s funds to subsidize the education of [students] by providing cheaper materials for them to practice with. ethan noted that the proposal didn¡¯t actually address when the subsidy would end, implying that even if the material shortage was fixed, the crown would still be subsidizing enchanting students out of its own pocket. he wondered who had sent the proposal, and chuckled when he saw the names of the headmasters for two of the four magic academies stamped on the bottom of the form. it was a small political ploy kneaded into a legitimately useful proposal. if the crown was responsible for subsidizing part of the cost for enchanting materials for all [students] in the future, the schools would likely find ways to encourage more [students] into enchanting classes in the near future, which would also give the two schools with better enchanting courses a little more political weight in the future.


    of course, while a time limit needed to be added to the proposal, ethan didn¡¯t think the actual idea was bad. illvaria¡¯s enchanting materials shortage wasn¡¯t dire yet, but it would certainly become a major inconvenience if left unaddressed for too long. ethan copied down the more useful parts of the proposal and set them aside, to be brought up next time he spoke with the representative of the royal estate. so long as it was reasonable, the crown was usually happy to improve the conditions for mages and students of magic within the country; the best way to encourage mages to immigrate to illvaria was to make sure the standards of living were excellent for mages, after all.


    setting the letter aside, ethan¡¯s thoughts started to turn towards his newest apprentice.


    alice was... very odd.


    when [knight] arin had first brought word of her to ethan¡¯s subordinate, and word had been passed along to him, he had fairly low expectations. if someone could truly find a way to make mana baptisms safer or more frequent, they would almost certainly become an immortal. however, for thousands of years, people had tried and failed to make mana baptisms safer, easier, and more successful. and so far, nobody had ever succeeded.


    so ethan hadn¡¯t really thought that the girl arin had recommended would have any success. he had still decided to meet her, since there was always a chance, but he hadn¡¯t really had high hopes.


    he had been happy to realize that alice actually had a chance to succeed where so many others had failed. he still wasn¡¯t sure if alice would actually find a way to improve mana baptisms, but investing in a real possibility of success was a worthwhile use of his funds.


    and even though he wasn¡¯t sure if alice¡¯s research on mana baptisms would succeed, he felt that her odds of reaching immortality were excellent.


    he had already thought her odds were good before he had learned that she was from another dimension. a sixteen year old level 60-ish wasn¡¯t very common. there were maybe twenty people in the country who had reached alice¡¯s level at the same age as her.


    naturally, most of those twenty people wouldn¡¯t reach immortality. the problem with immortality was that it was simply too difficult to clear the last hurdles. in particular, between level 75 and 100, levelling usually slowed to a crawl, unless one had a lot of good achievements boosting their progress.


    however, while alice hadn¡¯t cleared the biggest hurdle yet, she had apparently pushed through 60 or more levels in less than a year. that was something even ethan found unbelievable. both of his parents were immortals, and had taught him how to level up quickly and gain decent achievements from the moment he was old enough to walk. it had still taken him fifteen years to reach level 75, and his parents had thrown a massive celebration when they realized one of their children might actually make it to immortality and they wouldn¡¯t be burying another one of their children within a hundred years.


    ethan felt himself grinning as he thought of another immortal being born. the thing he dreaded the most was the sinking sensation he got when he realized another apprentice wasn¡¯t going to make it to immortality. that, for all of his hope and hard work, another set of [students] he had grown close to were going to pass away of old age, and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.


    while he was less attached to his apprentices than his parents were to his long-dead brothers and sisters, ethan sometimes wondered if they had felt the same way every time one of their children turned forty or fifty, and his parents realized that their child was about to die and they couldn¡¯t do a thing to stop it.


    but right now, ethan was glad he had stuck with his plan of taking talented children under his wing, even if alice¡¯s immortality wasn¡¯t set in stone yet. he had felt lost after sujia and her fellow apprentices had started to grow too old, and he had realized that they had also failed to reach immortality in time. but this time, there was a real chance.


    a very good chance.


    ethan knew that alice hadn¡¯t actually become an immortal yet. but he could hope that this time, his apprentice would make it.


    * * *


    you have been summoned by alice, great explorer of the system, [scientist] of legend and greatest mage of all time. you may know kneel in the presence of a future immortal and amazing [scientist]. and you should also give alice, great explorer of the system and amazing [scientist], a great title worthy of her station. henceforth, you must only refer to her as ¡®alice the great.¡¯ so sayeth the system.


    cecilia raised an eyebrow, looking at the absolutely ridiculous system notification she had just received, before she turned towards her friend. as she turned towards alice, the completely ridiculous system notification that had appeared in front of her changed again.


    also, alice will bribe you with amazing achievements to refer to her as ¡®alice the great.¡¯ go forth, and earn titles!


    * * *


    the next four days passed quickly, as alice returned to classes at the magic academy. she spent a lot of time running over her notes about what had happened during her observation of the mana baptism. she also continuously played her memories back over and over again, hoping to discover new insights each time, and also had cecilia run over her memories with her to see if she had missed something. alice still wasn¡¯t sure if any of her ideas about fixing mana baptisms would actually work, and didn¡¯t have an ethical way to test them, but tossing ideas back and forth with cecilia at least helped her brainstorm new ideas and review what she had seen.


    apart from that, alice made preparations for forming her first class seeds as magic seeds, and tried to speculate about what would happen if she broke a secondary class seed. {safety analysis} had already assured her that breaking her [fisherwoman] class seed would be safe, and alice was hoping that it might give her some clues about how to cure children like boris. apart from that, alice wanted to see if forming a class seed using a magic seed slot was possible, since that might prove to be another useful avenue of study for helping kids like boris.


    thus, she scoured the academy library for whatever information she could find, learning as much as she could about the nature of magic seeds and classes. unfortunately, while there was a great deal of speculation about the nature of magic seeds, proper information on the subject was hard to come by, and it was very hard to find out more information about classes besides the basic information available in the church of the system¡¯s records.


    finally, on the fourth day, alice hesitated in ethan¡¯s manor. there were so many different experiments she could do, and trying to choose one specific experiment was causing her to hesitate as she went over possible experiments that would give her useful information.


    eventually, she opted to try destroying her [fisherwoman] seed first. alice had always been curious to know just how different a class seed was from a magic seed. this was a chance to analyze the differences between the two in more detail, before she tried forming a class seed as if it were a magic seed.


    [fisherwoman] was a class that alice had no particular use for, and she was more than happy to lose it. she didn¡¯t really like fishing, and now that she had no real difficulty meeting her survival needs, she had no intention of ever fishing again.


    alice did one last check with {safety analysis}, to make sure she wasn¡¯t about to accidentally kill herself or something. then, she used {broken seed} on her secondary class, [fisherwoman], while using {lesser organic vision} to keep an eye on her body in case something changed.


    her class fractal for the [fisherwoman] class simply... collapsed. for a brief moment, alice saw [fisherwoman] mana start to draft around her body, as if it had been trapped inside of a container that alice had destroyed.


    and then... the mana simply fell out of her body. as if it had never existed in the first place. alice had been half-expecting the mana to immediately regather inside of her body, perhaps accompanied by a new system notification that she had gained the [fisherwoman] class, but instead, all of the fisherwoman mana inside of her body just didn¡¯t seem interested in her anymore. after a few minutes, the mana simply drifted off into her surroundings, becoming effectively impossible to pick out amongst the rainbow mana of the system all around her.


    alice examined her body, curious to see if she could find any evidence of the [fisherwoman] mana existing in the first place, but came up surprisingly empty-handed. it was as if she had simply never possessed the class to begin with.


    alice wondered what that said about the nature of classes and class-related mana in general. from boris, alice had realized that classes worked as some kind of mana purifier. based on the results of shattering her fisherwoman class seed, alice assumed that once a class seed absorbed the mana inside of it, the mana inside of it was no longer ¡®attracted¡¯ to her. or perhaps it simply wasn¡¯t harmful after the system sucked it into a class seed? or something?


    she would need to think more about this, but she had new information to work with, at least.


    before alice had time to ponder more about what she had discovered, however, someone knocked loudly on her door.


    alice quickly made sure that she was presentable, before calling out towards the door. ¡°you can enter!¡±


    to her surprise, ethan opened the door a moment later. ¡°lady alice. i wouldn¡¯t normally call you for this kind of situation, but there is an emergency.¡±


    alice frowned. an emergency sounded bad. ¡°what happened?¡±


    ¡°do you recall the dimensional floods that the society has been investigating recently?¡±


    alice nodded.


    ¡°just half a day¡¯s ride away from metsel, a dimensional flood been spotted. many of the villagers got started undergoing broken mana baptisms before people realized what was happening and evacuated. your... unique perspective on dimensions might give us a better idea what¡¯s happening behind the scenes.¡± ethan paused. ¡°and, more importantly, there might still be some people who haven¡¯t died yet. i don¡¯t know how far along your studies on mana baptisms are, but if you have any ideas how to help them improve their odds...¡± ethan shifted uneasily. ¡°don¡¯t feel bad if you can¡¯t. but are you willing to come with me and take a look at the area?¡±


    alice only thought about it for a second before she nodded. she was happy to help people where she could, and she might learn more about a possible way home, as well as getting the chance to observe more mana baptisms in progress.


    ¡°i¡¯ll go.¡±

 Chapter 112

    chapter 112


    after alice agreed to go, ethan quickly smiled at her, before nodding.


    ¡°i¡¯m glad to hear it. get ready then. i sent word to a few other mages, especially those who have some extra resistance or complete immunity to broken mana poisoning. the ones that accept my request should be here in half an hour or so. we¡¯ll also be taking some [guards] along; while i hope that the society of starry eyes hasn¡¯t reached the point where they can openly attack an illvarian village in broad daylight, not taking countermeasures would just be silly. some of them have perks to protect them from mana poisoning, but some of them don¡¯t, since most don¡¯t bother with the perks for it. of course, i¡¯m also here, and my specialty is definitely combat. so we should be able to run over smaller groups of the society as long as they don¡¯t have an overwhelming advantage in numbers. just be careful.¡±


    ¡°all right. thank you for the information,¡± said alice. ethan gave her a quick nod, before departing, presumably to make other arrangements. alice spent a few minutes tossing on all of her enchanted items, just in case they ended up being needed, and also took the time to make sure her clothes were presentable. then, she met up with ethan near the front of the manor.


    ethan was sitting just outside of the house, and he wasn¡¯t alone. there was a group of around twenty [guards], most of whom were between level 60 and 65, and another two [organic mages], both around level 75. finally, rounding out the group was elder sujia, who gave alice a friendly grin. alice smiled back at the elderly mage, before ethan addressed the [guards] and mages.


    ¡°thank all of you for coming on short notice,¡± said ethan. ¡°i contacted you almost immediately after i got word of the dimensional mana flood, and i¡¯m glad that you were able to come so quickly. people might be dying right now, so we don¡¯t have much time to waste. you should have all of the details i do already, but to quickly re-iterate; a random flood of dimensional broken mana has suddenly appeared in a village near the capital. while i have some suspicions why this happened, we are going there to confirm, as well as to treat any injuries we can. we are also bringing along my apprentice, to get her some combat experience and some on-site experience as a healer. i have also recently been investigating ways to treat mana baptisms, and while i have no idea if any of my ideas will work, some of them might be worth trying. that¡¯s everything we know. let¡¯s get moving.¡±


    the other people in the group nodded, and ethan quickly led the group to a stable.


    alice had a bad feeling. somehow, she had always gotten caught up in her research, and had never actually found time to pick up any skill in riding horses. in other words, if the group was riding to the village, she might have a lot of issues sticking with the group, because she had zero confidence in being able to steer a horse or stay on top of one at a gallop. she also couldn¡¯t outrun a horse yet, and while she knew some [kinetic mages] could fly using their clothes, alice didn¡¯t really have the skill to keep herself balanced in midair. she was more likely to break her neck than properly fly.


    in other words, transportation might be a huge problem here.


    seeing alice freeze, elder sujia laughed.


    ¡°have you never learned to ride, lady alice?¡± asked elder sujia, as she looked through the horses. it seemed that all of the [guards] and mages who were coming with the group all had some experience with horses, unlike her.


    alice shook her head. ¡°i haven¡¯t. i...¡± alice winced, suddenly wishing that she had spent more time outdoors. it wasn¡¯t a particularly common thought for her, but at least right now she was definitely regretting her actions a little.


    the painful truth was that alice had simply never bothered picking up the {riding} skill. she had been more interested in research, and hadn¡¯t bothered devoting time to things she didn¡¯t find interesting. that was the reason why, despite having ethan as a sponsor for several months now, access to financial resources that she couldn¡¯t make full use of, and connections that would beggar the imagination of most people, alice hadn¡¯t actually made use of any of that time to pick up skills like {riding}. she simply hadn¡¯t feel a need to do so, and since it didn¡¯t interest her she had never thought much about it.


    elder sujia chuckled again. ¡°don¡¯t worry about it, dear. i myself was never one for horses either. i used to think that if i was going to learn how to {ride}, i might as well just learn to fly instead.¡± elder sujia snorted. ¡°i was a fool. flying is way too hard on your mana to use unless it¡¯s an emergency. flying from one town to the next is something only an immortal has the mana for. and sadly, i didn¡¯t get that far.¡± elder sujia sighed, softly, before her expression brightened up again and she gave alice a grin.


    then, elder sujia beckoned towards alice. ¡°come, ride with me instead. we don¡¯t have much time to waste, but i¡¯ve since learned from the foolhardiness of my youth. i¡¯m a fair hand at {riding} now, and you don¡¯t look like you weigh much. since i¡¯m also quite light, we should be able to ride a horse without burdening it. i¡¯ll help you sit properly and steer the horse for us.¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°thank you, lady sujia. i appreciate the help.¡±??v€l?1n.


    elder sujia grinned. ¡°just make sure you actually work on levelling up the {riding} skill or something travel-related after this. it doesn¡¯t really matter long term, if you actually reach immortality, but, well...¡± elder sujia grinned. ¡°you aren¡¯t there yet. even if you do end up reaching immortality and ditching horses in the future, it¡¯s not a terrible idea to learn to {ride} now. [scouts] won¡¯t always be available to give you access to good marching perks, and unless i¡¯m completely mistaken, you¡¯re probably still years away from completely reaching immortality, right?¡±


    ¡°be wary,¡± said ethan, frowning. alice saw dozens of magic tendrils snake out of his body, preparing for any dangers that might appear, and at the same time, rainbow mana shot into his eyes as he started looking around. his frown deepened.


    a few of the other [guards] increased their wariness, scanning their surroundings more cautiously than before.


    slowly, the group began advancing towards the village.


    when the group arrived, alice was surprised by how orderly everything seemed. it looked like once the villagers had realized the problem, they had started a rather organized flight from the village. there were well-defined areas of tramped down grass and mud where groups of people had gathered together, before they had started waiting for mages to come and fix the problem. it even looked like they had started to set up campfires and crude tents, to make sure that they had supplies while they waited.


    alice thought about it for a moment, before wondering if illvaria had some sort of emergency drill that people were familiar with if broken mana became a problem, perhaps similar to the way fire drills were common on earth. she had never participated in a broken mana drill here, but it didn¡¯t seem like an unreasonable drill to pound into people¡¯s skulls here.


    of course, these areas were now completely devoid of villagers. even though the villagers had clearly been here at some point within the past twenty-four hours, they were now suspiciously missing. alice¡¯s grip on her enchanted items tightened, and she saw many [guards] tighten their hands on their own weapons. something was wrong here, and she didn¡¯t like it.


    finally, the group got close enough to the village that alice could see the buildings and mana more clearly.


    the western side of the village had a much heavier concentration of purple broken mana. she assumed that was where the largest number of villager baptisms had come from.


    the eastern side of the village was much less heavily covered by broken dimensional mana. alice suspected that some parts of the area hadn¡¯t even hit the mana density required to start a mana baptism; this was likely where the people that had sent for help had come from.


    in the sky, alice could see the real problem. it looked very similar to the place where alice had first arrived in this world. giant purple clouds of mana rolled through the area, like a purple fog bank had descended upon the village and choked the life out of the inhabitants.


    plonked directly in the center of town, alice saw a random chunk of road just... laying in the middle of the village. it was clearly from earth. there was a completely demolished car laying off to the side of the road. while it was hard to see from this distance, alice thought she could even see a few blood smears a little distance away from the totally destroyed car. she couldn¡¯t tell what the car had crashed into; perhaps it had run into something just before getting teleported here, or perhaps it had been crushed as a result of dimensional travel. she had no clue.


    alice could also see that something was horribly wrong with the village. she could see some monsters already starting to take over the village, much like they had when the cyran expedition had investigated alice¡¯s arrival point.


    it wasn¡¯t like bows and basic {archery} skills were rarein this world. a village usually had at least a few people with weapons laying around, just in case a medium-sized monster started bothering the village. and even if the village was currently covered in broken mana, after the mages cleared out the region, the townsfolk would surely want to move back into their village. why was nobody shooting down the spidercrabs and other small monsters that had come to eat the broken mana in the region?


    the answer was increasingly obvious, even if alice had no idea what to make of it.


    as far as ethan¡¯s group could tell, all of the villagers in the area had simply vanished into thin air. the driver of the ruined car was also nowhere to be seen.


    the group was alone.

 Chapter 113

    chapter 113


    alice uneasily glanced around, trying to pick out any potential threats. there was probably nobody else in illvaria who had quite the same quantity of perks and achievements enhancing her vision and ability to perceive mana, and she fully intended to make use of that. if the society, in particular, had attacked this village and spirited away the villagers, alice should be able to find signs of it.


    unfortunately, she couldn¡¯t make out a thing. part of the issue was because the region was simply incredibly chaotic already. there was so much dimensional mana in the area that it was flooding out a lot of her mana-related vision. coupled with the ever-present rainbow color of the system mana in her surroundings, trying to pick out any nearby oddities in the mana was difficult. however, alice didn¡¯t give up, continuously looking around and hoping she could pull out a miracle to tell people where the villagers had gone.


    in the background, she heard a few of the [guards] shuffle around as they scanned the area. however, apart from occasional twitching sound of a spidercrab shuffling around (or getting shot by a [guard]), there were no other signs that people were still nearby. even though the villagers had clearly evacuated their village and started trying to get people separated and treated, there was no indicator that they were still here. and there was no sign of whatever had moved them away, either.


    alice felt her uneasiness grow with every passing moment.


    where were the villagers? this had been one of the few times alice would be able to try to improve the process of a mana baptism without wondering whether she should turn herself over to the ethics committee for a serious investigation.


    and now, the whole village was just gone. there were no villagers to treat, no monsters to fight, and no society members to interrogate. it was like the village was a ghost town.


    ¡°where is everyone? and what in the world is that strange metal... thing?¡± said elder sujia, drawing alice¡¯s attention out of her thoughts. ¡°do you think the strange metal object in the middle of the village had something to do with the disappearance of the villagers?¡±


    alice felt a sudden, incredibly inappropriate urge to laugh. she was almost completely certain that the ¡®strange metal thing¡¯ was a car that had just experienced a pretty bad crash. for elder sujia to question whether it had somehow been involved in the disappearance of the villagers simply felt absurd. it wasn¡¯t enough to completely alleviate the tension, but alice felt her increasing anxiety and nervousness start to bleed away as she pondered how to explain that cars weren¡¯t able to make villagers mysteriously disappear.


    ethan eyed the car wreck with a critical eye as well. he frowned, looking at it, before his eyes widened. he turned back towards alice. ¡°lady alice, please come here for a moment.¡±


    alice quickly shuffled over to ethan¡¯s position. a moment later, a rainbow bubble flickered into existence around ethan, as ethan¡¯s anti-eavesdropping perk was activated. they could now talk without being overheard by others.


    ¡°i¡¯m not sure if i¡¯m mistaken, but... doesn¡¯t that metal thing look kind of like one of the metal carriages from your home world? the ones that can move by themselves? i believe they were called cars? this one looks quite different, of course, since all of the ones you showed me in your memories were intact. but the resemblance is still very strong, even if i¡¯m not 100% sure they¡¯re the same.¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°it¡¯s almost certainly a car from my home dimension. cars usually look like this if they collide with something while moving. in fact, the people who make them have explicitly designed them to crumple like this on a high speed impact. it reduces the force of the impact as much as possible for the passengers, thus giving any unfortunate drivers as high a chance of surviving as possible.¡± alice gave the random chunk of street that had teleported into the middle of the village a dubious glance. ¡°at home, our streets look like this as well. so whatever brought this car over likely dragged over a chunk of random street, too.¡± alice squinted at the car and random chunk of road, but they were too far away for her to make out any details beyond the basics. ¡°i can¡¯t tell if the driver of the car was brought over, though. and i can¡¯t tell what it collided with, either. it doesn¡¯t look like it hit any of the nearby buildings, so i assume it collided with something before getting teleported to luliv. but whatever the car collided with doesn¡¯t appear to have been teleported over with the car, which leaves me more than slightly confused. i have no idea what teleported over here and what was left on earth.¡±


    alice looked over the dimensional flood site again, before frowning.


    ¡°actually, now that i think about it, it¡¯s also quite possible that the villagers were teleported to earth. i have no idea how dimensional floods work, but it seems like a distinct possibility that they work both ways. i just don¡¯t know enough to say.¡±


    ethan thought for a moment, before he nodded. ¡°that¡¯s a good point, and one i hadn¡¯t considered before. i¡¯ve never really delved into the study of dimensions, so i wouldn¡¯t really know where to look for information on this topic.¡± ethan sighed. ¡°the restrictions placed on the study of dimensions really makes this situation quite frustrating to handle. if only we had a few experts in dimensional mana in the country that i could ask for opinions...¡±


    ethan squinted at the car, examining it even more carefully as he seemed to search for clues. ¡°at the very least, we know that the car is from your world, though?¡±


    ¡°it¡¯s almost certainly from my home world, yes. unless the society has managed to reverse-engineer the machinery from my home world in the last month or two.¡± alice paused. ¡°which, is technically possible, especially since perks can sometimes accomplish pretty ridiculous things. but i find it pretty unlikely.¡±


    ¡°do you have any guesses or ideas that might help us figure out if the villagers here have been teleported to earth sometime after they reported the dimensional flood here? i know that you still don¡¯t have a permit for forming a dimensional seed, and you haven¡¯t really had much chance to study it, but since you¡¯re from another dimension, you¡¯re still one of the leading experts on dimensional mana right now. sadly.¡±


    alice shook her head. ¡°i¡¯m not seeing any direct evidence of the village being teleported to my home, at least. but i wouldn¡¯t know what to look for either. hmm...¡± alice trailed off into thought, giving the village another careful look.


    ¡°i can think of two possibilities for why this village is empty. first, right after some chunk of my home planet was dropped into this world, all of the people here were teleported back home, dumping them on earth, as i already mentioned before. i¡¯m not seeing any evidence that it happened, but i also don¡¯t know where i would look for evidence. so it might have happened.


    alice sighed, and began making her way towards the village itself. a few of the [guards] with broken mana resistance perks began following her, standing just a few meters behind her so that they didn¡¯t intrude on her footsteps, but remained close enough to defend her in case of a surprise attack.


    it only took her a few minutes of walking to reach the chunk of earth-street and the ruined car. alice took a few more moments to inspect the car itself.


    alice had never been a car person, so she didn¡¯t know much about car makes, and models, and whatnot. however, she was at least able to recognize that the car had, at one point, been from earth, and looked like one of the cars she would have frequently passed by on the street. it had a black paint job.


    there was also a great deal of blood on the inside of the car. alice took that to mean that the driver had probably suffered serious injuries, although she wasn¡¯t sure whether this happened before they got teleported to this dimension, or afterwards.


    the front of the car had been seriously compressed after it had crashed into something, but alice could, just barely, access the glove compartment. she managed to get it open with some kinetic magic, and then floated the contents out of the compartment to look them over.


    inside, she found a packet of tissues, a screwdriver, and a pair of gloves. alice had no clue why the owner of the vehicle had felt the need to carry a screwdriver in their car.


    the gloves were bright pink, which made alice suspect that the car belonged to a girl. while some guys wore bright pink clothes, they tended to be in the minority. however, there were no other signs of the car owner in the front of the car. the back seat of the car proved rather empty.


    the trunk of the car, however, proved a bit more interesting. inside of it, alice found a load of fresh groceries from earth. there were potatoes, carrots, garlic, and a few other vegetables that alice could easily find on luliv. however, there were also a few other snacks that alice hadn¡¯t seen in ages. chips, cookies, and most interesting of all, a tub of partially melted ice cream, which alice took a curious look at.


    for the first time in ages, alice activated {foraging}, out of morbid curiosity to see if it was still edible. interestingly enough, it was safe to eat. alice suspected any potential bacteria or germs had been killed off after being exposed to mana, and nothing from this world had managed to get into the ice cream... yet.


    alice requisitioned all of the groceries as ¡®investigation materials,¡¯ and then started inspecting the crash site.


    she carefully started inspecting the crash site, wishing that she had the perks to tell her what had happened here. sadly, she was clueless. as best she could guess from the groceries in the back of the car, the driver had been going home after buying some groceries, crashed into something, and then their car had been teleported to luliv. alice had no idea if the driver had ever been teleported to this world, or if they had been teleported to luliv and then teleported back to earth, or what. once again, she ran into a brick wall and just didn¡¯t know enough to make any inferences or learn more.


    a few minutes later, she returned to ethan¡¯s side, carrying her bag of groceries from earth.


    ¡°you have a thermal seed, right?¡± asked alice.


    ethan turned to her, confused. ¡°yes. why?¡±


    ¡°freeze this, please,¡± said alice, holding out the tub of ice cream. she hadn¡¯t eaten ice cream in a year, and while she didn¡¯t want to disrupt proceedings, since she wasn¡¯t going to be learning more anytime soon, she might as well preserve the... evidence for later. she felt a little guilty about stealing ice cream from someone who had gotten in a car crash and had unknown whereabouts, but there also wasn¡¯t much she could do about it. and alice hadn¡¯t eaten ice cream in almost a year.


    ethan gave the tub of ice cream a dubious glance, but still obliged her, drastically lowering the temperature of the frozen treat.


    alice stuck it in her storage perk, to deal with later. after that, alice and ethan sat by the edge of the village, twiddling their thumbs while the [guards] with scouting perks investigated their surroundings. eventually, the first one returned.


    ¡°we can¡¯t find any traces of the society, honored immortal,¡± said the [guard.] ¡°whatever happened here, we¡¯re either not high enough level to track down the culprits, or something else happened to them.¡±


    ethan sighed in resignation, before he nodded. ¡°get a couple of the [guards] with movement speed perks or perks to boost their horses, and then get them to ride to metsel and bring me some better [scouts] or [guards] with investigation perks. the rest of us will set up camp here, to prevent any potential interference with the investigation,¡± he said. then, he turned towards alice. ¡°in the meantime, since we aren¡¯t going to be able to learn much from this dimensional broken mana, help me start cleaning this area up. we should make sure the [scouts] and [guards] with investigation and tracking perks can move around without going through a baptism. after that, we¡¯ll need to set up in this area and wait for new helpers to arrive.¡±


    alice winced. it looked like she would be camping in the wilderness for a while.

 Chapter 114

    chapter 114


    the next few hours were spent in a strange mixture of tension and boredom. nobody quite knew where the villagers had gone, and nobody really had a good way to find out, either. which meant that the group was stuck in a place with unknown dangers possibly lurking nearby.


    however, it was difficult to remain tense and ready for an unknown danger to appear for hours on end, especially when nothing happened during that time period. while a few of the [guards] appeared to be using some sort of perk that kept their boredom at bay, most people began to slowly simmer down. it was becoming obvious that whatever problems existed in this area, the group was unlikely to run into it in the near future.


    finally, the two [organic mages] got to work at removing chunks of broken mana. alice noticed, with some interest, that a few smaller spidercrabs that crept into the area and started slurping away at the mana cloud were ignored instead of being instantly exterminated, as long as they didn¡¯t get too close to the group. the spidercrabs seemed more than content to simply gnaw away at the cloud of broken mana, and the mages seemed to welcome the unintentional help in cleaning up the area.


    alice decided to help out, since she was one of the five mages in the group and had nothing better to do with her time. while she could hold her own in a fight, she felt it was better to reduce the workload on the other mages now so that they could help if an actual problem came up. however, the people in the area really didn¡¯t have a job right now besides looking out for the society or other enemies in the area. ethan and elder sujia acknowledged the work alice and the other two mages were putting in to clearing out the area, but opted to remain with the [guards] in case a new threat materialized.


    however, alice and the [organic mages] found themselves bored as well. cleaning out huge clouds of broken mana was neither dangerous nor particularly mentally taxing, especially since all of the mages here were immune to broken mana poisoning. the only real benefit alice got out of the cleaning session was a couple points in the {broken mana purification} skill, bringing her from 24 to 28 in the skill. which was... better than nothing, but not a very exciting or useful upgrade.


    finally, after hours of mind-numbing repetition, the group finished cleaning up for the day, wiped out the spidercrabs in the area, and settled down to rest for the night. the cloud of broken mana was noticeably smaller than it had been when alice and the two [organic mages] had started cleaning up, but it would probably take a few days to finish purifying the area, especially if they didn¡¯t have any more mages to help out.


    alice settled down to rest for the night, but her thoughts raced as she laid down to rest. the idea that a human from home might have been here, even if alice couldn¡¯t figure out where they had gone, made it nearly impossible to rest now that she didn¡¯t have to worry about cleaning up broken mana.


    hesitantly, alice took the tub of ice cream out of her storage perk, and then took a spoon out as well and began eating. if she were still at home, she would have properly gotten a bowl out first, and perhaps added a few extras to her ice cream. she had personally been a fan of chocolate syrup on top of her ice cream, although she sometimes added other things to change the flavor.


    the food reminded her of home. as alice stuck another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth, alice felt the strangest mixture of excitement, again. she had spent the longest time thinking that she was alone on this planet, and that she would never see another person from home unless she found a way to return to earth. and even though she didn¡¯t know what had happened to the other {outworlder}, if there were two people from earth on this planet, that was a good indicator that there might be more.


    then, alice¡¯s hopes started to dim.


    no matter what had happened to the other {outworlder}, she probably wouldn¡¯t be able to meet the one that had arrived here in the ruined car.


    if they had been kidnapped by the society, they were probably being subjected to experiments that may or may not leave them dead or insane afterwards.


    if they had teleported back to earth, alice obviously wouldn¡¯t be able to talk to them.


    if they had been eaten by a monster, there was no way alice knew of to resurrect them in this world. even immortals couldn¡¯t return from the dead if their brain was destroyed, much less a random civilian from earth.


    and alice couldn¡¯t think of any other reason the car owner, along with all of the villagers here, could have vanished.


    alice angrily shoved another spoonful of ice cream into her mouth, before she started to feel full and stuffed the ice cream back into {sample collection}. then, unable to keep her thoughts from wandering in depressed circles, she got out of her tent and decided to be a little productive. since she couldn¡¯t sleep, she might as well gather new information about her experiments.


    alice decided to continue some leftovers from her previous experiment. before ethan had dragged her over to this village to observe the nonexistent villagers of this area, she had been experimenting with how classes and magic seeds worked. now that she had the opportunity, alice had a follow-up experiment she had meant to do concerning how deleted classes worked. thus, alice started preparing to fish.


    in her previous experiment, she had tried deleting her [fisherwoman] secondary class seed, because she had been curious to know what would happen if she deleted a seed. and now, alice was trying to reform it, because she was curious to know what happened if she reformed a class seed that had been deleted.


    alice made use of the nearby trees and quickly shaved a couple of wooden tree branches into wooden spears using her kinetic magic. then, alice quickly moved to the nearby river, giving the [guard] a quick wave to let him know she was doing a bit of fishing and that he didn¡¯t need to sound the alarm.


    the [guard] seemed more than slightly baffled by the fact that she had started randomly fishing in the middle of the night, but after confirming her identity, the [guard] simply went back to his patrol while muttering something about eccentric mages.


    alice pointedly ignored him.


    half an hour later, alice had successfully speared a few more fish using her kinetic magic and her wooden spears. they would be welcome additions to the camp¡¯s rations, but that wasn¡¯t alice¡¯s focus right now.


    after her second fish she had caught, alice got her first relevant system notification.


    you have unlocked the class fisherwoman as a result of catching several fish through your own efforts, as well as having access to the fishing skill. would you like to make this class a primary class?


    a civilian of some sort passing near the village wouldn¡¯t have been too unusual; after all, [hunters] and [messengers] sometimes passed by villages as they journeyed from one town to the next. travel in this world wasn¡¯t rare, and some people without specialized perks might need to stop by in one town or another to figure out where they were or buy some goods and a room for the night during their travels. however, a person wandering near their camp, avoiding the gaze of the [guards], and using a high-level perk that disguised their footprints ... was quite a bit more suspicious.


    this was why, even though the [guards] who had left to get reinforcements had yet to return, alice found herself sitting in the middle of a debate.


    ¡°i personally think chasing after the footprints would be prudent,¡± said elder sujia. ¡°if it¡¯s a regular [messenger] or a civilian with some sort of specialized perk set or something, we can simply question them and then release them. however, if it¡¯s truly a member of the society of starry eyes, we can figure out where they took the villagers.¡±


    ¡°it¡¯s not a certainty that the society took the villagers away,¡± noted one of the two [organic mages] who had come with the group. ¡°not to mention, if it¡¯s actually a member of the society, there¡¯s no way we would be able to take on a base of them with only these numbers. even with honored immortal by our side, the society is a group comprised entirely of mages, and due to their research on unethical magic, they tend to be higher leveled than an illvarian mage of the same age. we only have five mages with us right now, and even if one of them is an honored immortal, and two of them are his apprentices, trying to fight the society with our current group seems foolhardy.


    ¡°this could also be a trap. honored immortal attacked a society base and razed it to the ground recently. while the society isn¡¯t generally prone to revenge, honored immortal is certainly an obstruction to their future plans, which could be reason for them to prepare a trap to kill him. if there was any time to kill a combat-oriented immortal, doing so near an isolated area, while they are separated from the rest of his [guards] and the other immortals is certainly the time to do so. killing an immortal is difficult, but far from impossible, especially if our enemy is willing to throw enough lives at it.¡±


    ethan simply nodded thoughtfully at the [organic mage]¡¯s words. elder sujia, however, didn¡¯t seem persuaded.


    ¡°i don¡¯t think we should be so afraid of the society that it cripples us, either. if we miss this opportunity to get information, we might not get another one. after all, if the set of footprints truly belongs to a member of the society, they will surely erase their trail once they realize a lower level member of their organization may have alerted us. this means that we¡¯ll be going on a wild goose chase later on. and if the society wanted to lead us into a trap, wouldn¡¯t they make the footprints easier to spot? there is only one [guard] among us who can even track the footprints, and only by a very slim margin. a little less [perception], or a slightly different perk, and he would probably be as blind as the rest of us. it seems ridiculous to assume that the society could have such detailed information on the stats and perks of our group. after all, even military leaders don¡¯t have access to all of the knowledge about combat perks their [soldiers] possess; they usually only have rough ideas. the society knowing more about illvarian troops than the illvarian government seems quite far fetched.¡±


    the [organic mage] seemed to consider elder sujia¡¯s words, before he finally nodded.


    ¡°that¡¯s a good point. in that case, this is unlikely to be a trap from the society, unless the [guard] is a [spy]. however, even if this isn¡¯t a deliberate trap, we truly don¡¯t have the numbers to fight a society base right now.¡± he paused, and seemed to consider something. ¡°actually, honored immortal, how many society mages do you think you would be able to fight in a full-blown confrontation? i admit, i¡¯m not sure how strong an immortal actually is, so if you can fight an entire base by yourself, this argument may be rather pointless...¡±


    ethan paused, lost in thought for a moment. ¡°it depends on the average level of the society members in question. at the very least, several dozen, but probably less than a hundred, due to the fact that the society members are all mages. if there are less than a fifty enemies, i could probably fight them by myself and win, although it would be close, and it would depend on how powerful their stronger members were. however, if there are more than fifty enemies, i would struggle to win against them on my own. i brought a large, well-trained group of [soldiers] with me when i attacked the previous society base, and we had the element of surprise on our side. this group... is not built to fight a base by itself. lady sujia is an excellent combatant, of course, and lady alice is also a reasonably competent fighter, despite her young age. however, the [guards] we have with us are inferior to [soldiers] at attacking a fortified position, since their perks go in a very different direction, and you two aren¡¯t exactly known for your combat prowess either,¡± said ethan, giving the two [organic mages] a nod. ¡°which means that any fight would be potentially winnable, but risky, depending on what¡¯s waiting for us,¡± said ethan, grimacing.


    elder sujia and the two [organic mages] who were arguing considered ethan¡¯s words.


    ¡°do you have a suggestion, honored immortal? should we pursue the tracks, or should we remain cautious and wait for reinforcements?¡± asked the [organic mage]. despite how vehemently he had been arguing against pursuing the footprints just a few moments ago, he seemed more than willing to listen to ethan¡¯s input on the matter.


    ethan was staring at the forest, giving it a hard look as he seemed to ponder the decision.


    the mages who had been arguing stopped speaking, waiting for ethan¡¯s input.


    ethan seemed to think for a few more moments... before his eyes lit up. then, he turned to alice and gave her a grin.


    ¡°what do you think we should do, lady alice?¡± he said. ¡°give me reasons that you can think of both for and against pursuing the potential enemy.¡± based on the way ethan was grinning, alice quickly realized that this was another of ethan¡¯s tests. he had already made a decision, and now he was trying to get her to think about the situation critically as well. alice doubted anything she said here would change their course of action; it was just to let ethan understand how she thought in more detail, and help her correct any problems if he found any.


    ¡°i would say... wait for reinforcements?¡± said alice, feeling a wave of uncertainty at her answer. this time, ethan¡¯s test was much harder than usual.


    ¡°if the society is scouting out our area... that means they don¡¯t know what happened here either, right? if they don¡¯t know what happened here either, that means that they probably didn¡¯t abduct the villagers. and if the society didn¡¯t abduct these villagers, that means that we probably can¡¯t save the villagers even if we attack their base. we would be rushing into a potentially dangerous fight for no reason. right?¡± alice asked. then, she began doubting her own answer. ¡°wait, but the society has probably kidnapped people from other villages, even if they haven¡¯t kidnapped this particular set of villagers. they might also have more information on the dimensional floods, and information is something we desperately need right now. especially since we know that the society has an interest in dimensional floods. it¡¯s highly likely that they would have more information than before, since they¡¯ve probably been studying dimensional floods and would have naturally collected more data than the first base we raided. even if the society members here aren¡¯t directly relevant to the current situation, they¡¯re still likely to have useful information for us. but the lack of knowledge about our enemy is also very dangerous...¡± alice felt her thinking start to spin in circles, and began to feel frustrated. after a few moments, she sighed.


    ¡°i suppose long term, letting this opportunity slip away is a bad decision. it¡¯ll probably take another half a day for reinforcements to arrive for us, but in that time, the society, if those tracks truly belong to a society member, would likely clean up their tracks, and quite possibly lay an ambush for us. worse, the ¡®reinforcements¡¯ we sent for are based on the idea that we would need some specific, specialized perks. that means they¡¯re unlikely to bring a large enough military force to seriously bolster our combat abilities. with that in mind, i guess we should probably pursue the tracks.¡±


    ethan chuckled. ¡°you seem unhappy about it?¡±


    alice nodded.


    ¡°good. being afraid to fight an enemy might seem cowardly to you, but humans are afraid of things for a reason. cowardly people live longer. not everyone is equipped to lead armies into battle again and again and live to tell the tale, and being able to recognize your strengths and weaknesses is an important ability. however, in this case, it¡¯s also important to recognize when a risk is worth taking, even if you¡¯re afraid. decisiveness is just as important as caution.¡± ethan¡¯s grin turned a little more gentle. ¡°your reasoning was solid, and even if you¡¯re afraid, you came to the same conclusion i did, after some consideration. be proud of that. i¡¯m also a little nervous. pre-battle jitters and all that,¡± ethan said, although alice found it hard to imagine ethan having pre-battle jitters.


    ethan turned to the other mages and [guards]. ¡°we will follow the set of tracks. however, i want the [guards] with decent tracking perks in front, and we will be cautious in our approach. even if it¡¯s unlikely, there are still probably ways that someone could set up a trap for me, and we need to be cautious of any unexpected surprises. but we will at least examine the footprints and scout ahead, to see if we¡¯ve stumbled across a winnable fight,¡± said ethan.


    the other mages and [guards] seemed to feel the weight of a potential upcoming fight press down on them, and their postures became heavier and more solemn. they nodded, and moved to begin packing up the camp.

 Chapter 115

    chapter 115


    once the decision to pursue the unusual footprints was made, the group rapidly started packing up the camp. the group left a few notes, written in some sort of military code, placed in semi-hidden spots throughout the place they had camped so that if the reinforcements from metsel reached the camp before they returned, they would know what direction to go in order to meet up with the group.


    the messages themselves were liberally coated in rainbow mana, making alice wonder how exactly the coded messaged worked. languages were exceptionally easy to learn due to the influence of the system and this world¡¯s language skills, so there must be something backing up the coded messages to make it hard for others to just... learn whatever it said after a few days of trial and error. she found herself vaguely curious about how the perks for the coded messages actually worked, but eventually put the question aside. she had more pressing concerns.


    alice took a final look at the group of [guards] and mages, trying to harden her resolve for the potential fight to come. she had only been in large-scale combat a few times in this world, and now that the moment was approaching again, alice was having a hard time calming down the jitters in her body. she took a few deep breaths to steady her nerves. her brain, fully set on throwing out whatever distraction she could think of, suddenly latched on to another idea.


    alice suddenly remembered that ethan had hired a [hidden guard] for her as part of the deal she had made with him that led to her becoming ethan¡¯s apprentice. was he still around? alice wasn¡¯t really sure whether he would be or not; after all, alice was currently with ethan himself, and having an immortal who was mostly oriented towards combat was a pretty strong guarantee for her safety. however, alice kind of hoped the [hidden guard] was still nearby, and alice just hadn¡¯t noticed them somehow. that would mean their group had at least one more hidden combatant, which would make her feel marginally safer.


    as the group packed up the camp, alice made her way to ethan, and quickly pulled him aside. ethan quickly tossed out his anti-eavesdropping perk.


    ¡°ethan. is my [hidden guard] still around?¡±


    ethan gave her a mildly surprised look, as if wondering why alice had suddenly brought this up.


    ¡°yes, he¡¯s mixed into the group of [guards]. i thought there was some chance that we would run into an attack from the society on this excursion, although i didn¡¯t think we would be potentially attacking a base like this. if i had realized we might be attacking a society base, i would have brought more [soldiers],¡± said ethan drily. ¡°let this be a lesson to you for when you become an immortal; even immortals can make miscalculations. so never let your guard down, or you might not live to regret it. i got a little overconfident this time.¡± ethan seemed more exasperated than truly worried, but after a few moments, he heaved out an exasperated sigh.


    ¡°anyway, i digress. your [hidden guard] is still nearby, just in case we get into a confrontation with some more powerful members of the society. you¡¯re the apprentice with the best chance of reaching immortality i¡¯ve had in the past hundred years, and you¡¯re mostly research oriented so there¡¯s no need to focus on getting you good combat achievements. originally, i thought that you might be exposed to serious danger while i was fighting and distracted. i¡¯m glad i insisted he come along. why do you ask?¡±


    alice winced. ¡°i was hoping i hadn¡¯t seen him yet. having an extra high level [hidden guard] along with us would make the fight feel less intimidating.¡±


    ethan chuckled. ¡°i¡¯ve learned for this kind of thing that no matter how many layers of security you bring with you, pre-battle jitters will never quite leave you.¡±


    ¡°i suppose. it¡¯s still unfortunate we¡¯re only working with 20 [guards] and 5 mages, though.¡±


    ethan simply gave alice a sage nod. ¡°this is a little risky, yes. so don¡¯t get complacent or cocky. you have a [hidden guard] watching out for you, but he¡¯s only level 80 or so, and he¡¯s not a mage. keep your own safety in mind first and foremost, and remember that your final and best line of defense against death is your own judgement and abilities. trust in them if something seems off. okay?¡±


    ¡°thank you for telling me,¡± said alice, doing her best to internalize ethan¡¯s words.


    after that, ethan dismissed whatever perk he was using to prevent eavesdropping. alice started wondering if it was worth picking up a perk for lie detection and a perk for preventing eavesdropping on her own. while they weren¡¯t perks that most people bothered picking up in their day to day lives, given the kind of life alice was currently leading, it seemed that she often had use for both kinds of perks. perhaps at some point in the future she should pick them up?


    [scholar] seemed reasonably likely to have access to such perks, since the class had some focus on the dissemination and proliferation of information, both from and to the user.


    while alice mulled over future perks she might want, she returned to the camp, and finished packing up her tent, and stuffed it into her storage perk.


    then, the group set off, following the footprints the perceptive [guard] had found.


    * * *


    it took the group five hours to follow the footprints back to their source. a large part of the reason it took so long was that the group needed to send out [guards] with more scouting-oriented perks and wait for them to return every so often. ethan was more worried about walking into a trap than he was about losing the potential lead. which, alice supposed, was ethan taking his own advice about being cautious instead of reckless. even though he didn¡¯t seem too worried that the group would get ambushed by a larger and stronger force, he was still taking every reasonable precaution he could to make sure the group stayed safe.


    despite the consistent delays and slow travel pace, the group still eventually caught up to the source of the footprints. however, the group didn¡¯t run into the multilayered concealment enchantment and hidden base of sociopathic mages alice had been expecting.


    instead, alice saw a normal-looking village.


    a normal-looking village that wasn¡¯t marked on any map alice knew of. alice took a quick look at the [guards] and other mages, just to see if they had reacted to the village, and they seemed just as confused as she was.


    at first glance, the residents of the village appeared to be simple [villagers]. there were around sixty people turning wood into construction materials, farming, weaving, and doing things normal [villagers] would do. the crop fields of the village appeared to be pretty normal, as far as alice could see, and the clothes were nothing special.


    which was the entire problem. the ¡®villagers¡¯ were way too high level. normal villagers would usually sit somewhere between level 40 and 60, with most people sitting near the middle of that range. after all, getting past level 50 without some good achievements was quite difficult, and people occasionally changed classes partway through life as they realized their class didn¡¯t fit them or they needed to change careers.


    the camp of ¡®villagers¡¯ in front of them probably had an average level of 70. which was about ten levels higher, on average, than the [guards] ethan had brought with them.


    what kind of village was made of level 70¡¯s? that was completely ridiculous. not to mention, past level 50 perks started getting wild. they did all sorts of bizarre and unusual things that benefitted one¡¯s class, depending on what perks were combined. however, all of them made people much, much better at what they did.


    then, alice frowned as she squinted at the villagers. she realized she was incorrect about something.


    these people were definitely higher level than average: they were probably around level 60 or so. however, there was something else that was weird about the mana in their bodies.


    they were flooded with unusual kinds of mana. for example, the ones farming looked like they had a [farmer] mana infestation, and the ones hunting looked like they had a [hunter] mana infestation. it was very light, but it... vaguely reminded her of boris. the way he was infested with [farmer] mana, and it had caused him to be obsessed with farming.


    alice frowned. even taking into account their strange mana infestations, there was something very weird about this village.


    why did the crops and clothes of this village look so normal? if these people were level 60 [farmers], the crops should have been doing something miraculous. the crops of this village instead looked almost like crops from earth. which made no sense at all, given how big of an influence perks played on this world¡¯s agriculture. even without the strange mana infestations in their bodies, this village was incredibly weird.


    alice didn¡¯t know what alerted the fake villager. one moment, the two [guards] were creeping towards the ¡®villager,¡¯ intent on questioning him and potentially letting him go. the next moment, without a single indication of something going wrong, the fake villager whirled towards the [guards].


    the villager¡¯s shifty eyes darted towards the [guards], then spun towards the rest of their group. his eyes locked on to ethan for a moment, and alice saw panic flash through the man¡¯s face.


    ¡°@#*$ @#%*#$ @#@@[email protected]#@!$ %#@#$#!¡± he yelled, in a language alice didn¡¯t recognize.


    through training, you have increased a skill!


    verinthian language proficiency 0 -> 1


    the villagers gave the group stunned looks, as if they hadn¡¯t noticed the [soldiers] and the immortal creeping up on them. then, they looked at each other, and alice swore that they were even more surprised to see each other farming in the village. the expression of pure confusion morphed into terror as they looked more closely at ethan.


    ¡°immortal! @#$ ^@#$# @#%**¡± yelled one of the ¡®villagers.¡¯


    and then, all hell broke loose.


    the fake villagers took one look in their direction, and alice saw bursts of rainbow mana slide into their eyes. then, almost without exception, bursts of rainbow mana surrounded their bodies and... the ground?


    alice realized that her original assumption was correct. these people weren¡¯t mages at all.


    the fake villagers activated a bunch of perks to boost their speed as they fled the clearing, and at the same time, bursts of smoke, haze, and other vision-blocking perks suddenly sprang into existence in the clearing.


    some of the splotches of rainbow mana ran to the edge of the clearing, and then stopped for some reason, while other fake villagers seemed to start speeding up.


    then alice saw dozens of objects suddenly rip through the air towards the fleeing ¡®villagers,¡¯ and realized ethan had taken action. forty magic tendrils were quickly ripping into ethan¡¯s surroundings, plucking anything that seemed weapon-like and hurling it at their enemies.


    alice realized now wasn¡¯t the time to sit around gaping, and joined the fight. she grabbed tree branches, clods of dirt, and pebbles, and hurled them as hard as she could at the fleeing fake villagers. she did her best to aim for legs, since those could be regenerated, but she saw one pebble rip through a man¡¯s lower body, nearly ripping apart his spine as he tried to flee.


    another two villagers, both female this time, dropped to the ground as alice¡¯s missiles crushed their knees, disabling their movement. however, the fake villagers continued trying to crawl away.


    unlike alice, ethan had no problems seeing through the haze of smoke, and also had no problems hitting fleeing fake villagers exactly where he wanted to hit them. several of the strange villagers lost legs or parts of their stomach, but he didn¡¯t come anywhere near as close to accidentally killing a fleeing fake villager as alice did.


    elder sujia seemed to only have a rough idea where the fleeing villagers were, but that didn¡¯t stop her from attacking. however, her attacks lacked the precision a [kinetic mage] needed in order to make their attacks effective. she accidentally killed two of the fake villagers, and missed several of the other ones, although she still disabled a few pretty quickly as well.


    however, the fake villagers weren¡¯t completely on the receiving end of the group¡¯s attacks. once it started to become clear that escaping would be nearly impossible as long as alice, sujia, and ethan were bringing down escaping villagers, the fake villagers pulled out some completely ordinary looking pebbles. alice was confused, right up until the six threw the pebbles at alice.


    and, just like if they were thrown by a [kinetic mage], the pebbles suddenly picked up ridiculous amounts of velocity in midair as rainbow mana burst out from the rocky missiles. they were moving at speeds well beyond what was needed to kill a regular human being.


    the six pebbles sailed through the air, ripping straight towards alice.


    why target me? she wondered, swearing to herself as {adrenaline rush} activated.


    taking advantage of the drastically slowed down time, alice quickly reached out with her kinetic tendrils, making contact with all six of the pebbles. three were hit with {reflection}, immediately returning the ridiculously fast pebbles towards the throwers. the other three took a bit longer to seize control of, but alice quickly stopped them in their tracks, before flinging them back at the attacking villagers.


    alice followed the strange pebbles up with a volley of tree branches and stones, to make sure the people who had thrown the dangerous pebbles at her didn¡¯t have any working limbs to threaten her with.


    four of the fake villagers who had been throwing things at her went down, while the other two managed to dodge out of the way using an unidentified perk.


    alice looked around, and saw that ethan had used some sort of perk that gave him access to another hundred magic tendrils, a truly ridiculous number that pushed his total tendrils up to one hundred and forty. a couple magic tendrils were boosting his body, allowing him to quickly charge through the smoke and haze and hunt down any fake villagers who were trying to flee. he seemed especially enraged by the ones that had tried to shoot down alice, and a few moments after alice had downed some of her attackers, a spray of pebble fragments killed the entire group. then, ethan quickly started using projectiles to surgically remove people¡¯s legs, stopping their attempts at flight.


    the smoke and haze perks started to clear up, and alice finally figured out why some of the people had stopped fleeing.


    standing in the middle of the woods, completely disguised from her regular eyesight, were some utterly and completely inconspicuous trees. if she hadn¡¯t been able to see the rainbow-colored blobs of mana surrounding each tree, or the class seeds inside of each tree, she would have probably overlooked them completely.


    some kind of disguise-related perk? alice finally had a proper idea who the fake villagers were.


    there weren¡¯t many classes that gave access to weird disguises, and the ability to suddenly and nearly instantly disguise oneself as a tree, combined with the strange village and surrounding context, made alice guess that the fake villagers were spies of some sort.


    alice quickly pointed out the ¡®trees¡¯ that hadn¡¯t been taken down by anyone yet, and used a few more sprays of projectiles to down any of the fake trees that tried to make a break for it. a few moments later, the [spies] had all been captured or killed.


    the threat seemed to be dealt with. alice took a look at the prisoners they had captured, and sighed.


    it was time figure out who the heck these people were.


    hopefully.

 Chapter 116

    chapter 116


    ¡°so who are these guys?¡± asked one of the [guards], looking over the prisoners with curious eyes.


    alice frowned, before looking at ethan to see if he had answers. it was increasingly obvious that the people they had found weren¡¯t from the society. but the major oddities in the village, the strange [farmer] mana clinging to their bodies that reminded her of boris, and the random village of level 60¡¯s in the middle of the country... all of these made alice feel confused as she tried to figure out what in the world was going on.


    at the very least, the group had benefitted from the fact that this wasn¡¯t a base of society mages. if it had been ruled by the society, the [guards] and mages of illvaria might have struggled to win the battle against a group of mages. however, the situation was still incredibly strange, and alice wasn¡¯t sure what to make of everything. hopefully ethan could figure something out.


    ethan started inspecting the prisoners more carefully, eyeing them as his eyes occasionally flashed with rainbow mana.


    however, before ethan was even halfway through his inspection, alice saw one of the prisoners start glowing with rainbow mana.


    huh? alice frowned, and immediately reached for her enchanted items and her perks.


    ¡°he¡¯s activating some kind of perk,¡± she called out, just in case ethan was caught unprepared.


    the prisoner¡¯s skin started turning green. for a moment, alice thought that the man was just using some sort of green-colored mana, before she realized that the man¡¯s skin was actually turning green.


    then, the man exploded like an overripe tomato caught in a hydraulic press, spattering all over the surroundings in a horrific mess of green and red liquid.


    alice gasped in shock, barely managing to activate {speed experimentation} in time to avoid getting caught up in the disgusting mess of oddly colored liquids. which was exceptionally lucky, since she had already used {adrenaline rush} earlier in the fight.


    she tried for a brief moment to deflect the red and green... remains back towards the corpse of the man who had self-destructed, but quickly realized she didn¡¯t have enough magic tendrils. before she could proceed any further, her [hidden guard] reached out, grabbed her by the wrist, and dragged her out of the way at a speed alice could barely process, even with the 50% speed boost from her perk.


    ethan, who reacted even more quickly than alice, flung himself out of the way of the explosion by controlling his clothes, and also dragged all of the nearby [guards] out of the way using their armor. alice sucked in an uneasy breath, shivering as she looked at the ruined corpse of the person, who may or may not be a [spy] or might be something else entirely. {foraging} informed her in no uncertain terms that the man¡¯s blood was now incredibly poisonous, and alice was glad that nobody had touched the green and red blood spattered everywhere.


    but that thankfulness turned into fear when alice realized the man wasn¡¯t alone. another next prisoner started glowing with rainbow mana. alice nearly lost control of her mana tendrils for a moment, but the time given to her by {speed experimentation} gave her extra time to recover. she activated {the science of mana deprivation}, and then created a manaless field inside of the man¡¯s body, trying to prevent him from blowing himself up with his perk.


    the moment alice¡¯s mana tendril entered his body, she felt like she had slammed her mana tendril into a brick wall. the man¡¯s body desperately resisted alice¡¯s attempts to interfere with the mana inside of his body. however, despite the massive amount of resistance she was trying to push through, alice still managed to slow down the rainbow mana. she quickly threw the rest of her mana tendrils into the task of keeping the fake villager alive, and with some struggle, she managed to keep him from blowing himself up.


    the man¡¯s skin, which had started to turn a sickly shade of green, started returning to a normal color palette as the man¡¯s eyes widened in shock. he thrashed and struggled for a moment, and alice saw the [hunter] mana infestation in his body start to flash with its own strange colors, and then the man flopped over like a dead fish. alice noticed another burst of rainbow mana try to appear around his wrists, but just like his other perk, it was shut down by alice¡¯s perk. and since the [spy]¡¯s movement was restricted, and he couldn¡¯t see where alice¡¯s mana tendrils were, his attempts to escape failed. alice heaved a sigh of relief.


    and then realized that all of the prisoners were now glowing with rainbow mana. some of them had their strange mana infestations light up, while some others seemed to only be activating perks.


    alice realized that she couldn¡¯t stop all of the prisoners from dying. she quickly maneuvered the man she had kept alive out of the way, tossing him out of the line of fire from the other exploding prisoners as she maneuvered both of them behind a tree. her [hidden guard] moved along with her. seeing alice flee, ethan and sujia seemed to realize what was about to happen, and quickly moved the other [guards] and [organic mages] out of the way before the other prisoners finished blowing themselves up.


    waves of sickening popping sounds resounded through the area, before silence returned. alice felt nauseous. she peeked out from behind the tree she was hiding behind, and saw a giant mess of red and green. the corpses on the ground were nearly impossible to identify: if alice hadn¡¯t seen them seconds ago, she wouldn¡¯t have even been able to tell if the corpses on the ground were human or not.


    alice shuddered in horror for a moment, looking at the ruined and mangled corpses of the other prisoners, who had destroyed themselves, and then spent a few minutes calming down her breathing.


    ethan looked at alice¡¯s magic tendrils, which had clearly played a role in keeping the final prisoner alive, and gave alice a look of unabashed curiosity. unlike alice, he didn¡¯t seem affected by the grotesque scenery.


    ¡°i didn¡¯t know you could do that,¡± he said, giving alice a more relaxed grin, before his face warped into one of concern. ¡°well done. did you get hit by anything? you look pale,¡± he said, glaring at alice¡¯s [hidden guard] for a moment.


    alice shook her head, and did her best to give ethan a shaky grin. ¡°just... very nausea-inducing,¡± said alice, grimacing as she tried not to look at the corpses.


    ¡°ah. fair enough,¡± said ethan, giving the [hidden guard] a sheepish grin. the [hidden guard] simply gave ethan a nod and then went back to the scanning their surroundings.


    she had always worried that her parents would spend months or years wondering if she had died or been kidnapped or something, and since alice had no way to contact her family, she had known that they would simply have to live with their questions unless she found a way to return to earth or send a message home. however, with a bunch of people with classes and magic suddenly showing up, it might not be too hard for her parents to make the connection between this world and alice¡¯s disappearance. alice felt that she was probably grasping at straws, but she couldn¡¯t help but hope that her parents would realize that alice was probably fine if they saw the illvarian villagers show up on earth.


    assuming they didn¡¯t all die of broken mana baptisms from their accidental trip to another planet, of course.


    alice felt a strange mixture of hope and fear at her thoughts as they returned to ethan¡¯s manor. ethan himself didn¡¯t directly return as the group dispersed in metsel, since he first placed the prisoner somewhere else, and then left to follow up on the investigation of the missing villagers. since alice wasn¡¯t directly involved in questioning the prisoner, and was exhausted after the journey, she quickly fell asleep.


    * * *


    the next few days passed in a blur. alice didn¡¯t have anything to do with the questioning of the [spy], and nothing new had been discovered concerning the missing villagers, she spent her time attending classes and waiting for news. alice did start training up her riding skills, because she didn¡¯t want to get caught up in another awkward situation where elder sujia needed to help her ride a horse. ethan quickly found a cavalry instructor to help alice learn to ride, and {riding} reached level 15 by the time saturday came. after that, alice took a day off to play board games with her friends.


    when alice returned, and was preparing to finally try forming a class seed in a magic seed slot, ethan interrupted her by knocking on her door.


    ¡°i have a few things to discuss with you,¡± said ethan, grinning at her after alice popped open the door. ¡°first of all, you finally have an official license to form a dimensional seed and study it. i know you have a lot of other things you¡¯re also focusing on, so don¡¯t feel like you need to form it immediately. however, you should still put this near the top of your priority list. after all, illvaria seems to be facing a crisis related to dimensional mana now, and while a wave of dimensional licenses is probably going to be issued within the next month, you have a lot of excellent perks and achievements that make studying this kind of information easier for you. if you figure out how to prevent giant cracks in reality from spewing out broken mana everywhere and killing innocent people, that would really be quite helpful. i myself am going to be resuming some of my research into dimensional mana, which i largely abandoned a few centuries ago. you¡¯re welcome to join me whenever you have time, and i would really appreciate your help.¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°i¡¯m more than happy to study dimensional mana on my own, or with you. it¡¯s my only chance to return home someday, and while i do still want to spend some time focusing on other research projects as well, i absolutely intend to make time for it now that i can finally study it without getting chased down by the [guards]. even though i¡¯m starting to feel like i belong to this world as well... at the absolute minimum, i want my parents to know that i¡¯m safe, and i want to be able to see them from time to time.¡± alice still ultimately wanted to return home, but with how many people and how many things she would be leaving behind in this world, she wasn¡¯t entirely certain that she wanted to stay on earth forever, either.


    ethan gave alice a strangely hopeful look for a moment. ¡°i¡¯ll be honest. i hope you stay. i¡¯ve been trying for so long to get someone to reach immortality. it would be a huge shame if you reached immortality, and then left illvaria forever.¡± he sighed. ¡°but if you do, i would understand. after all, this isn¡¯t your world to begin with. but at least think about it, all right?¡±


    alice nodded. she would think about it, and make a decision if it actually became relevant. since she had no way to travel back to earth right now, it was currently theoretical, but she felt that she could find a way back home if she tried hard enough. she just needed to learn more.


    ¡°what are the other things you mentioned bringing?¡±


    ¡°two other things. first, an update on the fake villager we captured.¡±


    ¡°oh? are they from verinthia?¡± alice asked, curious.


    ¡°we don¡¯t know. but we¡¯re pretty sure he has, at the very least, the [spy] class. he also seems to speak the sigumusi language fluently, and babbles to himself in that language quite often,¡± said ethan, frowning. ¡°he also seems to be... not in his right mind. he takes very strange actions frequently, miming controlling a bow and shooting at invisible prey. his actions confuse the [psychologist] greatly, since the [psychologist] believes that he shouldn¡¯t be crazy, and yet he¡¯s acting very oddly. the stuff we took from the village is still being investigated, but we¡¯ve found some half-made maps of our country. but all of the writing on the maps is at least a week old. the fake villagers seem to have been making the maps, before they just... stopped for some reason.¡± ethan¡¯s frown deepened. ¡°the situation is unusual, so some fairly high level [investigators] are being escorted to the village with large groups of [guards] to see if they can make sense of everything. but we will need more time to make sense of everything.¡±


    alice sighed. her head hurt when she thought about the unusual village. ethan, seeing alice¡¯s frustration, moved on to the final topic.


    ¡°that brings me to the final topic i wanted to discuss. as i¡¯ve mentioned a few times before, you are possibly the most promising potential immortal i¡¯ve had the joy of teaching in the past few centuries. that also means that i want you to learn a little bit about the political side of being an immortal, and how to create and manage your own network of resources, contacts, and people. you don¡¯t have to go crazy with it, but you should know how to at least play the political game well enough that it doesn¡¯t come back to bite you. most immortals keep tabs on the most important political figures from one decade to the next so that we can either stick our noses into illvarian politics, or avoid them like the plague. but whether you choose to meddle in politics or steer clear of them, you still need an information network, and it¡¯s much easier to learn how to manage an information network if i start teaching you earlier. not to mention, there are some people i want you to meet who can help you acquire some resources related to research which, frankly, i don¡¯t have access to on my own. i can leverage my social network to acquire them for you, but if you get to know them yourself, it¡¯ll be less difficult to get things for you in the future. such as your dimensional license.¡±


    ¡°which means?¡± asked alice, who was getting an increasingly bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.


    ¡°there is a tea party being held by the second princess next week. she has invited every immortal in illvaria, and while most will decline, my mother is attending, as are a few of the people i want to introduce you to. it¡¯s a good place to get some perspective on how the political game works without getting thrown into the deep end. i want you to attend it with me. you need to learn these skills sooner or later, and this seems like a good time to guide you through some of the basics and introduce you to some people.¡±


    alice groaned. not very loudly, but she was fairly certain ethan would pick it up with his ridiculously high stats.


    ¡°do i have to?¡± asked alice, grimacing.


    ¡°you don¡¯t have to, but it would be a good idea. and it¡¯s not going to be that bad,¡± said ethan, grinning at her. ¡°besides, you get to meet my mother, and she¡¯s quite lovely. and you an also speak with the second princess. she¡¯s a bit of an oddball, but she¡¯s a fairly easygoing person as well. in addition, you can probably grab a couple boosts to levelling speed from my mother, in particular. she is one of the immortals of illvaria with the greatest variety of things she¡¯s proficient in, since my mother spends a lot of time raising her secondary classes instead of focusing on her main class. she got frustrated by the slow levelling speed, and instead managed to get a bunch of achievements that make her secondary classes almost as good as a main class, and so she¡¯s proficient in a huge variety of things. and some of those can give you a few levelling speed boosts, similar to the [teacher] class. stacking them together would be helpful for you, even if most of them only last for a week or two. the tea party is taking place in two weeks.¡±


    alice paused thinking over ethan¡¯s suggestion that she go to the tea party, before she sighed.


    ¡°fine,¡± she said.


    ethan grinned.

 Chapter 117

    chapter 117


    after ethan finished talking with alice and arranging details about the tea party, including things she needed like proper clothing and {etiquette} teachers, he left. alice was left alone with her thoughts again.


    she frowned, thinking about the ¡®tea party¡¯ ethan wanted her to attend. she had agreed to it, because having new resource channels and levelling boosts would absolutely be helpful. however, she didn¡¯t actually have any suitable clothing for a tea party with two immortals and a member of the royal family. nor did she have any real understanding of what etiquette looked like in illvaria. which meant that the potential advantages of attending the tea party also had some very significant annoyances that came with it.


    on the bright side, she had about two weeks to prepare. given how much the system accelerated learning, that was a reasonable amount of time to pick up the skills she needed, even if they would be somewhat low in level. however, alice still felt nervous. she sighed.


    then, she redirected her attention back to her experiment. she needed somewhere to focus her nervous energy and take her mind off of things for a while. besides, she still wanted to see if she could create a class seed in a magic seed slot, and since she had two weeks, she wanted to see if she could reach level 75 in [explorer of magic] before the tea party. even if she wasn¡¯t going to brag about her level to anyone, it would certainly feel reassuring to have another perk from her highest level class available to her.


    therefore, alice started working on her experiment again.


    since alice¡¯s {broken seed} perk was off cooldown, she could finally try forming a class seed inside of a magic seed slot. {safety analysis} informed her that what she was about to do was... reasonably safe, if not entirely safe. which was good enough that she was willing to go through with the experiment.


    alice started wondering what class seed she should copy for her experiment. she had a lot of class seeds she had seen over the course of her time in luliv, and alice wondered if there was any benefits or drawbacks to using one specific seed for her experiment.


    eventually, she decided to copy her [explorer of magic] class. it was the class seed alice had the most familiarity with, since it was her highest level class, and so it seemed like a reasonable choice for the experiment. alice didn¡¯t think it would really matter which class seed she tried out in this case, so she decided to take the path of least resistance.


    then, alice focused on her empty magic seed slot, and started working on forming a class seed.


    the formation process started relatively normally. alice drew in mana, focused on the idea of what an [explorer of magic] was, and compressed her ideas into a magic seed. since alice had a great deal of familiarity with what an [explorer of magic] did to level up, she had a reasonably good understanding of the class as a whole. forming the magic seed wasn¡¯t very difficult.


    as the magic seed started to condense, alice carefully observed it with one of her mental divisions. as alice watched, the system mana in her surroundings erupted, trying to help her form her class seed. alice noticed that, once again, she had a strong feeling that she had seen something similar to the system fractals before. it was much more complex in the hands of the system, but alice was sure that there was something very familiar about some of the fractals she was seeing in her surroundings. but she couldn¡¯t quite put her finger on what she was seeing, yet. it was an incredibly frustrating feeling, since it felt like the answer to an annoying question was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn¡¯t quite remember what she was going to say.


    alice frowned, but a few moments later, her attention was dragged away by the needs of her class seed. since she still couldn¡¯t figure out why the mana fractals the system was using seemed so oddly similar to something else, she would try not to think about it. sometimes, distracting yourself from a problem was the best way to get new perspective on it and find a solution.


    after that, alice noticed that the system mana seemed... confused.


    which made sense. alice was trying to make the system do something it didn¡¯t seem designed to do. it wasn¡¯t strange at all that the system wasn¡¯t quite sure how to react. luckily, alice¡¯s experiments in forming magic seeds without system interference or assistance helped her a great deal here. since the system wasn¡¯t quite sure what to do, alice simply pushed through the issue she was encountering on her own, using her pure magic seed to help filter and manipulate the mana in her surroundings to help smooth out the process of forming an unusual magic seed. at the same time, alice made heavy use of {speed experimentation} to make sure she had time to react to new problems as they cropped up, and made sure she was ready to activate {broken seed} the moment she felt something was wrong. safety was the most important part of this experiment, after all.


    after several minutes of fumbling around with mana, to alice¡¯s surprise, she realized that she was actually succeeding. she had expected to fail this time. she had considered this experiment to be a practice run that she would need to repeat several times before she got this experiment right. however, it appeared that all of her other experiments and hard work had prepared her for this attempt better than she had thought they would.


    alice grinned.


    and that¡¯s when everything went horribly wrong.


    as the magic seed snapped into place, taking on the twisted form of a half-baked class seed, alice felt a sudden barrage of information assault her mind.


    she felt a cascade of images tear through her very being, trying to pour into her thoughts and set them alight like oil poured on a bonfire.


    explorers of magic explore magic, and the very core of what makes an explorer of magic exist is their desire to explore and learn. knowledge is what matters. i need to explore magic. i... need to explore magic. alice¡¯s thoughts expanded beyond what a human¡¯s mind could possibly encompass, filled with an all-consuming drive to explore, learn, and experiment with information about magic. it consumed all that made her human, all that made her alice, and all else besides the crushing, overwhelming need to learn and investigate at the cost of all else. even if she starved to death, alice couldn¡¯t be bothered to stop pursuing the knowledge that eluded her. not even for the fraction of a second it would take to eat, or sleep, or drink.


    at the same time, her body started to tremble, and alice started shaking as if she were in the midst of an epileptic seizure. the need to explore magic was so overwhelming that her body simply couldn¡¯t handle it, and it was almost literally collapsing out of the foreign need that was overwhelming her mind. alice had always loved exploring magic and learning how it worked since the moment she had discovered its existence. but now, the desire to explore magic was so different from her own thoughts that it was as if her personality was being replaced as she watched.


    at the same time, alice felt a certain... connection with the world around her. one that she had never felt before.


    she could feel the expectations of a little boy, dozens of miles away, as he thought about the mages his mother had told him about. according to his mother, mages explored the deepest secrets of mana and the world around them, searching for truth, and alice could tell that at this very moment, he was thinking about what being a mage meant. she could feel his admiration towards mages as they were depicted in stories, and a faint desire to one day join their ranks.


    she felt the expectations of a girl who had first formed her magic seed, and was venturing out towards metsel. her father had told her about the magic academies of the capital, and she had resolved herself to join the military in exchange for an education. however, deep in her heart, she wondered about the true nature of magic, thinking about the mana that every mage in the world used to fuel their spellcasting. even though her career path was focused on fight, at heart, she longed to focus on research and unravel the mysteries of mana.


    or alice could be mistaken on how the system worked to keep people¡¯s personality from being influenced by their class. frankly, she wasn¡¯t sure. the fact that alice was able to distinctly separate the ¡®unnatural¡¯ impulse to explore magic made her feel a bit relieved, because she was able to easily distinguish who she was from the mind-numbing pressure of everyone else¡¯s ideas. however, the sheer weight of everyone else¡¯s ideas had nearly crushed her.


    suddenly, alice thought of something else.


    she frowned, and then pulled up two of the achievements present in her status screen.


    immortal¡¯s apprentice at the battle against the society (rarity: 4)


    as a talented combat-specialized mage who is apprenticed to ethan, the immortal of spells and seeds, you participated in one of the battles between illvaria and the society of starry eyes, and played a notable role in securing victory for your side. even if you didn¡¯t distinguish yourself as an mvp of the battle, you performed above and beyond what would be expected of you for your age group. illvaria is watching you!


    +30 class experience to your ¡®primary¡¯ magic-related class (explorer of magic), +15% class experience to all kinetic magic related classes. the effect of the {divided attention} skill is increased by approximately 50%.


    the achievement {immortal¡¯s apprentice at the battle against the society} had been the achievement alice had gotten after rescuing samantha. alice hadn¡¯t thought too much about the achievement afterwards, since the bonuses were rather average compared to some of her other achievements. it gave her an extra magic tendril, which was quite nice, but it wasn¡¯t a very important achievement overall.


    however, she remembered thinking that the description of the achievement was a little odd. the achievement specified that she was a combat specialized mage, even though anyone who knew alice knew that she was mostly research focused. however, many of the people who had participated in the battle didn¡¯t know that. as far as the average [soldier] knew, alice was a combat-specialized mage who was apprenticed to ethan because of her promising fighting skills.


    the achievement description didn¡¯t reflect alice¡¯s actual skill set; instead, it reflected what the [guards] and [soldiers] thought of alice.


    the other achievement alice pulled up was the {murderer} achievement.


    murderer (rarity: 4)


    you have slain another human being.


    effect of strength, dexterity, and perception increased by 1%. classes with some relationship to fighting other humans gain experience 15% faster.


    when she had fought against an ambush from the sigmusi colonia and won, she had gained an achievement called {murderer}. even though she had clearly been acting in self defense.


    why was the achievement titled ¡®murderer,¡¯ rather than soldier or something else?


    alice suspected that it was because people¡¯s perception of anyone who killed another human being got tangled up with the perk title, meaning that anyone who got the achievement ended up with the {murderer} achievement, regardless of whether they were acting in self defense, or as a soldier defending their country, or as a serial killer.


    the hints that achievements were influenced by people¡¯s perception had been present all the way back as far as alice¡¯s first fight with another human in this world, and she had never fully picked up on those hints until now.


    how much of the system was actually influenced by the perception of people in the world? in fact, what if the system itself was influenced by the perception of humans living in the world? perhaps the church of the system wasn¡¯t as natural of a religion as alice thought it was. if whoever or whatever had created the church was aware of the effect perception had on parts of the system...


    then cultivating an image of the system as a generous and benevolent god was a pretty good way to avoid any negative influences people¡¯s perception might have on the system. alice had no idea if that was actually intentional or not, but it was at least plausible.


    alice sighed. there were just too many possibilities and new things she needed to explore. and she doubted she had even thought of all of the implications of this discover; it just fed so neatly into everything related to the system that she needed to rethink how several things worked. immortals. classes. achievements. skills. almost every part of the system might work a little differently than she had first thought they did, because the perception of others apparently influenced how the system as a whole worked.


    however, at the very least, alice intended to wait a while before trying another experiment like this one. even if it was safe, her nerves might collapse if she tried this again in the near future. but deep in her heart, alice knew that she would need to investigate this more in the future. the implications of this experiment were just too far-reaching, and she definitely needed to understand how people¡¯s perception impacted the system if she wanted to understand how everything worked together.


    but for now, alice laid on her bed and stared at the ceiling. she needed some more time to finish adjusting after the terror of nearly losing her sense of self.


    you have leveled up!


    explorer of magic: 74 -> 75, scientist 56 -> 58, scholar 54 -> 55, survivor 54 -> 55

 Chapter 118

    chapter 118


    alice spent some time relaxing after her previous experiment. she got a few pastries from the kitchen, and then spent a few hours laying in bed with some light reading. ethan had a few historical records laying around, which were written in a style somewhat similar to the fairytales from alice¡¯s previous world. since the writers had focused on making it entertaining to read, the books read surprisingly similarly to an adventure story, especially since basic history in this world included great warriors and powerful monsters as a matter of course.


    the exceptional reading speed she had acquired as a result of her {super speed reading} perk ensured that she finished reading each book within an hour, something which alice had mixed feelings about. while she usually liked the convenience the perk provided, finishing a story she was reading for entertainment after only an hour felt oddly dissatisfying.


    finally, after a few hours of reading and relaxing, alice felt ready to tackle her system notifications and perks.


    the first thing alice noticed was that during the aftermath of her pervious experiment, she had actually missed a system notification for the {for science!} achievement tiering up. it had gained another tier, meaning alice had acquired another 20% levelling speed for research classes and 5% growth speed for her mental attributes.


    which was a rather small increase, but it certainly didn¡¯t hurt. the achievement claimed that it would gain some sort of notable boost at tier v, and alice was now more than halfway there. she was looking forward to seeing how the achievement improved.


    in addition to her achievement tier, she had gained enough levels for three new perks. one perk from [explorer of magic], one from [scientist], and one from [survivor]. however, alice couldn¡¯t help but feel a little disappointed by how few levels she had gained in [explorer of magic]. she had only gained one level from an experiment that, while theoretically perfectly safe, had been more than slightly terrifying.


    alice sighed. the low number of levels she had received as a result of the experiment was a problem new to her, but most people experienced a similar problem the moment they hit level 50. the levelling speed penalty that increased every 25 levels was incredibly harsh. alice had basically escaped the influence of the levelling penalty entirely while between level 50 and level 75, due to her exceptional achievements and high experience multipliers, but now alice was facing the same problem as everyone else, albeit at a much higher level.


    the levels between 75 and 100 were generally considered the biggest obstacle to most aspiring immortals. after the class evolution at level 100, one generally aged slowly enough that their levelling speed didn¡¯t matter too much, as long as they weren¡¯t already really old by the time they reached the level 100 class evolution. even if one levelled up at a glacial pace, since they didn¡¯t get older very fast, it didn¡¯t matter very much as long as they kept working hard. however, between level 75 and 100, people were usually still aging at a noticeable speed, and were simultaneously fighting against major levelling speed penalties.


    and now alice had joined the ranks of people stuck at level 75. she felt that if she wanted to keep levelling up quickly, she really needed to get a few more achievements or perks to boost her xp multiplier by a bit.


    before picking perks, alice took a moment to count up her total levelling speed bonus for [explorer of magic], her highest level class.


    she was getting 400% levelling speed bonus from {seeker of truth}, her best achievement. another 30% from {baptized by broken mana}, 10% from {bookworm}, 10% from the class evolution bonus from {kinetic manabinder}, 125% from {seed creator}, since [explorer of magic] was both a magic related class and a research-related class. finally, she was getting a 30% bonus from {immortal¡¯s disciple at the battle against the society} and 60% from {scientific discoveries}. apart from that, alice had some scattered perks that made her more productive, but nothing else directly influenced her xp gain. in total, that meant she had a 665% bonus to her levelling speed for [explorer of magic].


    most immortals had a levelling speed bonus of around 1,000% or 1,100% by the time they hit immortality, because that was what was needed to push through the barrier between level 75 and level 100. and now, alice was going to stare that giant gap in levels in the face and wish she had another 400% levelling speed.


    alice winced at the thought. at least she was at level 75 quite a bit earlier than most people. that meant that she had a lot more time to rack up another few good achievements to boost her growth speed. while aging speed varied quite a bit from person to person, she knew that past level 75, aging would usually drop to less than half of the normal aging rate.


    in other words, alice was probably aging less than six months for every year that passed now. which was a strange thought, since alice was still only physically sixteen. if one discounted the effect of slowed aging, alice was less than half a year away from her seventeenth birthday. and she was already aging much slower than a regular human being. for a moment, alice was struck by the bizarre notion that if she reached immortality tomorrow, she would be stuck as a teenager for all eternity, which was a rather unpleasant thought. alice would prefer to reach her early twenties before she stopped aging. being stuck at age 16 forever sounded awful.


    alice shook her head to clear her thoughts. she hadn¡¯t even reached the class evolution at level 100 yet. it was still an open question whether or not she would reach immortality at all, and if she did reach immortality it would still require a lot of hard work and effort. however, thinking about immortality and her system notifications had calmed her down enough that she felt she could think properly again. which meant that she had decisions to make.


    alice started scanning her new perk options.


    first of all, alice checked the potential perk combinations and new perks for [explorer of magic]. she was probably going to end up combining her level 70 perk with {three seeds}, as she had planned at level 70, but it was worth double checking the new perks she had available first just in case she saw something amazing.


    there was a perk that gave alice six new seed slots, which she found somewhat appealing, but not valuable enough to actually pick up since {seedy ambitions} already covered her long-term magic seed needs, and another perk option that gave her improved insights and a 100% boost to levelling speed for research classes if she had successfully concluded a magic experiment within the past year. alice felt that the second perk was just an inferior version of {for science!}, and didn¡¯t really appeal to her very much. she needed boosts to her levelling speed, but a 100% boost just couldn¡¯t keep up with her needs at all. it was also overly specific and hard to keep activated long term.


    alice swapped to the perk combination menu, and then checked the results of combining {three seeds} and {seedy ambitions}. alice grinned to herself. she hadn¡¯t been 100% accurate when guessing what would happen when she combined the two perks, but she had been close. it was definitely worth combining the two to improve her long term growth. she took one final look at the two perks she was about to sacrifice.


    three seeds


    requirements: explorer of magic level 30 or higher, perception 100 or greater, magic 100 or greater


    you may form 3 more magic seeds, with a maximum mana conversion ratio of 10% each


    seedy ambitions


    requirements: explorer of magic class at level 70 or greater, intelligence 150 or higher, magic 150 or higher, at least 5 magic seeds, at least 3 perks related to studying and interacting with magic seeds


    with enough study, you can create an inferior magic seed for any subject of study you are interacting with. this requires you to have a strong understanding of the subject, and only one seed can be created this way per month.


    these inferior seeds will not count towards your magic seed limit. inferior seeds are limited to 25% mana conversion ratio. they cannot be upgraded via achievements, but other perks may interact with them.


    then, she paused. alice suddenly noticed an issue.


    it seemed that currently, alice had six magic seeds in total. if she combined three seeds with another perk, what exactly would happen if she suddenly had more seeds than her maximum magic seed limit?


    alice had to admit, she had forgotten about this problem when she had been planning to combine {seedy ambitions} and {three seeds}. her maximum number of magic seeds would decrease below the number of magic seeds she currently had if the new combined perk didn¡¯t give her any new magic seed slots.


    alice had no idea what happened if she had more magic seeds than she could theoretically hold. alice had neglected to research what the result of this problem would be, but she doubted she was the only person to come across this particular issue. after all, since perk combination existed and plenty of people had used it, it was inevitable that someone else had stumbled across this issue in the past.


    any time you are asleep, so long as you are close to or touching a book and have permission to read it from the owner of that book, you may read it inside of your dreams. this will not affect your sleep, meaning you will still fully rest after a night of sleeping, and all of the speed and comprehension bonuses offered previously offered by {super speed reading} will still apply while you are asleep.


    note: any books stored inside of any storage perks you have are considered to be touching you at all times for the purposes of this perk.


    normally, alice might have hesitated to create this perk. after all, she needed to be in contact with a lot of books at once to properly take advantage of this perk. books were quite expensive, and unless alice had a lot of books, the perk wouldn¡¯t be very useful.


    luckily, she was the apprentice of an immortal now.


    after creating the perk, alice quickly wrote a message and had one of the [servants] carry it to ethan for her. twenty minutes later, one crate after another of books arrived in alice¡¯s room, each one packed with a variety of useful books on geography, history, biology, and magic. there were also several case studies and records of specific experiments that had been done on magic seeds and mana baptisms. ethan also wrote a message to her, letting her know that one of the servants would go check the local bookstores in the capital and get a copy of any other books she might find useful or interesting.


    ethan didn¡¯t seem fazed at all by the fact that he was probably dumping dozens of gold crowns into helping alice make her perk stronger. all she had needed to say was that she had recently acquired a perk that required lots of books related to her field of study. ethan hadn¡¯t asked for any further details, and had immediately sent her everything he felt would be useful.


    sometimes, it was really quite nice to be an immortal¡¯s apprentice.


    after that, alice started focusing on her final perk.


    it had been a long time since she last got a new perk in [survivor]. she didn¡¯t gain levels in the class very quickly, after all. however, a couple of the perks in the class were very useful. {adrenaline rush}, for example, remained one of alice¡¯s most reliable combat perks, and {moderate tissue regeneration} was alice¡¯s go-to perk for if she got hurt or an experiment went wrong.


    however, there were also plenty of perks that alice only found somewhat useful, or didn¡¯t use very often at all.


    after messing with several perk options, alice eventually combined {sixth sense} and {sense hostility}.


    sense hostility


    requirements: survivor level 35 or higher, perception 100 or higher


    whenever any being gazes upon you with hostile intentions, you will sense it, as well as sense the direction of the entity in question and its power relative to you. if said being is significantly stronger than you, or is too far away, locating them may be impossible. improves the effect of the {perception} attribute by 20%. enhanced by your perception attribute.


    sixth sense


    requirements: survivor level 25 or higher, perception 100 or greater, magic greater than 0


    you gain some ability to intuitively sense the mana around you with a sort of ¡®sixth sense,¡¯ with particular focus placed on the fluctuations of mana that only monsters emit into their surroundings


    both of these perks were still somewhat useful to alice. {sense hostility} occasionally provided alice with a warning sign if someone was watching her with hostile intentions, and {sixth sense} provided her with information about nearby monsters so that she could avoid fights when she was in the wilderness.


    however, these days, alice didn¡¯t fear most monsters. she was good enough at fighting that she could deal with most weaker monsters, and so the perk had lost a great deal of its usefulness. and while losing {sense hostility} would sting quite a bit, alice was guessing that the perk wouldn¡¯t be able to keep up with the level of anyone sent to harm her anymore. after all, alice was now a ¡®combat-specialized¡¯ mage training under an immortal. anyone sent to harm her would probably have perks to counter things like {sense hostility}, meaning that alice needed to upgrade the perk or accept that it was no longer useful.


    combining the two perks would hopefully fix this problem.


    enhanced senses


    perk costs: sixth sense + sense hostility


    your [perception] stat effectiveness is enhanced by 30%.


    you intuitively sense the mana in your surroundings, both human and monstrous, and are able to pick up any information that you would normally have access to. this is effective within a range of a few hundred meters.


    if any creature has sensed you nearby and has hostile intentions towards you, you will immediately be able to sense it, and will also get a very rough idea of how strong that creature is in comparison to you.


    if a creature you have already sensed initiates an attack against you and this perk has not activated within the past day, for 10 seconds you will gain enhanced knowledge of that creature¡¯s attack and position, and will gain a 20% boost to dexterity and perception.


    the effectiveness of this perk is significantly increased with your perception stat


    the sensing ability of both perks she had used as fodder had been significantly enhanced, and alice had gotten an extra 30% perception effectiveness on top of that. in addition, alice had gained another perk effect that somewhat resembled {adrenaline rush}, which made it easier for her to survive any unexpected ambushes or problems. alice had very little lasting power in a fight, since she could burn through her mana very quickly and several of her perks could only be activated once a day. however, with the increasing strength of alice¡¯s life-saving perks, it was much easier for alice to escape any situation that put her in danger.


    after looking over her final perk combination, alice nodded to herself. she had finished dealing with her system notifications, at least for now. since she hadn¡¯t gotten any achievements that would boost her levelling speed recently, she decided to ask ethan if there were any good achievements she should aim for that might not be recorded by the church of the system, and that she should also pay another visit to the local branch of the church to consult their records of various achievements. she had already scanned it a few times to try to find something that was both useful and easy to get, but hadn¡¯t found anything that she felt fit her needs. however, alice was holding on to the vague hope that she had simply missed something and would find it if she checked again.


    as alice thought of talking to ethan about achievements, alice frowned.


    now that her system notifications were dealt with, she needed to actually start preparing for the tea party. she made a mental note to herself to ask about her {etiquette} teacher when she spoke with ethan later. and to get a few books on etiquette as well, so that she could read up on the subject while she was asleep. even though she wasn¡¯t entirely looking forward to the event, she would do her best to fit in and make the event useful to her. she just hoped she didn¡¯t make a fool of herself when the tea party actually came.

 Chapter 119

    chapter 119


    alice spent the time she was asleep reading through ethan¡¯s exceptionally detailed library, trying to absorb as much knowledge as she possibly could. since she now had an extra eight hours a day to just read and relax, she didn¡¯t worry too much about only reading information relevant to her research. instead, she was more than happy to read through everything that interested her, no matter how relevant or irrelevant it was to her current research projects. she spent a little more time learning about geography, before transitioning to reading a few stories dedicated entirely to entertainment, before studying a few books about biology and physics.


    despite her lack of focus on one topic in particular, alice still gained a lot of information from her dream-dive into various topics of study. her memory-enhancing perks, as well as the comprehension boost granted by her reading perk and the minor boost given by {bookworm} gave her a massive leg up on how effective her reading time was. sooner or later, alice was confident that she could use all of this information to learn new things about the world around her.


    of course, alice also took some time to read up on {etiquette}, now that she had an additional eight hours a day to read while she was asleep. she learned a great deal of useful tidbits of information, such as how the seating order for a tea party worked, and what the proper title for various kinds of nobility in illvaria was.


    generally speaking, during a tea party, guests arrived and interacted with each other before the event officially began. then, the host would sit everyone down, and have servants serve tea to the guests from the highest-ranked noble to the lowest ranked noble. while tea and various snacks were being served, the host or one of the other nobles associated with the host would bring up a light topic of conversation. this minor topic was still usually at least tangentially related to the ¡®main¡¯ topic of the tea party, which would be discussed once everyone had their tea and had settled in.


    the topic of a tea party could be nearly anything an illvarian [noble] found important. perhaps they would discuss monster incursions in the south, or perhaps they would discuss how to mitigate the effects of a drought on a certain region. or perhaps they might discuss recent noble fashion.


    after that, the host would declare the end to the most formal part of the tea party, and then the guests would be given leave to join the more... noble ball-esque part of the gathering. during this phase, there would be dancing, various conversations in the background, and so on. after some hours of dancing, conversing, and making or breaking alliances, the tea party would gradually dissolve, before the guests retired.


    despite carrying the name ¡®tea party,¡¯ something alice associated with a much lighter social interaction, illvaria apparently took its tea parties very seriously. it was still less formal than a full-on ball, but it was still very structured and formalized.


    alice also learned that her position in all of this would be... interesting.


    she had always known that illvaria favored mages a great deal, as a method of encouraging mage immigration. mages in a tea party tended to occupy a very weird place where, rather than their ¡®rank¡¯ being determined by their proper noble rank, they were instead served tea based on a number of other factors. mages had a great deal of social mobility based on their achievements and level, more so than any other social class. while alice had never made her level public, most people with some knowledge of the relationship between mana and levels, as well as familiarity with alice¡¯s published paper, could probably infer that she was fairly high level. that would normally put her at around the equivalent of a somewhat poor baron, unless alice made it known that she was at level 75 in one of her classes. if she made that piece of information available, she would probably be treated as someone equivalent to a weak viscount instead.


    however, ever since alice had become the apprentice of ethan, her status had become a little more complicated. alice being an apprentice of an immortal, as well as her young age, meant that she would be perceived as having a high chance to proceed further in her lifetime. after all, there weren¡¯t may level 75¡¯s that weren¡¯t physically 17 yet. this meant that alice might have a standing more akin to a proper, relatively influential count, a full rank above a regular viscount. and this was despite the fact that alice had no land, little wealth, and basically no political connections besides ethan.


    which was incredibly strange for her to think about. in a strange, theoretical way, alice was actually somewhat influential in illvarian politics, despite knowing almost nothing about illvarian politics.


    and, of course, since alice had no idea what she needed to prepare for, the realization that nobles might actually want to talk to her sent alice into a mad frenzy of reading. she tried her best to learn everything she could about the local political climate of illvaria, just in case she was asked about the subject. she didn¡¯t want to make a fool of herself in public, after all.


    since the push to resettle the south was the biggest current issue, alice ended up focusing on that.


    the push to resettle the south was mostly a directive from the current [king] of illvaria, since, according to him, now was a golden opportunity to strengthen illvaria. since the nomads of the north weren¡¯t raiding illvaria very frequently, it was the perfect time to invest manpower and resources into strengthening illvaria for the future.


    however, many [nobles] criticized the [king]¡¯s push to resettle the south, claiming that they were rash. illvaria¡¯s knowledge of why the nomads weren¡¯t raiding illvaria was patchy, and resettling the south was leaving illvaria dangerous overextended. if the sigmusi colonia or one of illvaria¡¯s neighbors attacked illvaria while the country was trying to resettle the south, the country wouldn¡¯t have the manpower to deal with it.


    these criticisms had increased dramatically after the sigmusi colonia started its espionage war in the southern territories which had nearly killed alice during her time in the south. the sigmusi colonia¡¯s understanding of illvarian internal politics was clearly excellent: they had launched raids and put pressure on illvaria to exactly the level needed to stir up internal discontent, without uniting the country against them. there were plenty of [nobles] who still supported the recolonization effort, but it was a much more divisive topic than it had been two years ago.


    this was likely to be the main topic of the tea party ethan had suggested alice attend. the [nobles] criticizing the [king] had increased their criticism as the reclamation of the south encountered new obstacles, with some suggesting the [king] was more worried about trying to gain immortality than focusing on the best interests of the country.


    the second princess, who was hosting the tea party, was likely trying to rally more support for the southern recolonization effort from some of the more neutral [nobles].


    the immortal estate was mostly in favor of the recolonization effort. ethan, in particular, stood to benefit from the recolonization of the south, since the more enchanting materials were available in the country, the stronger the position of [enchanters], and thus mages in general, would be in illvaria politics. and since ethan was an immortal mage, that would naturally strengthen his position by a moderate amount.


    as ethan¡¯s apprentice, alice would be expected to support ethan¡¯s position on the recolonization effort, though she also wouldn¡¯t actually be involved in any decisions related to the recolonization effort.


    luckily, alice¡¯s night of slogging through books on {etiquette}and diving into the nitty-gritty of illvarian internal politics gave her a much better understanding of why the tea party was being held, and how she was expected to act during the tea party. and when she woke up, she had acquired the {etiquette} skill and levelled it up to level nine. which wasn¡¯t bad for a single night of work.


    alice spent the next two weeks attending classes at her magic academy, as usual. this brought her [student] class to level 9, which was a nice, if minor, change. she was only 1 level away from a new perk.


    apart from that, alice (very hesitantly) kept delving into the nature of class-based magic seeds. every single time she did, she got a set of cascading error messages from the system, as well as the mind-numbing feeling of nearly losing her sense of self. but since the system kept her safe, alice was, just barely, able to work up the courage to try again each time. alice did learn several things about her classes and how they worked on a deeper level.


    alice had learned, for example, that [survivor], as a class, didn¡¯t necessarily care about whether she had truly survived ridiculously difficult odds out in the wilderness somewhere in order to earn her class levels. as long as she experienced something people perceived as dangerous, she would get the exact same xp reward.


    for example, if alice locked herself in a manaless room for an extended period of time, something which was considered unquestionably lethal by the overwhelming majority of the human populace right now, alice would get xp for the [survivor] class. even if being in a manaless room did literally nothing to put her life in danger at all.


    suddenly, all of alice¡¯s seemingly random levels in the [survivor] class whenever she completed an experiment made a lot more sense. alice had always thought the timing of those levels was pretty weird, but she had never perfectly connected the dots before now.


    after learning this tidbit, alice immediately made her sleeping area completely manaless, and woke up to a nice chunk of [survivor] xp every morning. she was definitely starting to notice the rewards drop off after two weeks of intentionally exploiting the massive loophole in the system, possibly because her paper about manaless rooms was starting to become more well known, but alice had still gained another level in [survivor] as a result of setting up some very simple enchantments near her bed.


    you have leveled up!


    survivor: 55 -> 56


    similarly, a [farmer] gained xp by doing things people of this world thought of as being ¡®farmer¡¯ related. and, in turn, as one gained farmer mana, everyone¡¯s perception of who and what a ¡®farmer¡¯ was would begin to twist that person¡¯s personality, making them more and more tied to their identity as a farmer and rapidly stripping away their personality and free will until they became nothing more than a puppet to the common perception of farmers. worse, these two processes would feed into each other, creating a positive feedback loop that would quickly replace a person¡¯s free will and sense of self with someone who was nearly a mindless puppet to their own mana.


    at least, that would be the case if the system didn¡¯t intervene. the system stopped the entire process at the very beginning, by absorbing all of the relevant class-related mana. thus, the class was fundamentally unable to exert any influence on a person¡¯s personality, leaving a person with the [farmer] entirely as themselves, plus a bunch of neat supernatural abilities derived from their class seed.


    as a final test, alice had confirmed that her magic seeds based on classes did very little. at least as far as she could tell. perhaps there was a way to manipulate a class-based magic seed to do interesting things, but as far as alice could tell, anytime she tried to do something with, say, a [farmer] magic seed, a whole lot of nothing happened, even when she tried speeding up the growth of crops and such. alice suspected this was because she had almost nothing in common with regular farmers. since her actions up to this point didn¡¯t fit the identity of a ¡®farmer,¡¯ the magic seed associated with farming didn¡¯t really work very well for her.


    or perhaps she was just using the magic seed incorrectly, or perhaps it just couldn¡¯t do anything in the first place. since her [explorer of magic] class seed had encountered similar problems before she deleted it, alice was beginning to suspect it was just a problem created by turning a class into a magic seed.


    finally, during the final few days up to the tea party, alice had realized there was a rather interesting question she could consider in greater detail, now that she knew more about the mechanics behind mana and class seeds. she had noticed it while using {expanding comprehension} on her pure mana seed. sometimes when she used the perk, she only got a minor boost in mana conversion ratio, but the more useful part of the perk was the fact that it sometimes gave her unique insights into the nature of how a certain kind of mana worked.


    this time, in addition to a 3% boost to her pure mana seed, alice was reminded of a partiulcarly interesting fact about immortals.


    a long time ago, when alice had delved into the nature of pure mana seeds using the original form of {expanding comprehension}, she had seen an image of immortals as clouds of mana that continuously transformed into themselves.


    alice hadn¡¯t really known what to make of this the first time she saw it. however, now that she had some context for how magic and class seeds worked, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder what this meant on a more fundamental level.


    the system had clearly demonstrated on multiple occasions that it would safeguard free will. in fact, it seemed to be one of the highest priority directives in the system.


    how did that translate to immortals, who, by definition of their very existence, should basically be entirely controlled by other people¡¯s perception of who they were? after all, even regular [farmers] would be basically taken over by their mana, if a class seed didn¡¯t get rid of the harmful mana for them. but an immortal was just a solidified clump of magic flesh. how did they remain themselves?


    alice wasn¡¯t sure, but she was fairly certain the fact that immortals were continuously shifting, over and over again, into themselves was probably some part of how the mechanics behind immortality actually worked in practice.


    not to mention, it also shed some light on a possible reason why all immortals could regenerate their body once per day. perhaps the fact that an immortal was continuously turning into themselves every single second of the day also let them regenerate missing chunks of their body, so long as the core of their existence remained intact. which, in this case, appeared to be their brain.


    unfortunately, alice didn¡¯t have enough data to figure out how everything worked behind the scenes yet. she decided to keep an eye on ethan and ask him about it when she had a better idea what questions she should ask.


    however, two weeks of analysis and preparation soon came to an end.


    it was time to attend a tea party.

 Chapter 120

    chapter 120


    on ethan¡¯s suggestion, alice and ethan both took carriages to the palace on the day of the tea party in order to maintain some distance between them. even though alice was ethan¡¯s apprentice, she was also a prospective future immortal in her own right, and so ethan said that it was important to send that alice was someone to be remembered on her own, instead of only because of her connection to ethan.


    which, apparently, translated to alice and ethan taking different carriages. alice¡¯s {etiquette} instructor had told her that she should spend some time with ethan at the tea party, to show that they were on good terms, and some time on her own, but alice hadn¡¯t realized that she should start before they even arrived. she was glad ethan was there to help her along with the political stuff, although alice was also quickly realizing just how woefully inadequate her skills and classes were at dealing with social situations. she was starting to get used to having perks and skills help her navigate new and interesting situations, and not having any she could rely on felt a little strange to her now.


    as the two carriages rode down the more well-paved streets of the illvarian capital, alice was amused to see a few other [nobles] moving down the streets in a variety of ways, most of which she wouldn¡¯t have expected [nobles] to ever use.


    back home, when she had read stories or watched movies about [nobles] in the middle ages, they had all arrived in fancy carriages, with each [noble] working to outdo the next noble in terms of how fancy and lavish their carriage was. alice and ethan were both in carriages right now, and alice had assumed everyone else would do the same.


    however, there were a few [nobles] alice could see riding horses and heading in the same direction as the two of them. somehow, their perks and skills were ensuring that they remained utterly spotless during the ride.


    which was probably the point, now that alice thought about it. considering how important people found levels in this world, showing off that one could stroll through filth and come out spotless was a method of flexing one¡¯s perks and levels. and remaining spotless while standing in the middle of a cloud of dirt seemed like a very [noble] perk to have, considering how useless it was for almost every other profession alice could think of.


    the most extreme example of [nobles] flexing their perks was a [noble] couple simply strolling towards the palace, which caused alice to let out a few chuckles when she saw them. they were moving fairly quickly, and alice guessed that they had decent [dexterity] along with whatever perks they had keeping them clean.


    seeing [nobles] ride on horses and stroll through the city towards a tea party was surprisingly interesting, and alice found herself far more entertained by the journey than she had expected.


    finally, after rolling down a few more streets and past a few other [noble] carriages and travelers, the carriage came to a stop.


    the [coachman], who alice realized was actually her [hidden bodyguard], knocked on the door, before opening it and helping her get down. alice didn¡¯t actually need his help: however, as she looked around, she realized that in the distance, she could also see a [noble] getting helped down from the carriage by his own [coachman]. perhaps it was some sort of {etiquette} that hadn¡¯t been covered in her lessons?


    alice mentally shrugged, and allowed the [hidden bodyguard] to guide her out of the carriage.when he realized that alice had identified him, he gave her a friendly wink before moving to the side, along with some of the other carriages who were parked outside.


    alice frowned, as she noticed that the mana around her [hidden guard] was acting oddly. she tried to get a closer look at it, but couldn¡¯t quite see what was happening before it vanished. she squinted at the spot where the system mana had acted up, but it seemed completely normal now. she couldn¡¯t figure anything else out. she sighed, and turned her attention back to the [hidden guard] pretending to be a [coachman].


    ¡°if you need anything, let me know, lady mage,¡± he said, a small note of unchecked amusement present in his voice.


    ¡°i¡¯ll be sure to do so,¡± said alice, giving him a practiced ladylike nod. she didn¡¯t think anything would happen in the middle of the palace, but knowing her [hidden bodyguard] was nearby was still comforting.


    then, alice got her first look at the palace itself. she had never had a reason to venture this far towards the center of the city before, so it was her first time seeing where the royal family lived.


    the palace itself was... big. it wasn¡¯t quite as opulent as something like the palace of versailles from earth, but it was still a major feat of architecture. it was made of a stone that strongly resembled marble, with highlights made of turquoise stone and some kind of gold plating attached to the side. alice was pretty sure that without whatever architecture-related perks were keeping the building intact, the whole building would have collapsed. alice didn¡¯t know very much about architecture, but she was still pretty sure that there were too many spires and domes present for the building to plausibly support its own weight.


    however, the building did look incredibly impressive. the impossible architecture of this building really hammered in some of the more interesting aspects of what the people of this world could do when they had the right perks.


    however, alice quickly lost interest in the architecture, because she instead latched on to a much more interesting part of the building. even more fascinating than the building itself were the building¡¯s enchantments. it also had so many enchantments attached to it that alice had a hard time making out where one enchantment started and the next stopped. there were probably eleven or twelve different enchantments encoded into the building, all of excellent quality.


    alice wondered who had made the enchantments. the work looked kind of similar to an immortal¡¯s work, but as far as alice knew, there weren¡¯t any immortals in illvaria who specialized in enchantments. ethan was more combat focused, and while he could throw together some basic enchantments, alice was pretty sure he wasn¡¯t good enough to make the enchantments in the palace. perhaps she was underestimating what a team of dedicated [enchanters] could do with the right resources and motivation?


    the enchanting materials were also clearly top-notch. the materials alice was used to working with could hold, at most, three or four instructions. and that was after she used {kinetic enchanting} to increase the maximum instructions of a material by one.


    admittedly, alice had generally worked with budget materials when she relied on enchanting as a source of income, which meant her understanding of top-notch enchantments was a little more limited. but as far as she knew, even for a higher-grade [enchanter], having a material that could hold 7 or 8 enchantments was still rather high-end. whatever the palace was made of, it could hold far more enchantment instructions than even a normal high-grade material. which spoke of the obscene amount of money that had probably been poured into securing materials for the palace¡¯s construction. to build an entire building out of this ludicrously expensive material seemed completely insane to alice.


    as she looked at the impressive enchantments of the palace, alice found herself thinking of something cecilia had mentioned a long time ago, when the two of them had been sailing up the river to metsel from cyra. something she hadn¡¯t thought very much of recently, because it hadn¡¯t been relevant to her at the time. however, since alice¡¯s status was quite a bit different from when she had first entered the city, she might actually have a chance to interact with this tidbit of information.


    somewhere in the palace, there was supposed to be an artifact, one of the greatest feats of enchanting that existed in this world. specifically, the artifact was supposed to be responsible for controlling the flow of water in most of the rivers of southern illvaria, turning a single river into a giant set of canals that were perfectly shaped for both irrigation and sailing trade boats upriver and downriver.


    alice recognized her from the list of [nobles] and other important figures she had memorized. she was ethan¡¯s mother.


    much like the other immortals alice had spotted, she looked like a cloud of humanoid mana. however, unlike most immortals alice had met, the woman didn¡¯t have five large class seeds, and then a small handful of scattered secondary class seeds. instead, she had something like two dozen fairly large class seeds, and then one exceptionally large class seed. her secondary classes were clearly smaller than her main class, but the difference was much harder to spot than usual.


    since ethan had mentioned that his mother enjoyed working on her secondary classes, alice assumed that each class she could see was a ¡®project¡¯ ethan¡¯s mother had spent a considerable amount of time working on. most of the class seeds she could see looked like they were probably around level sixty, and while alice had no idea what most of the classes were, she could still appreciate the time and dedication ethan¡¯s mother must have devoted to levelling up her classes.


    alice glanced at ethan again, and then glanced at the woman, before she felt a slightly amused grin pull at her lips.


    both of them looked like they were the same age. if she was on earth, she was pretty sure she would have assumed they were siblings. having a child that looked the same age as you must be... odd.


    alice spent a few moments musing over the oddities of ethan¡¯s family dynamic, and then continued examining the other people at the table.


    sitting at the head of the table was a woman with warm brown eyes and rich black hair. she was stunningly pretty, and looked to be in her early twenties. she was chatting with ethan¡¯s mother, and was currently laughing at something ethan¡¯s mother had said. she was a about average in level, perhaps around level 50 or 55. alice identified her as the second princess, and the host of this tea party.


    finally, there were about a dozen people sitting near the back of the table. they varied wildly in age and level, but alice was able to recognize over half of them as a result of her studies on the [nobles] and {etiquette} of illvaria. alice noticed two people near the back of the table who were talking with each other, and noticed that there were various bits of rainbow mana being fired at each other every single second. some mana looked like a more normal lie-detection perk, with both parties trying to figure out whether the other one was lying. some other mana, oddly enough, looked like a string that connected the two men, and alice had absolutely no clue what that particular chunk of system mana was doing. alice wondered what perks were being used. perhaps they were using perks related to analysis? or perks to help them poke holes in the other¡¯s ideas? alice lacked the context to make sense of whatever was happening over there, but she found the mana involved to be fascinating.


    she glanced at ethan curiously, waiting to see if he had any special reaction to any of the [nobles] present.


    ethan, however, focused on his mother and the second [princess]. he gave his mother a warm smile, and his mother pulled herself out of her conversation for a brief moment to give ethan a warm smile back. then, she nodded at alice, and returned to her conversation with the second princess.


    ¡°i believe you should already be able to recognize her, but that¡¯s my mother, myra. and she is speaking with the second princess.¡± ethan said. alice noticed a small, fond smile on ethan¡¯s lips as he spoke of his mother, and a hint of pride as well. clearly, ethan¡¯s family was quite close. then, the grin on ethan¡¯s lips changed to one she recognized...


    ¡°do you know the other people here?¡±


    alice suppressed a groan and nodded. ¡°the two over there are a pair of counts who are in charge of the eastern border of illvaria. due to their geographical position, they have reasonably good access to trade with some of illvaria¡¯s more amicable neighbors, and so they¡¯re reasonably wealthy. however, due to the fact that they run part of illvaria¡¯s border, they also need to fund a notably larger garrison than the average [noble], meaning that, strangely enough, it basically balances out. but they¡¯re still fairly influential,¡± said alice, glancing at the two she had seen conversing at the back.


    ¡°then, next to them is baroness helia, who has a fairly wealthy barony in the mid-eastern parts of illvaria. a fair amount of paper is produced there, which means that she¡¯s almost as influential as some [counts] due to the amount of money her land produces. the woman she¡¯s talking to...¡±


    alice started to run through her memories, listing out every [noble] she recognized and a few interesting tidbits about their land and political position. ethan nodded along as alice spoke, occasionally taking a moment to interject if he felt that alice had missed something important, but for the most part he was content to let alice keep going.


    ethan grinned and nodded. ¡°well done. i¡¯m surprised you learned so much, even if you missed some important details. i don¡¯t recall all of those facts being part of your lessons, in fact. you did a decent job assimilating all of the knowledge available to you and turning it into a more coherent picture. well done.¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°i learned about it using one of my new perks. it gives me a huge advantage in learning new information quickly and efficiently without cutting into my time for experiments and organizing information. it¡¯s very helpful,¡± said alice, thinking of {dream reading}. the perk was doing wonders for her reading time and learning time available each day: previously, she had been able to spare a few hours per day for reading new information, but it had never felt like enough to catch up on all the things she wanted to know. now, alice even had an hour or two each day to spare reading for fun, and was still learning far more each week than ever before.


    ethan¡¯s grin grew wider. ¡°i¡¯m glad all those books are getting put to good use, then.¡±


    ethan led her towards the head of the table, near where ethan¡¯s mother and the princess were sitting, and alice swallowed down a hint of nervousness. this was the first time she had ever interacted with royalty.


    in fact, barring her association with a few immortals, this was the first time she would interact with the [nobles] of this world. alice did her best to school her expression into a normal one, hoping that she wasn¡¯t frowning or grimacing.


    meanwhile, ethan¡¯s mother and the princess seemed to have finished their conversation, and ethan¡¯s mother gave alice and ethan a more welcoming grin and nod, before patting one of the seats next to her.


    alice swallowed a nervous lump in her throat.


    it was time to meet another of illvaria¡¯s immortals, and the mother of her teacher.

 Chapter 121

    chapter 121


    ¡°so, you¡¯re ethan¡¯s newest project,¡± said ethan¡¯s mother, giving alice a warm smile. alice saw a variety of system perks flood out of ethan¡¯s mother. they reached across her eyes, her nose, her mouth, her ears, and every orifice of the top half of her body. it seemed as if literally her entire body, and every sense, was being improved by several perks at once. and the perks didn¡¯t only affect ethan¡¯s mother: they seemed to radiate into the air around her, like dozens of tiny little knots of mana.


    the sight was honestly fascinating. ethan¡¯s mother had so many different classes and perks being activated at once that it was nearly impossible to track which was which. each perk was clearly much smaller and weaker than the perks and classes used by other immortals, but the sheer quantity of classes and perks combined created a dizzying sight.


    alice quickly realized that even though ethan¡¯s mother had done things quite differently than a normal immortal, there were massive benefits in addition to the obvious downsides of concentrating on many classes instead of a few.


    ethan¡¯s mother may not have the raw power and ability that someone focused on raising five classes might have gained after spending a few centuries working on them. however, in exchange, ethan¡¯s mother had a lot of versatility. while alice couldn¡¯t pick out every perk she was using, she could still figure out what a few of them were, just because she had seen them before. ethan¡¯s mother was detecting lies, making their conversation private, enhancing all five of her senses, doing something that let her gather a lot of information from all of alice¡¯s reactions and facial expressions, and scanning their surroundings for danger. and several perks were layered on top of each other, boosting each other and feeding into each other in strange but fascinating ways.


    and that was just the tip of the iceberg. ethan¡¯s mother probably had dozens of passive perks activated as well. even though her primary class barely met the requirement for reaching immortality, with so many passive and active perks, ethan¡¯s mother wouldn¡¯t have any weaknesses. it was an incredibly fascinating build that alice had never heard of before, and she found herself curious to know what perks and achievements made the whole thing possible. ethan¡¯s mother clearly didn¡¯t suffer from the same downsides other people did when raising secondary classes. all, or at least part, of the downsides of secondary classes had been negated. unfortunately, it was probably related to combat power, so asking ethan¡¯s mother about it would be rude, and ethan¡¯s mother probably wouldn¡¯t answer any questions about it.


    she found herself rather disappointed about that fact.


    then, alice realized she was spacing out, and quickly tried to focus on the conversation again. she realized that ethan¡¯s mother was simply staring at her, waiting for a response.


    ¡°yes, i¡¯m ethan¡¯s apprentice. alice. it¡¯s a pleasure to meet you, honored immortal myra,¡± said alice. at the side, alice could see the second princess, who ethan¡¯s mother had previously been talking with, stiffen a bit, and give alice a more measured look, before nodding and giving alice a friendly smile.


    ¡°i¡¯d be pleased to get to know you later, lady alice,¡± said the second princess, before standing up and excusing herself. she gave alice a very warm smile and extended a hand towards her, and alice quickly shook it. ¡°i should go, though. i know immortals and their apprentices like to get to know each other without outside interference.¡± then, the second [princess] quickly got up from the table and made her way towards one of the flower bushes nearby.


    ¡°thank you, dear. i¡¯d love to continue our conversation later,¡± said ethan¡¯s mother as the second [princess] departed. the second princess turned towards ethan¡¯s mother for a moment, and shot her a slightly more mischievous grin, before she continued making her way towards the flowers. then, ethan¡¯s mother turned towards alice.


    ¡°it¡¯s a pleasure to make your acquaintance! i¡¯m ethan¡¯s mother, myra. you know, none of ethan¡¯s projects have made it to immortality yet, but he seems especially optimistic about your odds. and i hear you¡¯re a mage! being a mage is a very big advantage when working towards immortality, you know. even though mages only make up around 2-3% of the population, they make up over a fourth of the global immortal population. starting out with a 20% aging reduction is huge, and mages just have opportunities that other people don¡¯t have access to,¡± said myra. ¡°i¡¯m glad to see ethan is so optimistic about your chances! i haven¡¯t seen him this excited anytime within the past... four rounds of disciples!¡±


    ¡°what makes you think ethan is optimistic about my chances?¡± asked alice.


    immortal myra chuckled. ¡°i¡¯m his mother, and i have a pretty darn high level in a lot of classes. including [psychologist]. i have a pretty easy time reading body language, and ethan is very excited whenever he faces you. i usually see him with a little spring in his step whenever he starts teaching a new round of disciples, but it¡¯s especially noticeable this time. so he must think your odds are excellent,¡± said ethan¡¯s mother, giving alice an even more curious appraising look.


    ¡°to be honest, i think she might even reach immortality with or without my help, mother,¡± said ethan, finally deciding to interject into the conversation. ¡°some of her achievements seem to be excellent, and while i haven¡¯t figured out what they do, her levelling speed seems to be excellent. she pulls new abilities out fast enough that it makes my head spin sometimes.¡± ethan had a rather fond smile on his lips as he spoke with his mother.


    ¡°is that so? that¡¯s promising. what level are you, child? your highest level class, i mean.¡±


    alice looked at ethan, wondering if she should share this information, and ethan nodded at her.


    ¡°level 75.¡±


    ¡°and only physically sixteen or so?¡± ethan¡¯s mother whistled. ¡°that¡¯s pretty impressive. you¡¯re making better time than even allira did, and once she started levelling she took off like an arrow soaring through the skies. that girl still looks like she¡¯s barely twenty,¡± said ethan¡¯s mother, grinning as she spoke of allira.


    ¡°how long do they last, and how big is the effect?¡± asked alice.


    ¡°the two last about a month and a half, and they give a combined bonus of around 70%. that¡¯s a 70% boost to combat and research classes, as well as a few mana-related skills. i don¡¯t have anything that overlaps with research beyond that. but your teacher should also be giving you a sizeable boost, and these perks don¡¯t conflict with any that a [teacher] might have.¡± ethan¡¯s mother nodded, and alice felt a surge of interest.


    she had been thinking about her low experience multiplier just a few weeks ago, and now, ethan¡¯s mother had made up nearly a fifth of the experience boost she still needed to get back to levelling at a decent speed. alice wasn¡¯t necessarily as interested in reaching immortality as she was in learning more about how the system worked, but she certainly wasn¡¯t opposed to becoming an immortal if she could get there. a 70% levelling speed boost may not quite make up for the massive growth penalty she faced past level 75, but at the very least, it would help a lot.


    that being said, alice still felt the proper solution was to get another achievement or two working. she hadn¡¯t gotten one from her previous experiment with class seeds yet, since she hadn¡¯t actually done anything with the information, but she was sure that with a little more thinking she could turn it into a good achievement, or possibly boost {seeker of truth} again...


    oblivious to alice¡¯s thoughts, ethan gave his mother a brief hug. it wasn¡¯t quite ¡®proper¡¯ to do so in public, but since they were immortals, they could get away with a lot. ¡°thank you, mother.¡±


    ¡°no problem, dearie,¡± said ethan¡¯s mother, returning his hug and giving him a smile.


    then, ethan¡¯s mother turned her attention back towards alice.


    ¡°so, ethan did mention that you went through a mana baptism, instead of being born a mage. what¡¯s the story on that? were you born impoverished?¡± immortal myra frowned. ¡°not that there¡¯s anything wrong with being born impoverished, mind you. what matters the most in life is what you make of your situation, not how lucky you were when you were born. i¡¯m simply curious.¡±


    ¡°i went through a mana baptism by accident, honored immortal myra.¡°


    ¡°is that so? that must be quite a story. it¡¯s pretty unusual to encounter a big enough clump of mana that you end up going through a mana baptism accidentally. normally, if you¡¯re out in the wilderness, you would get a map of all of the nearby mana clumps, right?¡± ethan¡¯s mother gave alice a more curious look. ¡°did you used to be an [adventurer] or something before becoming a mage? and then perhaps get lost or chased around by monsters for a while?¡±


    alice shook her head, and then eyed ethan again. on one hand, she had to admit, she was grateful that ethan hadn¡¯t revealed anything about her past without her permission.


    on the other hand, alice also really wasn¡¯t sure what she could and couldn¡¯t say here. would telling ethan¡¯s mother about earth be a good idea, or a bad one? if she tried to lie about her past, what should she say? ethan¡¯s mother almost certainly had a lie-detection perk, and alice seriously doubted she could carefully word her answer to skirt the perk. ethan¡¯s mother had an exceptionally high [charisma] score, even for an immortal, which meant that she must enjoy socializing quite a bit. alice seriously doubted that the woman would somehow miss alice carefully wording her answers.


    ¡°lady alice has some rather unique circumstances, mother,¡± said ethan. ¡°for her safety, just assume that she didn¡¯t exist before she arrived in illvaria and underwent a mana baptism by mistake. that¡¯s the best way to treat her past.¡±


    ¡°is that so?¡± asked ethans mother, giving alice an even more curious glance. ¡°well, if that¡¯s the case, i won¡¯t pry. but i am quite curious, dearie. when we get to know each other a bit better, maybe i can get some more of your story out of you. i¡¯m very interested.¡± she sighed. ¡°but i suppose that will have to wait until we get to know each other a little better.¡±


    alice actually felt surprisingly bad about the fact that she wasn¡¯t telling ethan¡¯s mother more about herself. but now really didn¡¯t seem like the time, even if they were surrounded by a perk keeping their conversation private. on the other hand, alice was happy to know that ethan hadn¡¯t told his mother about alice¡¯s circumstances. even if it might have made this conversation easier for her, ethan seemed perfectly happy to respect her desire for privacy until alice was strong enough to face attacks from the society of starry eyes head-on.


    then, alice noticed that while the group had been talking, several more [nobles] had trickled into the tea party. the room was quite nearly full, and the second [princess] was already seated in her spot near the head of the table again. even as alice watched, a few final [nobles] entered the room, and, based on the number of chairs in the room, alice realized everyone was here.


    immortal myra also realized the same thing, and gave alice a final, friendly nod. ¡°let¡¯s get to know each other more in the future, dearie. i¡¯d love to learn more about you in the future!¡±


    the final [nobles] took their seats, and the second [princess] cleared her throat and gave everyone who had come to the tea party a warm smile.


    it was time for the proper tea party to start.

 Chapter 122

    chapter 122


    the second [princess] nodded at alice and the other [nobles], who stopped chatting amongst themselves. the [nobles] who weren¡¯t seated already quickly made their way towards their seats, and alice saw a little flicker of rainbow mana activate near their ears. it seemed to somehow inform them that the tea party was starting?


    a few [servants] standing to the side waited a few moments for the [nobles] to take their seats. then, they quickly began pulling out various pots of tea and pastries, as well as other light snacks. the moment the last [noble] sat down, the [servants] began gently pouring cups of tea and offering guests food. the tea was maintained at the perfect temperature using perks, and the miniature cakes, cookies, and other snacks all seemed as if they had just come out of the oven moments ago.


    and at the same time, one of the [counts], who alice realized had spoken with the [princess] just before the tea party started, was the one to raise the topic of conversation.


    ¡°recently, i have been thinking about the prices of enchanting materials. in my county, there has been a notable increase in the price of various goods related to enchanting, despite the influx of materials as the southern recolonization effort progresses. this is because more mages are learning how to enchant. more [enchanters] are ultimately good for my territory, but training expenses are harming the new wave of [enchanters]. so i want to build an enchantment-focused magic school. subsidizing the costs new [enchanters] face would help this growing industry along, even if it would cost some money right now.¡± the [count] began to go into a long-winded discussion of his topic, such as where the academy might be established, the benefits of it, and so on. alice was pretty sure that the topic would feed nicely into the main topic of the tea party, which was the recolonization effort of the south. however, she was also surprised by how detailed and specific the [count¡¯s] opening topic was. it was detailed enough to be a topic of discussion on its own, even if it wasn¡¯t linked to a bigger topic.


    once he finished talking, a [baroness] leapt into the conversation and began discussing the potential demerits of establishing a new magic academy, such as the increased drain on manpower. she argued that right now illvaria was already short on manpower, it would be difficult to find good teachers for a new academy, and so establishing a new academy might do more harm than good. then, a [viscount] weighed in by stating the issue could likely be resolved by hiring retired mages, though the expenses would likely increase even more.


    the discussion went on. no direct resolution was reached about the initial conversation, although alice was fairly certain those in favor of establishing a new magic academy would meet after the meeting and possibly work out an agreement of their own. however, as time passed, the topic started to veer more and more towards the recolonization effort as a whole. alice was happy that she had properly understood the biggest focus of the tea party: she had been a little worried she might get it wrong, since she wasn¡¯t very familiar with the political scene.


    she found herself listening attentively to the meeting, even though she wasn¡¯t familiar with all of the information the [nobles] were tossing around during the discussion. she was still able to pick up a surprising amount of information about the current state of illvaria from the conversation.


    mixed into the conversation were also a lot of odd tidbits of discussion, especially debate about the recolonization effort as a whole. some [nobles] who were present seemed on the fence about whether it was a good idea for the country as a whole to keep supporting the recolonization effort. one or two [nobles] seemed staunchly against the recolonization effort, claiming it was too expensive to even maintain it at its current level. they instead advocated dialing it back a little bit, and only recolonizing the northernmost fringe of the old south. a few other [nobles] seemed in favor of expanding the recolonization effort even further, due to the massive potential for enchanting material harvesting in the future.


    she learned a lot more about the espionage war the sigmusi colonia had launched against illvaria last spring, as well as some of the more detailed problems the recolonization effort was facing. monster attacks disrupting supply chains, mismanaged cities that dragged down the reputation of the recolonization effort as a whole, and the ever-increasing need for money and manpower seemed to be like black holes. no matter how many resources illvaria put into the effort, it was difficult to wholly meet the needs of the recolonization effort. the conversation went on and on, with [nobles] weighing in on how some problems were more solvable than they seemed to be, or why some part of the recolonization effort was too expensive, and should be dialed back to free up resources.


    the conversation continued for a few hours. alice didn¡¯t have much to say herself. on the topic of illvaria¡¯s future, she wasn¡¯t in control of many resources, and she didn¡¯t know enough to weigh in on the subject. because of her lack of knowledge and power, alice found herself unwilling to interject too much. however, she could also see why ethan wanted her to attend this meeting. it was easy for alice to make connections between the discussion she was seeing in front of her eyes, and all of the books she had read about the current state of illvaria. naturally, this meant that it would be much easier for alice to integrate herself into future conversations, and if she ever had to weigh in on a decision related to illvarian policy in the future, she would have a much better idea what might be a good or bad idea.


    however, alice was quite surprised when one of the [nobles] at the table directly addressed her.


    ¡°what do you think about the recolonization effort, lady alice? i hear that you spent at least a few months in the south, and that you even got caught up in part of the sigmusi espionage war behind the scenes. what are the biggest issues you faced during that time, and is it worth solving those issues for the entirety of the south?¡±


    alice was honestly surprised that the [noble] asking her knew so much about her. it seemed that her past had been dug up by at least a few people after she had become ethan¡¯s apprentice. she could see why ethan¡¯s mother felt that the ruse of claiming alice was a ¡®combat¡¯ mage was becoming less relevant by the day. considering how much she had focused on her research during her time in cyra, anyone who seriously investigated her past probably knew she was much more specialized in research than fighting. and if the people here at the table knew it, the society of starry eyes probably also knew it, if they had any interest in her at all. she did her best to maintain a polite [noblewoman¡¯s] smile, despite her spike of nervousness, and focused on the [noble]¡¯s question.


    ¡°i did, indeed, live in cyra for a few months,¡± said alice. ¡°it¡¯s a rather promising town run by illa weissaurus. it¡¯s also where i underwent my mana baptism. i ran into a few pretty major key problems during my time there.


    ¡°construction issues were one of the big issues. there aren¡¯t enough [kinetic mages] to properly support the construction of new buildings. in addition, there are occasional undocumented bubbles of broken mana, which can create massive monster swarms. these can be rather risky for nearby towns to deal with, and the military power needed to fend them off can be draining for the settlements in the area. finally, the sigmusi, obviously, posed a major threat to the region during my time there. i was actually caught up in an assassination attempt aimed at illa...¡± said alice, as a memory came back to her.


    a spear, rammed through her stomach. bright pain...


    alice winced, rubbing at her stomach again. due to the power of [organic mages], there wasn¡¯t a scar left on her skin, but she was surprised by how vivid the memory of getting stabbed was.


    alice nodded, as she quietly hoped she didn¡¯t trip over her feet later. her {etiquette} teacher had briefly shown her a few dances, but considering how much information alice had already been trying to cram into her head in the past two weeks, she hadn¡¯t had time to pick up a dedicated {dancing} skill. she hoped her memory, and the small dancing boost {etiquette} gave her, would be enough. ¡°i would be honored.¡±


    orin quickly led her to the dance floor as the next song started. alice dreaded the feeling of clumsily trying to follow the movements of the dance. she heard the first few musical notes start to drift throughout the hall, and felt a breath of relief as she realized it was one of the dances her {etiquette} teacher had mimed for her.


    the {etiquette} skill began to feed alice some basic information on how the next dance began. it was a slower song, and alice realized that her dancing partner had been more considerate of her potentially low {dancing} skill than she had thought. it was clearly a song meant to be easier to handle, with low enough skill requirements that an {etiquette} skill would be able to keep up with the song without too much strain. alice could also see that orin¡¯s perks seemed to make it easy for him to guide her during the dance. it was subtle, but by placing his feet in certain positions, he was able to guide alice through the dance, even though she only somewhat remembered the steps.


    she was also surprised by firm her feet were when she tried to move. when alice had first arrived in this world, most of her physical stats had been below 50. now, most of her physical stats were hovering around 120, and she had percentage multipliers kicking them up to around 150. she suddenly realized that it was hundreds of times easier to keep up with the rhythm of music than it had been back on earth. instead of desperately trying not to trip, alice found herself quickly and easily settling into the rhythm of the music. it was almost like she had been learning to dance for several weeks now: even if there was still an obvious skill gap between herself and the high-level [nobles], it wasn¡¯t to the point where alice was embarrassing herself.


    ¡°so you¡¯re learning under honored immortal ethan? what¡¯s it like?¡± asked orin, breaching the strange silence that had fallen over the two as alice got lost in her thoughts. alice was surprised to hear a trace of true curiosity in his tone.


    ¡°it¡¯s... interesting. honored immortal ethan has spent a fair amount of time trying to teach me what i would need to know if i successfully ascend to immortality, and providing me with resources, should i need anything to enhance my learning speed or make the most of my perks,¡± said alice. ¡°it is sometimes frustrating, to be forced to justify and explain every action i take, but i appreciate the amount of work ethan is putting into ensuring that i make the best of each minute, and teaching me how to handle the consequences of my actions. if i become an immortal, such skills will be invaluable¡±


    orin chuckled. ¡°honored immortal ethan would not put so much effort into ensuring you were ready for immortality unless he felt that you were truly likely to reach it, lady alice. i¡¯m sure that honored immortal works so hard to teach you because he sees great promise in you.¡±


    alice simply nodded, not quite sure whether orin was simply flattering her or meant what he said. this was a little bit more of what she had been expecting from [nobles], rather than the [merchant]-like haggling earlier. words that made her think twice, compliments that might or might not be empty, and words she needed consider carefully.


    she smiled at the thought, a little amused by where her train of thought had taken her.


    ¡°i certainly hope to reach immortality in the future. however, many people have struggled to reach immortality in their lifetime, and plenty of them have failed before reaching their destination. i won¡¯t be presumptuous and say that i¡¯ll definitely reach it until i actually reach immortality,¡± said alice.


    orin considered her words for a moment, and then smiled. alice wasn¡¯t sure if she was imagining it, but this smile seemed a little more genuine than some of the other practiced grins he had flashed at her during the dance. ¡°plenty of ethan¡¯s apprentices have failed to reach immortality, but most of them still ended up as exceptionally high level mages. and it sounds like he is putting a great deal of emphasis on your training. your odds seem to be much better than you might think.¡± then, he paused, as if searching for a conversation topic. ¡°so what did you do before you were apprenticed to immortal ethan? is it too presumptuous of me to ask? i¡¯ve heard that you went through a mana baptism...¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°i underwent a baptism mostly by accident, honestly. i ran into a clump of broken mana that was too dense for my body to handle, and i managed to walk out of it as a mage. i was lucky.¡±


    orin winced. ¡°i¡¯ve heard the survival odds are much worse for broken mana baptisms. and that they¡¯re much more painful.¡±


    ¡°is that so?¡± asked alice, genuinely curious. she had never heard that broken mana baptisms were more painful than regular baptisms. then again, broken mana baptisms were a somewhat neglected field of study, since most people went through normal mana baptisms instead of broken mana baptisms.


    after that, orin started asking about more facets of alice¡¯s life. putting all of her {etiquette} to the test, alice managed to deflect any questions about her life before cyra, since directly lying might have tripped a lie-detection perk, and talking about earth was a poor decision. however, she was more than happy to chat about some of the more interesting things she had seen and experienced in cyra, as well as her time at her magic academy. she was a little surprised to hear that orin was also a student at a magic academy, although the academy he was attending was instead focused on the military.


    after a few minutes of chatting, the song ended, and alice was surprised to see that she had gained the {dancing} skill and raised it to level 3. however, she grinned to herself.


    she had survived her first personal conversation with a [noble]. it seemed more like a simply case of someone trying to get to know her, likely due to her status as [ethan]¡¯s apprentice, but she was glad that she hadn¡¯t completely botched the whole thing.


    perhaps attending this party wasn¡¯t as bad as she had thought it would be.

 Chapter 123

    chapter 123


    after orin, several more [nobles] came to dance with alice. most of them were male [nobles] around her age, which made alice a little uncertain whether any of them were trying to ¡®get to know¡¯ a future immortal in a more intimate way than she was comfortable with. alice wasn¡¯t particularly interested in romance, so she had always been rather oblivious to it, both on earth and on luliv.


    however, there were a few girls as well, and even an old lady came up to dance with her around seven dances in. all of them were happy to chat with alice, asking her questions about her past, her abilities, her interests, and her hobbies. alice deflected the more sensitive questions, but otherwise did her best to chat amiably with each dance partner. eventually, alice was relieved to realize that she had been overthinking things. in illvaria, alice was starting to get the distinct impression that ¡®dancing¡¯ was more of an excuse to lightly chat with the other party in a one on one setting with some musical accompaniment. it was a bit different from how {dancing} was treated back on earth, but was easy enough to adjust to, once alice started picking up the cultural difference.


    of course, alice was also a little annoyed that her {etiquette} [teacher] hadn¡¯t mentioned the cultural differences between how dancing was treated here and how dancing was treated on earth. this annoyance disappeared once alice realized that her [teacher] had absolutely no way of realizing how people regarded {dancing} on earth. after all, her {etiquette} teacher had probably never heard of earth.


    ethan might have been able to walk her through the cultural differences between her homeland and illvaria, but it wasn¡¯t a topic that had ever come up during a discussion between the two. after all, alice didn¡¯t really like {dancing} much, and ethan had also seemed rather indifferent to it. thus, both of them seemed to have simply never discussed the cultural connotations of {dancing}.


    alice ended up {dancing} with several people and raising her {dancing} skill to level 6, before she decided to check on the [princess] again. even if she didn¡¯t make any lifetime friends, she had already showed that she was amenable to making friends with [nobles] and made a few acquaintances. at the very least, they would probably be happy to share news and trade goods with alice in the future, especially if she became an immortal. which was all that alice was really hoping to get out of this tea party: a network she could tap into to get news and materials for experiments in the future.


    when she returned to the tea-party table, she was pleased to see that the second [princess] was now free to talk with her. ethan and his mother were talking with a few other [nobles] to the side. they were protected from eavesdropping by some sort of perk, but alice recognized the [nobles] who were chatting. they were the ones who had been talking about building another magic academy. apparently, ethan and ethan¡¯s mother also had some sort of stake in the construction of a magic academy, and so they had been happy to join the discussion.


    the second [princess] gave alice a friendly nod as alice took her seat at the table again. ¡°lady alice, i¡¯m glad that you found time to return and have a conversation with me. i¡¯ve heard much about you, especially from ethan¡¯s words. have you enjoyed the music and {dancing}?¡±


    alice hesitated, before simply nodding. even if alice did wish that there had been less {dancing} at the tea party, it hadn¡¯t been as bad as she had feared.


    the second [princess] smiled more deeply.


    ¡°i¡¯m quite honored to see two and a half immortals at my tea party,¡± said the second princess, this time chuckling. ¡°even if you haven¡¯t reached immortality yet, if i¡¯m to believe ethan¡¯s words, your ascension to immortality is practically guaranteed. three immortals attending my tea party is... quite incredible,¡± said the second [princess].


    alice realized the second [princess] was trying hard to flatter her. alice resisted the urge to frown. she wasn¡¯t... used to people flattering her. it felt very odd. alice also saw several chunks of rainbow mana appear near the second [princess]¡¯s eyes, and then saw several more chunks of rainbow mana appear around alice¡¯s own body.


    she guessed that the second [princess]¡¯s perks were probably meant to feed her lots of information about alice. perhaps they were like cecilia¡¯s [merchant] perks, except more socially focused. while cecilia¡¯s [merchant] perks gave her information about things like what a customer wanted to buy and how much money they were willing to pay, a [princess] probably needed to detect how other people felt about her social and political positions, and things like that.


    alice hesitated for a moment, then used {the science of mana deprivation} to cut off the perks before they could interact with her. even if she was fairly certain the [princess] didn¡¯t mean to harm her, alice still felt that it was best to keep her cards as close to her chest as she could in social settings. alice also felt that appearing more mysterious was probably good for her image as an immortal in training. as far as she was aware, blocking perks was basically unheard of. since she was already known as a promising potential immortal, it would be normal for her to have a few unique abilities. and she also didn¡¯t know exactly what the [princess]¡¯s perks were supposed to do. even if alice was pretty sure the system wouldn¡¯t let anyone access mind-control, since the error messages she had seen recently outright stated they were banned, she still didn¡¯t want unknown perks interacting with her if she could avoid it.


    the second [princess]¡¯s eyes widened slightly as alice prevented her perks from working, although alice didn¡¯t see any other cracks in the woman¡¯s composure. however, considering how composed the [princess] had been during the rest of the tea party, alice could tell that she had startled her.


    a few moments later, the second [princess] recovered her composure. when she looked at alice, there was a much greater level of interest than before. if previously, she had looked at alice as if she was a somewhat interesting trade partner, now it almost looked like the [princess] wanted to swallow alice whole. the look that the second [princess] was giving alice made her a little uncomfortable.


    ¡°ethan described you as a rather interesting disciple. i had thought that he was exaggerating. i see that he was, if anything, understating things.¡± the second [princess]¡¯s eyes glittered with interest. ¡°hmm... ethan did state that you might eventually fix mana baptisms too, didn¡¯t he? after he realized how silly it would be to keep claiming you¡¯re combat-focused, anyway. i do wonder how you could... hmm...¡± the second [princess] trailed off into thought as she stared at alice, and her eyes lit up. ¡°oh, things will certainly be interesting in the future. if it isn¡¯t too rude of me to ask, lady alice, may i ask you what level your primary class is? i don¡¯t expect any further details, of course, but i simply find you fascinating.¡±


    alice thought about it for a moment, before deciding that it wasn¡¯t a bad idea to answer the question honestly. there were probably other learning and levelling resources that the illvarian crown had that she could make use of in the future, if she showed enough potential. she also doubted anyone in illvaria would take hostile action against her, unless they were sure they wouldn¡¯t get caught. the social network and political power of immortals seemed firmly entrenched in illvarian culture, and so outright opposing alice was unlikely as long as she was under ethan¡¯s protection and didn¡¯t get in the way of anyone else¡¯s ambitions. with that in mind, showing that she had more value was more beneficial than problematic for her.


    ¡°i¡¯m level 75 in my primary class,¡± said alice. ¡°i just reached that point a week or two ago.¡±


    ¡°already? how old are you?¡± asked the second [princess], seeming surprised by alice¡¯s statement.


    ¡°i see,¡± said the second [princess], giving alice a guarded, thoughtful look. then, the second [princess] sighed. ¡°i suppose that makes sense, lady alice. my apologies. perhaps i was too forward in asking for your opinion.¡±


    alice opted to nod.


    a few moments later, ethan slid into the chair near alice. alice glanced to the side, and saw that the discussion ethan and his mother had been having with the other illvarian [nobles] had ended, and ethan¡¯s mother was now happily spinning around on the dance floor by herself. she was incredibly graceful, and alice was pretty sure she could see a few [dancer] perks activating in the woman¡¯s arms and abdominal muscles. a few moments later, ethan¡¯s mother was joined by another [noblewoman], and the two happily began twirling around.


    ¡°second [princess],¡± said ethan, giving the [princess] a respectful nod and redirecting alice¡¯s attention back towards the conversation.


    ¡°honored immortal,¡± said the second [princess]. ¡°i was just discussing things with your apprentice.¡±


    ¡°things?¡± asked ethan, giving alice a curious look.


    ¡°the second [princess] was asking me about my thoughts on her,¡± said alice.


    ethan¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly, and he shook his head. ¡°second [princess], i intend for my disciple to dip her toe into politics, so to speak, at this party. however, her primary focus is currently on reaching immortality. i ask that you not bring this up with her until she is an immortal. i don¡¯t want her to get distracted too much. learning to navigate politics is valuable because she will eventually need this skill, but it¡¯s not her priority.¡±


    the second [princess] simply nodded, seeming a little absent-minded as she agreed.


    ¡°what about you, honored immortal? what do you think of me, in comparison to my siblings?¡±


    ¡°i think the [king] is quite young, and it¡¯s too early to think about this,¡± said ethan. ¡°he¡¯s wearing some armor made by doll, and while it¡¯s getting a bit old, it¡¯s still an excellent piece of work. the [king] is around level 60, if i¡¯m not mistaken, and he still has quite a long life ahead of him. and he¡¯s protected enough that assassinating him would be quite difficult.¡±


    the second [princess] looked almost like a kid who had been caught eating cookies out of a cookie jar, and the expression felt so bizarrely out of place to alice that she nearly laughed. suddenly, the conversation she had with the [princess] seemed less uncomfortable than before.


    ethan and the second [princess] started talking about the recolonization effort, and alice made some effort to occasionally interject into the conversation from time to time. she saw other [nobles] look at her and give her friendly nods from time to time, which made alice relax a little bit. her job today was to make herself known, show that she was someone to be remembered in her own right, and show that she was well-regarded by ethan. she was pretty sure she had accomplished all of those things. considering how disinterested alice was in politics, she felt that her debut in [noble] society had gone quite well.


    as alice thought about the results of the night, ethan and the second [princess] finished their discussion.


    afterwards, the second [princess] smiled, and stood up, before a few perks activated, and carried her voice to the other [guests].


    ¡°i thank all of you for coming tonight. i do appreciate the efforts all of you have made in coming here and chatting about the recolonization effort with me. i also hope that you¡¯ve gained useful connections and made good connections with the other people here tonight. you are free to stay as long as you like and enjoy the tea, dances, and music, but i will be retiring for the rest of the night,¡± said the second [princess], bringing an end to the ¡®official¡¯ part of the tea party.


    alice eyed ethan, who simply scanned the other guests one final time, before he shrugged.


    ¡°i think it¡¯s about time for us to go as well,¡± said ethan. ¡°you still wanted to see the artifact, right? let¡¯s do that, and then head back to the manor.¡±


    alice nodded. it was time for the part of the day she had been looking forward to the most.

 Chapter 124

    chapter 124


    ethan started leading alice back into the palace, leaving behind ethan¡¯s mother and some of the [nobles] who wanted to continue socializing.


    ¡°my apologies for the second [princess],¡± said ethan, as the two stepped back into the palace. ¡°i didn¡¯t expect her to be so... enthusiastic.¡±


    alice didn¡¯t know what to say, so she simply looked at ethan, wondering if he would say anything more on the topic.


    ethan sighed. ¡°she wasn¡¯t a bad kid when she was younger, but she¡¯s spent a lot of time trying to grow up in the shadow of her older sister, the first [princess]. the first [princess] is... well, she¡¯s rather special. some people speculate that she¡¯s a higher level than the current [king], although i don¡¯t know if that¡¯s true or not. but she¡¯s very likely to be the next [queen


    ¡°the two [princes] have pretty much moved on, and gave up on the throne completely. one of them is learning to be a [swordsman], and learning under one of the trusted subordinates of my father. the other one is pretty interested in finances, so he¡¯s learning under the [minister of finance].


    ¡°the second [princess] is the only member of the royal family who hasn¡¯t given up hope for the crown. but, the problem is that she¡¯s not very promising compared to the first [princess]. so she always seems a bit desperate to find ways to compete with her sister, but she doesn¡¯t quite have the skill to follow through with them.


    ¡°of course, the current [king] still gives the second [princess] opportunities to learn and grow, by using things like the tea party we just attended. i personally suspect that he feels it¡¯s important to maintain some competition between the two sisters. after all, if the first [princess] knows that she could lose the crown, she¡¯ll be more motivated to work hard. but at the same time, the second [princess] is given notably worse opportunities, because she¡¯s just so far behind and so much less talented. since there were two immortals at this tea party, i think she saw it as her big chance to finally get ahead.¡± ethan sighed.


    alice started feeling a little bad for the second [princess]. she hadn¡¯t enjoyed being put on the spot, but being kept around just to motivate your older sister to work harder felt... a little sad, in a way.


    ¡°well, you didn¡¯t agree to help her with anything, so it¡¯s not too big of a deal. and in the future, while i doubt most [nobles] will be quite so brazen or quick about trying to get your support, i still think it¡¯s a valuable lesson in looking at what [nobles] want and thinking about how to deal with it. whether you help them, or try to avoid them, or try to stop them from progressing, knowing how to think like a [noble] is critical.¡±


    alice sighed, and nodded. the second [princess] pressuring her hadn¡¯t been pleasant, but it hadn¡¯t been a big deal. her {etiquette} lessons hadn¡¯t covered the situation of the royal family in much detail, instead opting to treat the entire family as a more cohesive political unit and focus on greater internal issues than the struggle for the crown. after all, the ¡®struggle¡¯ for the crown seemed to already be over...


    alice and ethan fell into a comfortable silence as ethan led her through the corridors of the palace.


    the two of them quickly reached a few more well-guarded chunks of the palace. the [guards] there simply nodded at them and let them proceed unhindered. alice put aside thoughts of the second [princess], and felt excitement build up as she walked down the corridors. she was going to see an artifact for the first time! since she hadn¡¯t seen one up close yet, she couldn¡¯t help but imagine what the exact mechanics of an artifact were. even if alice wasn¡¯t quite as devoted to her enchantments as to her research, she still liked enchanting.


    soon, the two came to a heavily guarded flight of stairs, before they started to proceed downwards. several parts of the stairs were incredibly reinforced and narrow, and alice could see various enchantments embedded in the walls that could launch objects at intruders, flash-fry them with electricity or heat, and even a few that could warp the flesh of any intruders using organic magic. alice had never seen so many enchantments dedicated to killing people crammed together into such a small area.


    after rows of deadly enchantments, high-level [guards], and several [warmages], the two finally reached the basement where the artifact itself was housed.


    the closer alice was to the artifact, the more she was aware of a cloud of concepts in the air around her. all of them seemed to be generated by the artifact in front of her.


    artifacts seemed to be quite a bit different than other enchantments. traditional enchantments and consumable enchantments were both centered around giving instructions to items, and then using monster cores as batteries. system enchantments seemed to be built around using system mana to temporarily enhance the stats of the user. however, artifacts looked as if it had taken all of these ideas and developed them in a very different direction, along with a few things alice had never previously associated with enchanting at all.


    alice felt her grin grow wider and wider as she realized that there was something very interesting to learn here.


    alice had recently spent several days ruminating on the nature of mana and magic seeds, as well as how they interacted with the human body, after her experiments on the nature of class seeds. she had been looking for ideas on where to take some of her future experiments.


    the artifact in front of her eyes wasn¡¯t a set of instructions fed into some magical materials with a battery to power the whole thing, and nor was it a clump of system mana embedded in an object.


    the artifact¡¯s ¡®primary¡¯ material seemed to be a set of artificial magic seeds. alice had never seen a magic seed outside of someone¡¯s body before. however, the way the artificial magic seed was constructed was somewhat reminiscent of a class seed.


    alice suddenly realized that enchanting and her research might not be quite as separated from each other as she had first assumed. right in front of her eyes was proof that enchantments could, at their core, create something akin to the class seeds she had spent so many months researching.


    this artifact had two major artificial magic seeds: one was related to water, and the other was related to dirt. this was probably how it managed and controlled the river system of southern illvaria. interestingly enough, the artifact actually had several tendrils of magic that extended out of the room and into the distance. however, these tendrils were made partially of system mana, and the system-mana bits seemed to be responsible for relaying information both to and from the artifact. it seemed as if the artifact used the artificial magic seeds to actually provide most of the core abilities of the artifact, but used system mana as something like a code for the enchantment. it was a new and interesting method of using system mana in an enchantment, and seeing it gave alice a few new directions to take her future experiments. there were a few other magic seeds as well, but they were much smaller, and seemed to be built to help the two primary magic seeds of the artifact do their job.


    just as alice was eagerly scanning the artifact in front of her eyes, something changed.


    it was subtle, at first: something that alice didn¡¯t quite notice, since she was lost in her thoughts and her study of the artifact.


    however, as the effects grew more and more obvious, alice finally stopped, and then started gazing at her surroundings in shock.


    for months now, alice had grown increasingly used to the presence of system mana in her surroundings. she didn¡¯t even register some of the minor fluctuations in system mana in her surroundings these days, since she had grown accustomed to the system doing things in the background every second of every day. however, alice now sat fully at attention, watching her surroundings with growing horror.


    the system mana was beginning to disappear from her surroundings. slowly at first, but with increasing speed, bits and pieces of the system mana in the air around her began to flicker in and out of existence, like a lightbulb attached to a faulty wire.


    a few minutes passed, as the system mana became increasingly erratic, before it snapped out of existence entirely.


    * * *


    after looking over the enchanted item, his confusion deepened. as far as he could tell, the instrument had faithfully recorded a massive change in the dimensional mana of this world. however, it couldn¡¯t detect any specific location, and it also didn¡¯t detect any dimensional floods.


    he checked a few duplicates of the enchantment, to see if it was an issue with the instrument. but all of the other items gave the same reading.


    something very strange was happening. he left his study, and glanced at the two mages tinkering with a few items in the next room.


    ¡°esma,¡± he said, addressing the closest mage. ¡°send a message to the other four heads of the society, would you? something very unusual is being picked up by the analysis devices. all of them are reacting as if a giant dimensional tunnel is about to rip open the world at any moment. however, there aren¡¯t any locations. something weird is happening. tell them it¡¯s urgent, and to come to my research room immediately.¡± as he said it, his heart tightened.


    for decades, the society of starry eyes had been founded for the explicit purpose of preventing the end of the world. in order to make sure that the world didn¡¯t end, he had done horrible, horrible things. he had kidnapped innocent people and experimented on them. he had accepted criminals and psychopaths into the society of starry eyes, all for the purpose of boosting the manpower of the organization. every single step of the way, he had taken more and more extreme actions in order to make sure that the ultimate end of this world never happened.


    for the first time, he had a worrying thought.


    what if it wasn¡¯t enough? he had no idea what to make of the dimensional reading he had just found, which might mean that, despite all of his efforts, he was about to fail.


    what if, even after throwing away his morals, it still wasn¡¯t enough to save the world?


    he gritted his teeth. now that word had been sent to the others who helped him run the organization, they would figure out a solution. something had just happened, and he had no idea what it was or how to deal with it. but the five of them together would find a way.


    he sighed, and returned to his office.


    he picked up the sheaf of papers he had been looking at, and shook his head.


    inside, there was a list of anomalies that had been recorded in the last year.


    the increasing amount of dimensional anomalies this year was listed. the increasing failure rate of mana baptisms was also listed, as well as the strange case of more and more children gaining access to their status screen early and then exhibiting all sorts of bizarre behavior. he hadn¡¯t paid as much attention to the last issue, since the dimensional floods seemed far more pressing of a concern, but he had still made an effort to gather information about the subject.


    finally, there was a list of other [scholars] and mages who seemed to have been investigating topics relevant to the studies of the society of starry eyes.


    there were perhaps eighty people listed here. after all, the strange status screens and lower survival rates for mana baptisms was something that affected the future of every country. while some countries hadn¡¯t quite realized the implications yet, plenty of countries in the world had already started to put together teams of researchers to investigate what was happening. people weren¡¯t placing a huge emphasis on the topic yet, but they would probably place more and more focus on the situation once it became clear how dire it truly was.


    unfortunately, most of the researchers on the list were out of reach for the society. plenty of other nations made a habit of raiding society bases and stealing the information within, but the society had a hard time retaliating, since their greatest defense was being hard to find. even though the society sometimes took more visible actions, they only did so when something truly critical for their research appeared.


    while the society could certainly use most of the research notes the eighty or so researchers had made, none of them were vital enough to risk losing powerful subordinates in exchange. things weren¡¯t that desperate yet.


    probably.


    the immortal thought of the dimensional floods they had been seeing all year, as well as the strange readings all of his dimensional instruments had just picked up. then, he gritted his teeth.


    perhaps he hadn¡¯t been taking extreme enough actions recently. that was why he had been blindsided by the strange occurrence a few minutes ago. he needed to stop worrying so much about preserving his organization, and focus more on doing what needed to be done. regardless of the cost, he was going to make sure that the world didn¡¯t end.


    he scanned the files again, looking through the names and information about the countries that the society was most active in.


    he started organizing the files by how easy it would be to steal research notes from each one, as well as how feasible it was to kidnap the researcher in question and force them to work for the society.


    plenty of the researchers were hard or impossible to target. they were too strong to fight without a large squad of powerful fighters, or their location was hard to verify, or the society simply didn¡¯t have an active enough presence in the area where they lived to make kidnapping or stealing feasible. however, there were some potential targets that were more promising. some researchers, for example, weren¡¯t particularly strong on their own, but were instead protected by strong people. this was a much better potential target: after all, if the strong protector could be lured away or distracted, stealing the researcher and their notes would be surprisingly easy afterwards.


    normally, the immortal wouldn¡¯t have resorted to such measures. kidnapping someone and forcing them to work for the society was often difficult, and so unless they had a particularly exploitable weakness or weak morals, he wouldn¡¯t bother trying to kidnap them. the payoff simply wasn¡¯t worth the risk.


    however, the strange dimensional reading made him truly afraid that all of his hard work and decisions for the past decades would be in vain.


    if he didn¡¯t take some risks, perhaps the world would end. not in a decade, not in a century, not in some far-off future.


    perhaps this dimension would collide with the other dimension tomorrow, killing the residents of this world and ending any hope they had of saving the world.


    something had to be done. even if it was risky and might backfire, he needed to move as soon as possible.


    he found several potentially promising targets to steal from or kidnap, and then awaited the other powerful members of the society of starry eyes.


    among the several targets whose files he had set aside, one of them was the picture of a sixteen-year old girl by the name of alice verianna.

 Chapter 125

    chapter 125


    illa, retired [warmage], leader of the town of cyra, and former mentor of a certain budding [scientist] named alice, looked at the air around her and frowned.


    {detect danger}, a perk from her [warmage] class, was very quietly ringing an alarm in the back of her mind. it wasn¡¯t the immediate alarm that let her know she was in danger this very second, but she still felt that something wrong was happening. and sooner or later, it would impact her.


    however, she couldn¡¯t quite put her finger on what was dangerous right now. even though her perk was letting her know that something had changed in the world around her, illa couldn¡¯t quite figure out what was different.


    at first, she thought that another group of [assassins] from the sigmusi colonia had come to kill her. while she had thought that most of the [assassins] and [spies] in southern illvaria had been removed by allira near the beginning of spring, it was entirely possible that the sigmusi colonia had sent a new group of [assassins] to deal with her. a level 75 or above combat-ready mage leading one of the towns in the south was a great look for the crown, since it showed just how much potential the southern recolonization effort had for illvaria as a whole. naturally, the sigmusi found her especially problematic because of that, and were more than happy to assassinate her anytime they found an opportunity to do so.


    she immediately called one of her [servants] to send a message to her [guards], telling them to be wary of a new assassination attempt. if the sigumusi was insistent on sending [assassins] her way, she would simply exterminate them all as they came.


    however, after sending the [guards] with more specialized skill sets to investigate the town, they couldn¡¯t find any signs of suspicious activity at all.


    this sent illa into an even deeper level of worry and confusion. it was possible that they simply hadn¡¯t picked up any signs of the [assassins], but even so, putting her [guards] on alert should have lessened the feeling of danger her perk was notifying her of. after all, it was much harder to assassinate somebody who was on guard, and in the middle of a well-fortified town full of [guards] actively trying to weed out [assassins]. normally, the level of danger detected by her perk should have weakened.


    she started to think that perhaps she was on the wrong track.


    if there weren¡¯t any [assassins] sent after her...perhaps a disaster was about to befall the town of cyra? a monster swarm could prove just as disastrous if not carefully handled. however, none of the [scouts] had picked up any unusual activity in the woods surrounding illvaria.


    illa hesitated for a moment, before she decided to swap out some of her enchanted items. she took off most of her [charisma] and socially-oriented enchanted items, and put on some combat items instead. it never hurt to be prepared. however, even that didn¡¯t ease the constant twinge of anxiety sent by her perk. no matter what illa did, she couldn¡¯t quite pinpoint what was different, and that was the most frightening thing about the situation. if she didn¡¯t know what the threat was, she couldn¡¯t take countermeasures against it.


    illa shuffled uneasily, and for some reason, her mind drifted towards the mage that had passed through her town quite some time ago. she thought of the rather unusual girl named alice, who had a slight obsession with scientific experiments and learning about the world around her. at the time, most of alice¡¯s experiments hadn¡¯t seemed like anything too impressive, but with her out of the box thinking, and her experiences as an {outworlder}, the girl had brought a refreshing and interesting perspective to her experiments.


    as far as she knew, alice had been taken in by the immortal of spells and seeds, ethan, as his latest apprentice a few months ago. clearly, her experiments had come quite far, if an immortal had taken an interest in them.


    even though alice probably didn¡¯t know what was making her feel worried today, her habits and instincts as a [warmage] had kept her alive on the battlefield dozens of times before she retired. and right now, she felt as though perhaps the young woman she had sent to metsel just before summer started would have an idea what was happening.


    illa looked at the town of cyra again, and felt a stab of hesitation pull at her.


    she didn¡¯t like the idea of being away from her town for an extended period of time. however, the sense of uneasiness in her heart, and the prickling warnings of future danger from her perk, simply wouldn¡¯t go away. was a subtle, potentially incorrect feeling and a vague notification from her perk worth leaving her town behind? if she went to see alice, she would need to journey to the capital. that meant she would be spending at least a week traveling to metsel, and another week travelling back. and that was an absolute minimum estimate: she might be away from her town for as long as a month, if she had to take some sort of follow-up action after meeting with alice. and alice might not have any idea at all what was wrong. if alice had no idea how to address the problem, and illa wasted two weeks traveling to and from the capital, she might lose any chance to address the problem. was journeying to the capital and seeing alice on a hunch really a good decision?


    illa gritted her teeth. the years she had spent mired in politics and the years she had spent on a battlefield warred within her mind for a brief moment, before her instincts as a former [soldier] won out.


    moving the moment she felt something was wrong was precisely what had kept her alive during her time in the military. even if she had no concrete evidence that alice knew what was happening and how to address it, illa was prone to trusting her instincts. since the bad feeling in her heart wouldn¡¯t go away no matter what precautions she took, and her perk was still notifying her that she was in a bit of danger, she needed to figure out why she felt uneasy. she just had to hope that her instincts were correct again. in the worst case scenario, she could still leverage some other avenues of information she had in the capital. even if alice had no idea what the problem was, she wouldn¡¯t be completely wasting her time if she headed north.


    illa quickly summoned her [combat maid], and her old friend.


    ¡°ellia, let the other mages of the town know that i¡¯m going north. i felt something weird a few hours ago, and no matter what i do, i can¡¯t seem to shake off the warning signals from my perk. i can¡¯t figure out what the problem is, so i¡¯m going to meet with some people and see if they have any more information for me. while i¡¯m gone, i want you to take care of the town for me.¡± illa handed ellia her personal token. ¡°i trust you more than anyone else. if it¡¯s a problem you can¡¯t manage, hire a [messenger] to get in contact with me as fast as possible. for smaller problems, handle them as you see fit.¡±


    ¡°me?¡±


    illa didn¡¯t hesitate for a moment as she nodded, and gave her old friend a wry grin. ¡°i trust you the most. i know you won¡¯t let me down.¡± illa¡¯s grin deepened. ¡°besides, you can handle yourself well in a fight. if someone tries to assassinate you while i¡¯m gone, they¡¯ll get a rather unpleasant surprise.¡±


    the [combat maid] frowned, hesitating for a moment, before she sighed. ¡°i¡¯ll do my best to hold down the fort, my lady. come back safely, and make sure that your trip is fruitful.¡±


    illa nodded, and the two started to make more specific preparations for her departure.


    * * *


    ¡°alice? can you tell me what¡¯s wrong?¡± alice heard ethan call from outside of her door. unlike usual, ethan sounded a little bit... worried.


    ethan hadn¡¯t had a flood of reports break down the doors of the mansion yet, but alice knew that he had found that, in the last twenty four hours, not a single person in illvaria who had tried to go through a mana baptism had lived. and while alice had never explicitly talked in detail about her study of the system, she hadn¡¯t put a huge amount of effort into hiding her research from ethan, either. he probably knew something, and with the help of his social perks, he could probably also tell just how worried alice was.


    after all, less than a day ago, the system itself had winked out of existence. the system, which, as far as alice could tell, was responsible for keeping most of the humans on this planet alive. it did a huge variety of critical things, such as helping people survive mana baptisms, keeping their mind being eroded by mana, and giving people the strength to resist monsters.


    ¡°not yet,¡± said alice, frowning. she took another look at her status screen, the very thing she had been observing for the past day. now that the system had suddenly disappeared, it would naturally make sense for her status screen to also encounter some kind of problem.


    name: alice verianna


    age: 16


    strength: 115 -> 117 (122%)


    perception: 137 -> 139 (165%)


    dexterity: 115 -> 119 (124%)


    intelligence: 167 ->169 (128%)


    endurance: 130 -> 134 (121%)


    willpower: 148 -> 150 (108%)


    charisma: 130 -> 132 (107%)


    magic: 161 -> 164 (122%)


    primary classes: 6/6


    survivor: 54 -> 56


    explorer of magic: 71 -> 75


    scholar: 54 -> 55


    scientist: 55 -> 58


    kinetic manabinder: 41


    careful enchanter: 27


    evolved classes: 2


    student of kinetic magic: 25


    (apprentice) enchanter: 25


    secondary classes: 2


    fisherwoman: 3


    student: 8


    student of organic magic: 11


    courtier: 0 -> 1


    perks:


    survivor perks:


    foraging (survivor 5)


    microbe resistance (survivor 10)


    extremophile (survivor 15)


    camouflaged (survivor 20)


    enhanced training (survivor 30)


    moderate tissue regeneration (survivor 40)


    adrenaline rush (survivor 45)


    extended organics (survivor 50)


    enhanced senses (tier 2) (survivor 55)


    explorer of magic perks:


    enhanced regeneration (explorer of magic 10)


    seeds of magic (explorer of magic 25)


    broken seed (upgraded) (explorer of magic 35)


    expanding comprehension (tier 2) (explorer of magic 55)


    basic enchanting: 31


    broken mana purification: 18


    mana filtering: 24


    seed formation: 19


    crafting skills:


    weaving: 27


    woodworking: 28


    cooking: 12


    stoneworking: 11


    physical skills:


    dodge: 31


    etiquette: 0 -> 21


    spearmanship: 19


    sprinting: 22


    riding: 0 -> 15


    climbing: 9


    fishing: 9


    digging: 8


    stealth: 4


    basic medicine: 3


    dancing: 0 -> 6


    magic seed: 3/3


    (unused seed has 15% conversion rat. max)


    (note to self: the electromagnetic magic seed is {degraded seed slot}. for that seed, perks = no, achievements = yes).


    (final slot is one where alice keeps trying and failing to make a system seed)


    kinetic seed (145%) -> 154%


    healing mana seed (23%) -> 55% (deactivated - you may link this to a perk if desired!)


    electromagnetic seed (15%)


    lesser magic seeds


    (base max 25%, achievements now apply as usual)


    display seed (11%)


    organic seed (68%) -> 74% (6% exp. comp.)


    pure mana seed (36%) -> 44% (8% -> 12% exp. comp.)


    achievements:


    outworlder (rarity: 10)


    seeker of truth (iv) (rarity: 10)


    baptized by broken mana (rarity: 6)


    survivor of winter (rarity: 3)


    monstrous encounter (rarity: 1)


    monster slayer (iii) (rarity: 2)


    well trained (rarity: 4)


    murderer (rarity: 4)


    bookworm (rarity: 3)


    kinetic manabinder (rarity n/a)


    careful enchanter (rarity n/a)


    capable enchanter (rarity: 5)


    seed creator (rarity: 8)


    scientific discoveries (ii) -> (iii) (rarity n/a)


    immortal''s apprentice at the battle against the society (rarity: 4)


    legendary healer (rarity: 7)


    however, oddly enough, alice¡¯s status screen looked quite normal. if alice ignored the fact that system mana in her surroundings had disappeared, she wouldn¡¯t have thought there was anything wrong at all. the system mana inside of her body seemed to be working just fine. which was a relief. if alice¡¯s class seeds had just suddenly turned off, she doubted she would have still been alice within twenty four hours of the system disappearing. her class mana probably would have erased her mind.


    alice thought about the moment she had seen the system blink out of existence, and couldn¡¯t help but shiver.


    moments after alice had seen the system mana in her environment disappear, she had simply sat there, frozen in fear.


    the system had been getting weaker for months. it had been growing more and more glitchy, with numerous problems beginning to arise as the system got weaker and weaker for reasons she didn¡¯t understand.


    alice had spent the last few months wondering if the system would collapse someday, as she saw more and more weird errors start to appear in the world around her.


    that being said, knowing that something might happen in the distant future was very different from seeing it happen in front of her eyes. one minute, the system was still functioning as if it were any other day. the next moment, it was as if the system had simply... disappeared into thin air.


    and less than twenty four hours ago, as alice was examining an artifact for the first time and trying to figure out what she could do with her studies of enchantments and the system... the system had shorted out, like a lightbulb with no electricity.


    alice had a hard time imagining what life even looked like in this world without the system. she wasn¡¯t sure what all of the changes would be, now that the system was clearly collapsing. since the system was so integral to life on this planet, it was hard to imagine what it would look like if the system was gone.


    but alice was quite sure that it would be very bad for this world.


    in the day she had spent studying her status screen, she had started to notice a few peculiarities that hadn¡¯t been there before. normally, when she tried to examine system mana, the system was... less than cooperative. even though system mana was present in a wide variety of things, from every single class seed in her body to her status screen, it actively avoided being caught in a small space, touched by other people¡¯s mana, or studied in any way, shape, or form. the system seemed to be actively designed to prevent other people from interacting with it or learning about it.


    and now, the usual system mana reaction to alice¡¯s attempts to catch it and study it were seriously lacking. the mana inside of her body no longer avoided her mana tendrils if she tried to poke it, or even if she tried to toss a little display mana at it. interestingly enough, adding display mana to her class seeds now gave her weird, nonsensical strings of binary numbers, none of which she could make heads or tails of.


    at the very least, the lack of reactiveness from system mana had made identifying the types of mana present inside of system mana much easier. alice had found several new types of mana that she intended to form magic seeds for later. however, none of alice¡¯s discoveries after the system collapsed seemed to lead her towards the root problem: the collapse of the system and its mana. now that there was no rainbow mana in alice¡¯s surroundings, the only system mana she could find was the system mana already present in her body. this made studying the system notably harder.


    alice looked at her door, and frowned again.


    she had never spoken about her studies of the system: after all, she was afraid of stepping on the toes of this world¡¯s religion. the church of the system worshipped the system as its god: if alice had publicly announced that she was studying the god of one of this world¡¯s two major religions, she suspected that she would get burned at the stake the following week. as tolerant as this world¡¯s religion seemed to be, alice really didn¡¯t want to see how far she could push things.


    however, that had been her mindset before the system had disappeared into thin air. if nothing was done, alice was pretty sure the human species on this planet would be pushed to the brink of extinction within a few decades. kingdoms would collapse as every single child in the country found themselves twisted by the class-related mana they absorbed, their body unable to handle the increasingly dangerous mana they were absorbing with every single action they took. and the of the world mages would experience all sorts of strange problems.


    she took a deep breath, thinking about the possible consequences of her next action, and then shuddered a bit, before she took in a deep breath. she had already trusted ethan with most of her other secrets, and the immortal who had taken her as an apprentice had never betrayed her confidence. he was more than willing to help her keep secrets when she needed them to remain secret, and had extended a great deal of help and trust towards her.


    perhaps it was time to discuss the nature of the system with ethan, even though alice had only discussed the full nature of her research with cecilia, her best friend, so far.


    alice took a deep breath, to steady her nerves, and stepped out of her room. if ethan knew about the current situation, he would be able to help her work her way through the best following actions. alice¡¯s research wasn¡¯t just a personal hobby anymore, or a potential fix to obscure problems that might appear someday in the far-off future. now, even if alice didn¡¯t know the solution, she had exact knowledge of what had just happened, and at least some idea how incredibly bad the situation was.


    in the coming days, allies might be necessary if alice wanted to fix whatever had just gone horribly wrong. alice didn¡¯t know exactly why the system had broken, or how to fix it. but if human life was to continue to thrive on this planet, fixing or replacing the system was critical. and she might need help fixing or replacing the system.


    then, she opened the door and stepped outside, preparing to talk with ethan about her studies of the most important religious entity in the country. even if the topic of conversation might put her in a bit of danger, if she didn¡¯t say anything, this entire world might suffer the consequences.

 Chapter 126

    chapter 126


    ¡°immortal ethan, i would like to talk about my research,¡± said alice, after stepping into the hallway and making sure there were no nearby [servants]. ¡°i feel that it will be extremely relevant in the coming days, which is why i am willing to talk about it. however, i would also like to keep it a secret ¨C if the society of starry eyes learns about my studies, i feel that they would stop at nothing to hunt me down. and honestly, while i¡¯m not sure what the church of the system¡¯s stance on this is, i think it would be best to avoid treading on their toes. just in case.¡±


    ethan paused for a moment, giving alice a curious look. then, he solemnly nodded. ¡°i understand. i¡¯ll respect your wish to keep this secret.¡± after saying that, a shield of rainbow mana flickered into existence around the two, preventing any eavesdropping that might otherwise happen. ¡°i¡¯ve set up my anti-eavesdropping perk, so you can speak freely now.¡±


    at the back of her mind, alice noted how easily ethan activated his perk. alice also hadn¡¯t had any real issues running her perks, despite the fact that the system had shut down. the system collapsing clearly hadn¡¯t stopped people from using their perks, or looking at their status screen, or given everyone some sort of obvious sign that something was terribly wrong. this was both a relief and concerning. if the entire framework of the system collapsed overnight, there would probably be nothing left that anyone could do to save this world. everyone would rapidly lose control of the mana inside of their class seeds, get controlled by their class-related mana, and then go nuts.


    fortunately, things like status screens, classes, and perks didn¡¯t seem to need any ¡®connection¡¯ to the system to keep working. of course, there might be problems with status screens and perks that alice simply hadn¡¯t noticed yet. she hadn¡¯t had enough time to level up or get any new perks or achievements since the system had shut off, and while alice suspected that levelling up would still be fine, she had no idea how perk selection worked behind the scenes. it was certainly something that she needed to watch out for. of course, alice really hoped that levelling up and gaining new perks still worked: if it was still possible to get new perks and levels frequently, it would make figuring out how and why the system had collapsed, and how to fix it, much easier. however, if the system as a whole shutting down caused selecting new perks to be problematic, or made it completely impossible to select new perks, alice would have a much harder time finding new tools to pick apart the system and how it worked.


    however, while it was a good thing that not everything had collapsed, it also made it much harder for alice to prove that something was horribly wrong. alice really hoped that ethan was willing to trust her, because if he wasn¡¯t, this might quickly become a massive headache.


    ¡°as you already know, i¡¯m fairly oriented towards research. most of my perks are related to research, i have quite a number of research classes, and most of my notable achievements are related to research.¡±


    ¡°indeed,¡± said ethan, giving her a simple word of acknowledgement. he didn¡¯t seem to feel a need to expand on alice¡¯s statement.


    ¡°well, the biggest thing i¡¯ve focused most of my time on is researching the system itself.¡±


    ¡°why are you researching the system?¡± ethan seemed baffled. ¡°i never took you as an aspiring [priest of the system]. i always figured you were most interested in being a mage, and all of your research and actions so far seem to support this idea. or is there some sort of connection i¡¯m not seeing here?¡± then, his eyes seemed to light up. ¡°wait, is this about that boris boy? now that i think about it, you often claimed to be researching mana itself, but you seemed oddly focused on boris and his odd case of unlocking his status screen early. you also mentioned at the time that you had been looking into how mana and status screens interacted with each other... ¡° ethan gave alice a quizzical look. ¡°so is your real focus of research the system itself, as in, its connection to mana? i see...¡± ethan trailed off, looking a lot more thoughtful now. ¡°if that¡¯s the case... are mana and the system really intertwined enough to make it into an entire focus of research? hmm...¡± ethan seemed to enter a daze, before he nodded to himself. ¡°perhaps there¡¯s even more to boris¡¯s unusual case than i was thinking at the time. what exactly is the connection between mana and the system?¡±


    alice shrugged. ¡°honestly, they¡¯re way more intertwined than most people think. do you recall what i mentioned about my previous world? the kind of environment that existed there?¡±


    ¡°you mentioned that there was no magic, and no system as well, yes? i... i seem to recall thinking that the people on your world must have been really fragile, although afterwards, we ended up talking about machinery and how they were similar to and different from enchantments.¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°my point is, when i came to this world, i found magic and the system very interesting. so i spent a lot of my time researching both. i spent a great deal of time trying to figure out what magic was, how it worked, how it could possibly exist, and rules it operated off of...¡±


    ethan seemed to realize what she was going to say, even before alice finished speaking.


    ¡°and the other half of your time was devoted to figuring out what the system was, how it worked, how it could exist, and what rules it operated off of?¡± his face grew a little bit more troubled.


    ¡°i see. i¡¯ve... never heard of anyone researching the system itself. i don¡¯t think the church has an official stance on people researching the system itself. after all, nobody has really done it before. sure, plenty of people have studied things like faster ways to level up, or how to optimize perks more effectively, or what the exact trigger conditions are for some kinds of achievements. there are dozens of things people have poured their time and effort into researching within the system. the church doesn¡¯t frown upon that kind of research at all: in fact, they seem to regard it as a method of researching the divine will of the system, and actively encourage it. but as far as i know, the system itself has always just been assumed to be there...¡± ethan frowned. ¡°no, now that i think about it, the church holy text does mention that there was a time when the system didn¡¯t exist in this world. they talk about how bad life was before the system came into being, to help the humans of the time. i just... never thought much about it before.¡± he nodded.


    ¡°even if the church of the system does still acknowledge there were times when the system wasn¡¯t present, i believe it¡¯s probably a good idea not to mention your research to the church of the system. but why bring this up now, specifically?¡±


    ¡°i¡¯m getting to why i¡¯m bringing this up. first, i¡¯d like to note that through my research, i got a bunch of perks and achievements that ended up being quite helpful. they let me see a lot more than other people. then, those perks let me make more discoveries, leading to getting more achievements... and after a few rounds of this, i got the ability to see system mana itself.¡±


    ¡°system mana?¡± ethan gave alice a blank look. ¡°the system has mana?¡± ethan glanced at the space in front of him for a moment, seeming as if he was looking at his status screen, and then glanced at alice again, with a confused and intrigued expression.


    alice nodded. ¡°system mana. in all parts of the world, there is rainbow colored mana that exists. it seems to be the way that the system does everything, such as allowing us to get classes, survive mana baptisms, et cetera. in short, system mana is the mana that this world¡¯s humans are reliant on in order to survive.¡±


    ¡°it means that, unless the system fixes itself, things are going to get very bad for the world. and very quickly. the system is responsible for a huge part of people¡¯s survival rate in mana baptisms, for example, and without the system¡¯s help, survival rates will plummet. i¡¯m not sure what the odds of succeeding are without the help of the system, but they¡¯re certainly lower. creating new magic seeds might also be dangerous now, since the system helps a lot with the formation of magic seeds.¡± alice paused. ¡°actually, i have quite a bit of experience forming magic seeds without the help of the system, so it¡¯s clearly possible to form them without the help of the system and without hurting yourself. but it¡¯s very difficult, and very easy to mess up and hurt yourself. i experimented with it a lot before i got a magic seed correct. the only reason i was able to try out so many different things is because i had a few perks to help me fix any problems that arose as a result of my testing.¡±


    ethan gave alice a completely baffled look. ¡°why did you even try to form a magic seed without the system in the first place? i mean, it¡¯s clearly useful now, but... i¡¯m confused.¡±


    ¡°i want to create a magic seed based on system mana,¡± said alice, grinning a bit. despite how dire the circumstances were, she still felt a little bit of excitement when she thought about copying the system, creating a system magic seed, and getting to experience firsthand all of the incredibly intricate and important things the system did on a day to day basis. ¡°the system is unwilling to let people make system magic seeds, and seems to actively block attempts to form that kind of seed. so i practiced forming seeds in areas without system mana a lot. at one point, i tried to form magic seeds and ended up nearly killing myself, so i ended up with a better understanding of how the system interacts with magic seeds.¡± alice winced. even now, the memory of nearly melting herself while trying to form magic seeds from earth remained a somewhat traumatic memory for her, even if time and continuous practice had blunted the edges of fear she felt when she recalled that memory.


    ethan sighed, and looked thoughtful. ¡°so if the system itself is gone... i can see why you shared all of these memories with me. the system disappearing is catastrophic for the planet, in more ways than one. in that case, i have a few things i should start setting up now. when you treated borris, you gave him an enchanted item that isolated him from the mana in his surroundings, right? given what i just saw, i imagine it was to prevent him from obtaining more [farmer] mana, thus crushing his personality. i should also let some people know that forming new magic seeds might be dangerous right now, and get them to spread this information. would a copy of the enchanted item you gave boris work for everyone, do you think?¡±


    alice paused, thinking about it. ¡°i¡¯m pretty sure that would help people in boris¡¯s situation, at least. it would be a good solution to children unlocking access to problematic mana types before they¡¯re ready. which, if i¡¯m not mistaken, will probably start happening quite soon.¡± the system seemed to normally keep children from unlocking their status screens by maintaining a kind of ¡®bubble¡¯ around them. now that the system was gone, children would probably be exposed to dangerous kinds of mana with no protection, meaning that a great deal of children would be in danger very soon, even if that danger would be rather slow-acting.


    ethan nodded. ¡°i¡¯ll have some of the [enchanters] under me start mass-producing similar designs immediately, then. in the meantime, your research seems like it¡¯ll be a vital aspect of figuring out how to untangle this mess. for now, don¡¯t set foot outside of my manor without me ¨C if the society has any idea what you¡¯ve been researching, they¡¯ll probably up the level of offense against you by several notches. i always felt that the society might be mildly interested in you, but i never thought that they would ever even consider throwing their entire society at you to try to capture you. but if they saw your experiments...¡± ethan shook his head. ¡°i wouldn¡¯t be surprised if every single living member of the society moved to illvaria and tried to siege down the capital just to get you, no matter how suicidal that might be. you¡¯re now in greater danger of being kidnapped or assassinated than the royal family, possibly by several times. and while your combat abilities are above average, they¡¯re definitely way behind what someone with dedicated combat classes would have. do you understand?¡±


    alice nodded.


    ethan relaxed a little bit. ¡°good. i¡¯m going to look into a few things as well. i¡¯ll see if i can get any hints about whether the system collapsing is more nuanced in some regions of the world versus others. while it currently seems likely that the system has simply disappeared across the world, perhaps it only disappeared in some parts of the world, such as the capital city. if that¡¯s the case, at least for now, we¡¯ll have a solution to the system collapsing. evacuating entire cities isn¡¯t exactly cheap or easy, and if the system keeps getting worse, it¡¯s far from a long term solution, but it might buy you some more time to research. we¡¯ll figure out what other steps we need to take as necessary.¡± ethan paused. ¡°and if you need anything at all for your research, let me know immediately. if the system¡¯s collapse is a worldwide event, your research might be the only thing that saves millions of lives, if things are as bad as you¡¯re afraid they are. actually, are there any other people that can assist you with your research?¡±


    ¡°cecilia, my best friend. she¡¯s the one that taught me enchanting, and she¡¯s helped me with a lot of my experiments ever since i arrived in this world. she has some achievements that help her see what¡¯s going on, which makes her very helpful as well.¡±


    ethan nodded. ¡°i¡¯ll immediately send someone and get her to join us at the manor, then. it would be catastrophic if she were to be kidnapped or killed.¡±


    ethan dissolved the perk isolating the two from their surroundings. after that, he seemed to hesitate for a moment, and turned back towards alice, as if wondering if he should say something.


    before he could, however, a [servant] moved into the hallway. seeing alice and ethan talking, the [servant] waited for a moment, but eventually frowned and moved closer to ethan.


    ¡°honored immortal, an urgent report for you.¡±


    he quickly handed ethan a report, before scurrying away.


    ethan quickly opened the letter, before his frown deepened.


    ¡°it seems that your fears are correct,¡± he said, as he scanned the letter. ¡°five hours ago, a group of mages appear to have injured themselves while forming their magic seeds. it took a few hours for the symptoms to get bad enough to be noticeable, but the three of them are very sick now. and the [organic mages] they asked for help have absolutely no idea how to deal with it, so they passed the issue up to a more experienced group of [organic mages]. that group of [organic mages] also didn¡¯t know how to deal with the problem, and so they passed the report up the chain of command until it reached me.¡±


    he sighed, before turning towards alice. ¡°it might be a good idea to take a look. since you¡¯re the only one who can see system mana and investigate what¡¯s going on, your presence would be... very helpful. are you willing to come along?¡±


    alice nodded.


    ¡°then let¡¯s go.¡±

 Chapter 127

    chapter 127


    the two quickly made their way out of ethan¡¯s manor, before heading towards the healer¡¯s shop where the unfortunate mages were located. ethan led the way, and alice followed behind. there were also a few [guards] with relatively high levels tagging along, keeping alert gazes as they scouted the area and tried to keep a wary eye on any signs of the society of starry eyes. alice felt a little bit nervous as she walked through the streets.


    alice usually didn¡¯t have [guards] with her when she travelled inside of the capital, apart from her single [hidden guard]. when ethan was travelling with her, he seemed to consider her safety already taken care of. however, this time, even though ethan and her [hidden guard] were both here, ethan still took ten high-level [guards] with them. alice had already known that her research would make her a valuable target for the society of starry eyes, but she had underestimated how seriously ethan took the matter.


    alice wondered if this was an indicator of what she should expect to deal with in the future.


    once again, alice felt the pressure of the society of starry eyes like a distant, billion ton asteroid. even if she didn¡¯t know when it would fall, or even if it would fall, she always had to be wary of it. alice didn¡¯t want to end up kidnapped or dead. and judging by how many [guards] ethan had taken along this time ethan was now worried that even in the seemingly safe capital he might not be able to protect her on his own.


    alice wondered how long it would take for her to become strong enough to fight off the society on her own. she practiced fighting a few times a week at her magic academy, and recently, she even sparred with cecilia occasionally as a method of growing. however, even though she needed to work on her combat abilities, if she didn¡¯t work on her research, her combat abilities would end up as a moot question, because everyone would die anyway. alice also suspected that the insights she had gained into the true nature of artifacts might give her some critical clues about how to interact with the system in the future, meaning she couldn¡¯t wholly ignore them either.


    alice sighed. there was too much to do, and she didn¡¯t have enough time in a day.


    alice was distracted from her musings when she felt someone watching her. the perk she had recently combined in her [survivor] class, {enhanced senses}, was quietly needling at her, letting her know that someone was looking at her.


    and they didn¡¯t have good intentions towards her. the feeling that they gave her was different from before she had combined her perks, where she could only sense when someone was watching her and felt hostility towards her. now, alice could distinctly sense that the eyes felt greedy and careful, like the eyes of a thief looking at a painting they were planning to steal. she also felt her perk feed her a little bit of information about how strong that person was, one of the handy boosts the perk had gained after alice acquired the perk from combining two older perks.


    alice shivered.


    the pair of eyes watching her felt dangerous. they were obviously very high level. and they probably had a combat or assassination-focused class.


    she found herself reaching for her magic tendrils, although she managed to restrain her urge a moment later.


    ¡°ethan,¡± she whispered, feeling her anxiety spike more and more with each passing moment. ¡°someone is watching me.¡±


    ¡°i know, i can feel them,¡± whispered ethan, as a rainbow shield of mana sprang up around them and blocked their conversation. ¡°try to relax, and don¡¯t tip them off. i want to see if i can get a little information about who they are. if they¡¯re from the society, finding out how much they know about you and confirming whether or not they¡¯re targeting you is crucial to figuring out how much danger you¡¯re in. in the best case scenario, we might even be able to give them a pre-emptive blow. and if the person watching you isn¡¯t part of the society, i want to know why they¡¯re following you. just pretend they aren¡¯t there.¡±


    alice relaxed a little bit. if ethan knew about the enemy, and was monitoring them, then she shouldn¡¯t be in danger right now.


    however, seeing another person stalking her was a good reminder of something else.


    now that the system was collapsing, the society of starry eyes had likely started to notice something was wrong. alice didn¡¯t know how much the society knew, but the more time passed, the more obvious it would become that some part of the world had changed for the worse. once the society realized that, they would likely grow far more desperate to acquire information. desperate people were more likely to take stupid risks, after all. and that wasn¡¯t limited to just the society. alice would need to be more cautious than ever before.


    despite the fact that she was the disciple of an immortal and travelling with one of the most magically powerful people in the country, there was already someone following her with bad intentions. and alice suspected this problem would grow worse and not better over the next few weeks.


    ethan and the [guards] all ignored the hostile watcher, and after a few minutes of walking, alice felt the hostile eyes on her disappear. if anything, that made her feel more nervous. had they noticed that she was aware of them, and a way to make their presence disappear? had they gone back to report to their superiors? what if ethan¡¯s [spies] didn¡¯t figure out who they were and why they were? what if they brought back a large group of enemies?


    alice felt her nerves get tighter and tighter, and forced herself to take a deep breath and calm herself down a little bit.


    she felt more tense than ever before. however, even on her own, alice wasn¡¯t defenseless. and right now, she was standing next to an immortal and surrounded by high level [guards]. it was hard to find a safer spot on the planet right now. she just needed to trust in her allies and her own skills, and avoid letting fear control her.


    alice straightened out her back, realizing for the first time that she had started to duck a little into the crowd of [guards]. she did her best to ignore the disappearance of the enemy. there wasn¡¯t much she could do but remain alert now.


    not long after the stalker disappeared, the group arrived at their destination. alice did her best to put the hostile eyes out of her mind and started looking at the mages who were ill.


    and with a bunch of people all facing different medical issues that required a high level of expertise and knowledge to treat them, coupled with whatever else was going to happen in the next few days and weeks if the system didn¡¯t come back...


    alice suspected that the illvarian medical system would get overloaded in days.


    alice glanced at the other two ill mages to see if she could confirm her suspicions.


    sure enough, the problems in their bodies were slightly different. the other man who had tried to form a kinetic seed seemed to have accidentally mixed his magic seed with a few other kinds of mana. instead of a pure kinetic seed, the man had combined his seed with organic mana and pure mana. this had created an issue where his seed was trying to convert his body into the ¡®concept¡¯ of force. he was the only mage that wasn¡¯t coughing out blood, and this was because his lungs and heart looked like swiss cheese. if it weren¡¯t for the fact that the people of this world had [endurance] stats that made them stronger than most olympic athletes at home, this man would have certainly died. in fact, even with his remarkable [endurance], the fact that the man was still alive was a small miracle. he looked like he could die at any minute, and the [organic mages] in the room weren¡¯t even trying to heal him anymore. either his magic seed was blocking their healing somehow, or they had just given up on him.


    finally, the woman who had been trying to form an organic seed also had her magic seed going out of control, similar to the first man. in this case, her lungs were slowly but steadily filling up with some sort of fleshy goop. her magic seed kept creating more and more fleshy goop, and then adding it to her lungs over and over again. this caused the woman to frequently cough out the goop in her lungs.


    unfortunately, her lungs kept getting filled up. and equally unfortunately was the fact that her magic seed wasn¡¯t acquiring the ¡®fleshy goop¡¯ from nowhere. it seemed to be ¡®harvesting¡¯ random bits of her body, especially near her shoulders and stomach. several parts of her organs had already been chewed up by her magic seed and randomly added to her lungs, and at some point, part of her stomach lining had also been consumed, causing her stomach acid to start drippling into other parts of her body.


    alice glanced at her perks, and thought of {broken seed} again. she could activate the perk once every four days, meaning she could save one of the three patients.


    what could she do for the other two?


    the woman with an organic seed filling up her lungs would probably die soon. the [organic mages] treating her were running out of mana, and her death would be incredibly agonizing. both men with kinetic magic seeds would also die horrific and painful deaths if she didn¡¯t help them.


    she had an easy way to treat one person, and then the other two would die.


    alice felt her brain churning and scrabbling for an idea, and desperately latched on to her pure and organic mana seeds. she was missing a lot of components of system mana. over a dozen ¡®ingredients¡¯ were totally absent from her body. but the people in front of her had no time to waste.


    ¡°can you save all three?¡± ethan whispered, using his perk to keep their conversation private.


    alice frowned. ¡°i can save one easily. the other two might die.¡±


    ethan paused, and then nodded. ¡°first of all, don¡¯t feel guilty if you can¡¯t save the other two. it looks like all three would die without your intervention, so no matter what happens, you don¡¯t have to feel bad about the results. that being said, do you have any ideas at all that could save the other two?¡±


    alice hesitated. she had absolutely no certainty at all that her next idea would work, and she strongly suspected that she might fail miserably. her odds of succeeding were probably several times lower than the odds of surviving a mana baptism.


    but it was also obvious that this couldn¡¯t continue. all three patients would not live more than a day after this. her perk cooldown was four days, meaning that if she didn¡¯t try, two of the three patients would die today.


    ¡°i have an idea. i¡¯m going to try ¡®straightening out¡¯ their magic seeds using my pure magic seed and my organic magic seed,¡± said alice. ¡°or i¡¯ll try copying whatever my perk is doing to break their magic seeds. both seem like they would help.¡±


    ethan nodded. ¡°i know this will be hard for you, and you might not succeed. but good luck. whether you try to fix their magic seeds, or copy what your perk is doing... do your best.¡±


    alice nodded, and resolutely strode up to the man whose magic seed was the most deadly. the one who had mixed his kinetic seed with pure mana and organic mana. she laid her hands on top of his arm, and utilized {broken seed} to deal with his malformed magic seed. luckily, it seemed that the man had given anyone trying to heal him blanket permission to mess with him before he passed out.


    the magic seed shattered as alice carefully watched what her perk was doing, trying to figure out some way, any way to replicate it and help the other two patients before they died. alice saw a few level-up notifications appear out of the corner of her eyes, but she blinked them away. she was happy to see that levelling up still worked, despite the lack of system infrastructure, but she had more work to do before she could figure out what was happening to the system in the background.


    she stepped towards the man with a malformed kinetic magic seed, and felt her lips tighten into a grim line.


    the easy part was over. it was time to see if she could perform a miracle.

 Chapter 128

    chapter 128


    alice felt her knuckles tighten into fists, before she forced herself to unclench her hands. then, she laid a finger on the dying man¡¯s stomach. as she did, she tried her best to think of the man as a patient, rather than a real, living person.


    alice felt something prod at her emotions, and then clamp down on them like a steel vice. it took her a moment to realize what was happening. ethan had activated his perk, the same one he had used when they had rescued samantha. it was slowly deadening her emotions, allowing her to focus on the task at hand. it also helped her divorce her emotions from the dying person in front of her. right now her emotions would distract her, even though she would usually remove any perk that influenced her emotions immediately. she turned towards ethan.


    ¡°tell me if you want me to turn it off,¡± he said. ¡°but i think this would be helpful for you.¡±


    alice hesitated for a moment. ¡°keep it on,¡± she said.


    then, she turned back towards the patient.


    the patient was something that she was trying to save, and she couldn¡¯t let her shaky hands and her nerves get in the way of her treatment. so for now, she needed to think of the patient as a collection of things, instead of a person. the patient was a collection of moving organs, muscles, and mana. not a breathing person with thoughts and feelings. in fact, a person was almost like a machine. alice couldn¡¯t help but think of her time spent working on robots, back when she had lived on earth, and found a sort of comforting numbness in the thought.


    the person in front of her was just a machine. a collection of moving parts. right now, some of those parts were broken. she had to figure out what was wrong and fix it before the machine finished breaking down.


    just parts she needed to fix and nothing else.


    her mana tendrils drilled into the patient.


    then, alice realized something.


    something that she should have realized earlier.


    she thought about the way mage cores and mana inside of a body interacted with each other, and then about something else she had heard in the past.


    mages who have their mage cores cut out will lose the ability to use magic, but can survive, and even have their mage cores regrown in the future, fixing their magic abilities.


    ¡°ethan, can you slice out the mage core behind his heart without accidentally nicking his heart?¡± asked alice.


    ethan immediately took a decorative iron ornament from the corner of the room, and turned towards the [organic mage] who was originally in charge of healing the patients. ¡°do you mind if i break this?¡±


    ¡°go ahead, honored immortal,¡± said the [organic mage].


    ethan immediately used kinetic magic to shave down the sides of the metal ornament, before it quickly turned into a knife. then, ethan quickly cut out the patient¡¯s mage core.


    the mage core, which contained the patient¡¯s magic seeds, was immediately pulled out of the patient¡¯s chest, thus removing any connection the patient had to magic.


    it wasn¡¯t perfect, but it should be good enough to at least save his life. alice felt a mixture of guilt and hope start to build up in her chest, although ethan¡¯s perk tamped the emotions down to nearly nothing.


    alice frowned.


    something was wrong.


    alice wasn¡¯t sure whether the system did anything ¡®extra¡¯ to stabilize someone¡¯s body if they lost a mage core.


    at the same time, alice¡¯s mind flashed back to the first successful mana baptism she had observed after getting all of her relevant sight-related perks built.


    as each chunk of muscle fiber, nerves, and flesh were linked up with the new mage core, they lit up, glowing with mana as tavi¡¯s body started to adjust to its new change and finalize its shape and abilities. the mage core flashed several times with rainbow and pure mana, before its near-blinding glow started to fade away, replaced with the ordinary, dull light of a mage core with no seeds in it. another few strings of mana-flesh and nerves linked the system up with tavi¡¯s brain, creating a few different clusters of nerves, before tavi¡¯s brain also flashed with rainbow mana a few times. finally, the rainbow and pure mana surrounding tavi started to disappear. alice grinned.


    despite her worst fears, tavi¡¯s mana baptism had been successful.


    alice suddenly got a very bad feeling.


    did the mage core do more than just regulate magic seeds? what if the way it linked up to all of the strange muscle fibers and mana-flesh was important?


    true to alice¡¯s worst fears, several chunks of mana-flesh inside of the man¡¯s body started to grow brighter and dimmer, seemingly at random.


    alice froze, wondering if something catastrophic was about to happen. she waited tensely, hoping that nothing went wrong, and at the same time, started jamming her magic tendrils into the patient¡¯s body.


    she had to control whatever was happening. she had no idea how, but she needed to stop this man from dying. whatever was happening felt dangerous to her.


    the patient¡¯s eyes flicked open. he gasped in pain, and alice started trying to use a mixture of organic mana and pure mana to soothe the trembling mana-flesh in the man¡¯s arms, legs, and the rest of his body.


    she noticed that only some patches of mana-flesh were reacting, and others weren¡¯t. she couldn¡¯t distinguish between the two types of mana flesh at all, but it was obvious there was a critical difference between then. the mana flesh that was going haywire was vomiting out huge amounts of mana, and then randomly sucking in mana a few seconds later ¨C almost like it was expanding and contracting. it was almost like a horrific heartbeat, although it was far more terrifying because alice had no idea what was going on.


    alice tried to use her mana tendrils to control the strange mana reactions of the man¡¯s mana flesh, and noticed that, with some work, a few chunks of the mana flesh stopped reacting after a few moments.


    unfortunately, alice had nowhere near enough magic tendrils or mana to fix every chunk of mana flesh in the man¡¯s body.


    she didn¡¯t have the mana to mess around and try to figure out a solution to this problem. in total, she had a maximum of 121 mariums of organic mana and 72 mariums of pure mana to work with. but that was her mana maximum: she had probably spent over fifty mariums of pure mana trying to heal the first patient.


    and just now, alice had lost a big chunk of her organic mana just to push her mana tendrils close to the patient¡¯s heart.


    alice grimaced, and then started probing the outside of the mana core again. she searched for a weak point in the barrier around the woman¡¯s mage core, but couldn¡¯t find one no matter how much she probed the outside. the woman¡¯s mage core was like a hard plastic shell that wrapped itself tightly around her magic seeds. alice couldn¡¯t find a way in unless she just cracked the whole thing open. but doing that might have unintended consequences.


    alice knew that unravelling the mana shell around the mage core might be a bad idea. but she also didn¡¯t know what else to do. if she couldn¡¯t get into the mage core, she couldn¡¯t fix the problem. so, after hesitating for a moment, alice pushed her mana tendrils inside of the woman¡¯s mage core, punching through the strange barrier around the mage core.


    around ten mariums of pure mana vanished into thin air as she ripped apart the mana barrier. more mariums drained away every single second she pushed her mana tendrils inside of the woman¡¯s body. mana leaked out of alice like air rushing out of a punctured spaceship.


    alice felt her heart leap into her throat. this might kill the woman on the spot, or make the problem worse, but it was her best idea for what to do. she moved quickly, trying to take advantage of the moment the wrap around the woman¡¯s mage core collapsed.


    she immediately plunged her mana tendrils deeper into the mage core, preparing to rip apart the problematic magic seed and then try to use organic mana to repair... whatever she had just removed.


    however, before she could even touch the magic seed, something strange happened. all of the mana in the woman¡¯s body dimmed for a moment.


    and then, the woman¡¯s mage core started absorbing mana nonstop. alice¡¯s eyes widened as it started to look like the woman was going through another mana baptism.


    bad, bad, this is bad, thought alice, starting to panic as she watched the woman¡¯s body start randomly absorbing mana for reasons she didn¡¯t understand. she used several mana tendrils to force the mana near the patient¡¯s body away, in order to stop her from absorbing more mana. even if alice didn¡¯t know why the patient was absorbing mana, she felt that it would be very dangerous if it continued.


    one of alice¡¯s seven mana tendrils finally made contact with the magic seed she needed to remove. if she destroyed the magic seed, she could hopefully fix whatever else was happening with the help of her organic magic seed and pure magic seed. it was a slim hope, but alice already felt woefully unprepared for the task of saving the final patient¡¯s life. maybe the reason the mage core was acting weird was because of the messed up magic seed?


    at this point, alice could only pray that was the case.


    however, something... crunched when alice tried to pull apart the magic seed. alice wasn¡¯t quite sure what she had messed up, but it was obvious something had gone wrong while trying to unravel the magic seed. worse, the magic seed itself hadn¡¯t wholly disappeared: instead, it now looked brittle, as if it were made of glass. alice¡¯s attempt to replicate her perk had gone very wrong.


    the woman¡¯s body stopped trying to absorb mana. then, all of her magic seeds suddenly went haywire. they started tossing around mana left and right, as if they were oceans in the middle of a storm.


    ethan immediately used a kinetic tendril to drag alice out of the way, and then grabbed every single bulky object in the area and stuffed them into the air around the woman.


    alice¡¯s eyes widened.


    and then the woman¡¯s body detonated like a bomb, sending her organs and limbs flying into ethan¡¯s hastily made barrier.


    alice gasped in shock, and after the sound ended, pried away ethan¡¯s shield using some kinetic mana.


    inside of ethan¡¯s shield were the remains of a corpse. there was absolutely no way to save the woman anymore. there was barely anything left of the woman. just splattered blood and fragments of bone and flesh that had been sent flying in random directions.


    alice felt her hands start to shake.


    even though alice had been trying to heal the woman, even though she had done what she felt was best, the woman had died. and it was undeniable that alice¡¯s attempted intervention had killed the woman faster, instead of healing her. she would have died in less than a day either way, but alice still felt sick.


    alice felt numb horror start to wash over her. she felt ethan¡¯s perk start to grow in intensity, but it wasn¡¯t enough to fully remove her emotions.


    ¡°process your emotions later,¡± said ethan. ¡°remember, these two were dead if you didn¡¯t help them. you were trying to resuscitate a corpse. there is no shame in failing. and you succeeded in saving one patient. look back at the patient and try to see if there are any remaining problems, and try to devise a treatment plan for him. there are still a lot of things weird about his situation, and now that it¡¯s impossible to stabilize the final patient, focus on the first two.¡± alice nodded, and moved numbly back towards the patient she had healed by stitching together mana flesh.


    she shuddered, and turned towards the man who was somewhat stable. his malformed kinetic seed was no longer jostling his bones and organs around, and he looked... at least sort of like a healthy person. there were still splotches of pale and damaged skin and tissue inside and outside of his body, but at the very least, he no longer appeared to be on the verge of death.


    she started carefully inspecting the man using her perks, before she sighed.


    ¡°i think that his muscles are going to be in a lot of pain, and it might be impossible for him to walk around. keeping him unconscious is probably the best thing to do ¨C i imagine he¡¯s going to be in horrific pain if he¡¯s awake.¡± she turned towards ethan. ¡°can we come back tomorrow?¡±


    ethan nodded. ¡°i was planning on it. we can try to stabilize him more and see if any other complications come up once you¡¯re rested and have a little more mana to work with.¡±


    alice felt a small seed of horror as she looked at the woman¡¯s body. she just... hadn¡¯t had enough mana to stabilize her.


    one of the two patients had died because she had had enough mana and hadn¡¯t managed to find a better solution.


    alice felt a hint of bile rise up in her throat, before ethan gently patted her head once.


    ¡°take a deep breath and calm down,¡± said ethan. ¡°you kept one alive. you didn¡¯t kill a person today ¨C you saved a person¡¯s life when they should have died, and you tried your hardest to save the other one. take pride in that.¡±


    alice nodded, and felt a breath escape her lungs.


    she still felt awful, but she had done what she could.


    and a few moments later, mana began to swarm towards her body.

 Chapter 129

    chapter 129


    alice did her best to focus on her system messages. after all, she didn¡¯t want to focus on the corpse of the woman who she had failed to treat, and alice was also slightly worried that something would go horrendously wrong during the process of levelling up. thus, with a bit of fear, alice opened her system notifications, wondering if she would just find a line of glitch signs or something.


    you have leveled up!


    scholar: 55 -> 56, scientist 58 -> 60, explorer of magic 75 -> 76, student of organic magic 11 -> 17


    alice felt a small breath of relief. it seemed that her classes had still gained experience pretty normally. when she gained a level, she usually saw the system first filter all of the mana in her environment before it was absorbed by her magic seeds. this time, the system wasn¡¯t around, so it couldn¡¯t filer her mana. despite the system¡¯s absence, however, she had still gained levels after her class seeds processed the incoming mana.


    then, she frowned.


    if she could gain levels with or without the system¡¯s purification efforts, why did the system go through so much effort to purify mana right before people levelled up? what was the point? alice started paying closer attention to her own body, as well as the mana inside of it, in hopes of finding an answer.


    and as she watched mana slowly work its way through her body and towards her class fractals, {intuitive magic modelling} started to let alice know that the types of mana going through her body weren¡¯t quite as pure as she had thought. there were essentially bits of other kinds of mana stuck to the original blobs of mana. her [scientist] mana, for example, had some chunks of [scholar] mana attached to it, possibly because the image of a [scholar] and a [scientist] were probably close to each other in most people¡¯s minds. similarly, both chunks of mana had bits of the other kind of mana stuck to it. instead of a pure blob of [scientist] mana and a pure blob of [scholar] mana, each blob of mana was around 80% of its ¡®main¡¯ mana type and 20% a different type entirely. even though the majority of the mana was still correct, it was going to the wrong place. and there were a few other, smaller chunks of mana that alice couldn¡¯t identify that were also coming along for the ride.


    once the bits of scholar and scientist mana reached the class fractals in her brain, each class fractal absorbed most of the mana correctly, but the extra bits of mana that had been stuck together just... got stuck. it was kind of like seeing a giant piece of food get stuck in a drainpipe: it just sat there, unable to move forward or backward. the class fractal just didn¡¯t know how to handle kinds of mana that weren¡¯t aligned with itself at all, and so the mana was just stuck.


    furthermore, a few minutes after the chunks of extra mana got stuck, alice felt a very, very subtle inclination to behave more like a [scientist] and a [scholar], as well as a subtle inclination to behave more like a... [doctor]? alice was pretty sure there was some [doctor] mana mixed in, although it was hard to say for sure. it was an incredibly weak inclination, and alice could easily squash it. but it was still very concerning, even if it was easy to handle right now.


    alice frowned, and tried to reach for her pure mana seeds, to see if she could somehow drag each bit of mana over to its ¡®correct¡¯ class fractal, but her head started pounding the moment she reached for her pure mana. she had used too much of it treating the patients, and she was totally out of pure mana now.


    alice winced, and shook her head, before moving on to her other system notifications. the external influence on her personality was incredibly minor, so she doubted it would be a problem to wait a few hours to recover some pure mana before she tried again. she didn¡¯t think this problem was actually that hard to solve: she just needed to manually grab the mana that was in the wrong spot and then throw it at the correct class seed. for now, she ignored it and continued examining her system notifications.


    scientific discoveries (rarity: n/a) iii -> iv


    an achievement created by the ¡®for science!¡¯ perk. it currently has one successful experiment catalogued. upon reaching five experiments, this achievement will receive a beneficial upgrade.


    +20% class experience for all research related classes, +5% bonus to mental attribute growth (per tier of the achievement)


    alice felt her relief get stronger as she noticed her {scientific discoveries} achievement upgrade with no weird complications or issues. however, her relief was short lived. moments later, alice saw... a rather odd blob of mana. the way this chunk of mana started out was pretty similar to the way it looked whenever she gained a new achievement.


    at least, it looked similar to an achievement at first. unfortunately, it seemed that her new achievement had gotten ¡®stuck¡¯ while trying to move through her body, and after a few minutes of movement, started instead bouncing off of her bones and muscles. it looked like a drunk squirrel trying and failing to scamper up a tree.


    alice frowned, wondering what was going on, and then, in a fit of inspiration, connected a mana tendril to the strange clumps of mana and started using display mana, to see if she could get access to any system notifications that she ¡®should¡¯ be able to see.


    after all, as far as alice could tell, display mana would never actually let her ¡®lie¡¯ about what was part of her status screen. even when alice had deliberately tried to give herself ¡®fake¡¯ level up notifications, it had never worked. she had been able to make system messages that displayed the words ¡®level up,¡¯ but no matter what she tried, the system messages would end up showing her correct level. she frowned for a moment, and was able to remember what her best ¡®fake level up¡¯ notification had looked like.


    you have leveled up!


    survivor: 54 -> 54


    in other words, if alice used display mana to look at the system notifications for her new, messed up achievement, she should be able to get some idea what was going on.


    it worked, and moments later, alice started examining a rather unique set of system notifications.


    legendary healer (rarity: 7) -> sd??sd@#$@ (this achievement cannot be upgraded. error!


    legendary healer (rarity: 7) -> sd??sd@#$@ (this achievement cannot be upgraded. error!


    legendary healer (rarity: 7) -> sd??sd@#$@ (this achievement cannot be upgraded. error!


    connecting to main server to find resolution for issue... failed. connection cannot be established.


    ?@#%(#)@$@#()(@#$* @#$*# @#$@#($ @#( (!)%#(!@$#)*^t$_#@ @#_ (@#_$


    alice blinked at the increasingly bizarre system notification. then she started to worry.


    a moment later, the clump of mana started to sink into her muscles and bones.


    error resolved. (rarity: 4)


    y0^ h@ve cu**d a meeeedic((((l c*(sn which kn***# how to. y((*u.


    @#*$&# @#*$(&@#$ @#$*()@#$ @#)(*@#$(@# @#)(@#$*@


    a new achievement appeared on her status screen.


    its name was ¡®error resolved,¡¯ and it was a rarity four achievement. it had no text.


    alice wondered if her status screen had just permanently glitched out. she... wasn¡¯t sure what to make of that. she had been hoping to get more information from using her display mana, but instead, alice felt very worried.


    if her achievement was glitched out... what happened?


    right as she was starting to seriously worry about what would happen next, alice noticed that the achievement {error resolved} was beginning to change again.


    the mana in her body was still attached to her muscles and bones, but after a few minutes, it started to unattach itself and start moving back towards her mage core. and then, a few moments later, the system notification started to change again.


    creative healer (rarity: 4)


    you have used multiple magic seeds to heal a patient, and have used magic seeds beyond the basic healing seeds, such @s your p*^e magic seed.


    organic magic seed conversion rattttio: +10%, mana capacity for all seeds +5%


    (add perks here)


    alice could definitely still get some idea what each new perk did based on the current text, but there was obviously something messed up about how every perk was displayed. without display mana, alice couldn¡¯t make any sense of her perks at all: they just looked like question marks, which gave her absolutely no useful information at all. however, even with display mana, alice was beginning to get the feeling that she was missing some sort of other component that the system used in conjunction with display mana to make words... make more sense.


    alice distinctly remembered that the system had showed her a status screen entirely in english the moment she arrived on this world, after all. this was before the system even figured out what english was and created a language skill for it. however, when alice used display mana, she could only show system messages that she wanted to display. while she couldn¡¯t lie about any system components with display mana, she could absolutely fiddle around with the language each message used. and most importantly, they did not automatically translate themselves for the reader if alice used her display mana. any system message alice created was bound to whatever language she tried to make the message in ¨C it wouldn¡¯t be comprehensible to those not fluent in the language.


    which meant that whatever she was missing was rather important, since it seemed to somehow obviate language itself as a form of communication. alice still wasn¡¯t sure how that was even possible. perhaps the system was directly translating concepts to people¡¯s minds, or... something?


    alice wondered what other component she was missing, and resisted the urge to sigh.


    at least for now, this would be good enough to make new perk selections. she didn¡¯t exactly have the precise numerical breakdown she was used to, but as long as she had some idea what her perks did, that was at least good enough to make reasonably informed decisions, even if it was disappointing that she couldn¡¯t get as many details as she was used to.


    alice looked her perk combination options as well, and found that it had run into fewer problems. which amused alice quite a bit.


    this was probably because even the system never seemed entirely certain what the result would be when combining perks. since it had always provided less information than just flat-out picking a new perk, it lost less information.


    of course, her perk combination options were still subject to the broken grammar and weird system notes that her perk selection options had fallen prey to.


    after a few minutes of thinking, alice eventually decided to combine together two perks. two of the three new [scientist] perks actually seemed somewhat appealing: learn_magic and memory_other were, as far as she could tell, perks that would let her use her {sleep-reading} perk to learn magic, and a perk that would let her read other people¡¯s memories and experience an enhanced learning effect. she probably needed the other person¡¯s permission to use the perk, but she was willing to bet ethan would let her observe some memories of his own training: he seemed pretty committed to the idea of raising a new immortal, and this was definitely something that would help her. and even if ethan wasn¡¯t willing to share his own memories, alice doubted he would have a hard time finding a teacher who was willing to share their memories, if the pay was good enough.


    both perks sounded incredibly useful. however, alice had noticed a rather curious (and possibly critical) perk that she could create by combining together two other perks. it was an option that hadn¡¯t existed in her perk combinatinons at level 55, but even though the grammar was a bit broken, alice was still pretty sure she knew what the perk would do. so she combined the perks.


    the science of mana deprivation


    requirements: scientist level 50 or higher, intelligence 150 or higher, must have extensively experimented with mana and lack of mana and its effects on other creatures and/or oneself, magic 150 or higher, pure mana seed (or similar seed) present.


    you may use your mana tendrils to interfere with mana, allowing you to create manaless fields at will given enough time or otherwise allowing you to prevent mana from interfering with your experiments.


    note 1: the farther away the mana is, the more difficult and mentally draining it will be to activate this perk. it is advised you use this on areas near you.


    note 2: please remember that interfering with mana controlled by other people will be far more mentally taxing than manipulating the same amount of mana would be if it were uncontrolled.


    alice loved the science of mana deprivation. it was a perk that didn¡¯t sound amazing, but the most powerful component of the perk was the fact that it let her mess with other perks and system mana. it could let alice deflect or deactivate perks that other people tried to use in her surroundings, assuming she had fast enough reflexes.


    however, it also had several shortcomings right now. most notably, it couldn¡¯t interact with most kinds of mana besides perks, because it required her to spend a fair amount of mental energy and pure mana to properly mess with other perks, and it was very mentally exhausting to actually create things like manaless fields, despite that being the ¡®main¡¯ use of the perk. right now, alice wanted a fast and easy way to turn off all kinds of mana: even if that mana was inside of other people. it would be the most effective way to treat problems like going nuts because one¡¯s mana hadn¡¯t been absorbed by a class seed. it would have also helped a lot when trying to treat the final patient earlier.


    this was why she had decided to combine it with another perk to get the result she wanted.


    degraded seed slot


    requirements: scientist level 35 or higher, explorer of magic class available, magic at 100 or greater, have all magic seed slots taken, use magic seeds themselves as a source of experiments and inspiration for new advancements


    you gain a magic seed slot with a maximum 5% mana conversion ratio. this magic seed cannot be boosted by other perks and can never be combined with other perks.


    frankly, alice didn¡¯t have much use for this perk anymore. she generated two new magic seeds a month. and she had practiced creating magic seeds without the system. while this situation wasn¡¯t the reason she had worked on learning to form seeds without the system, her practice was incredibly useful now, since she was probably one of the only people in the world who didn¡¯t have to worry about dying after forming a new magic seed right now. in any case, a perk giving her one low-quality magic seed was just not that important after she gained the {seeds of ambition} perk.


    thus, alice stuffed the two together and nervously watched as the system combined the two perks, hoping it didn¡¯t mess up and cause some sort of disaster.


    before hitting the ¡®combine¡¯ button, alice did to do a final check with her {safety analysis} perk, just to make sure she wasn¡¯t about to screw herself over. luckily, it seemed that she was safe. alice activated the perk combination.


    perk_name: no_mana


    perk costs: degraded seed slot + the science of mana deprivation


    you create a no_magic magic seed. this magic seed can deactivate or potentially delete mana.


    warning: without permission, it¡¯s harder you modify____ seed another person.


    shortly after she combined the two perks, alice felt a new magic seed start to form inside of her mage core. this seed was the first magic seed she had ever had formed directly as a result of a perk existing, instead of just having a magic seed slot granted to her. instead of alice needing to concentrate on a specific idea and then absorb mana to make a magic seed, this time, her two class fractals just took over the process entirely, dragging in mana and turning it into a specific concept. which was probably why alice could do this safely: the system was still doing the dangerous bits for her, even if the main frame of the system was down.


    a few moments later, alice had an entirely new magic seed. one that was, apparently, called a no_magic magic seed. alice suspected the name was slightly off, but as long as the magic seed itself worked, it would be fine.


    then, alice tried poking herself in her [student of organic magic] class seed and using a small wisp of her new magic seed.


    to her delight, she felt the very small mental boost that she had barely been aware of... fall away for a moment. alice wasn¡¯t particularly aware of the effects of {improved organic manipulation} most of the time, since the perk was highly specific and not particularly strong. however, after alice tested it out, she confirmed that her new no_magic class seed could literally deactivate classes. which meant that it could probably also deactivate mage cores, and a bunch of other things if alice needed to mess with them for a while.


    alice turned back to the second patient, who still had several patches of flesh that were currently going out of control, and then quickly used her new no_magic seed after a few moments in order to deactivate some of the flesh writhing and pulsing like mad.


    the man¡¯s situation didn¡¯t stabilize completely, but it at least improved a bit after alice emptied out her new magic seed.


    she checked its mana reserves, and after some estimation, realized it had around a 30% mana conversion ratio. not amazing, but not terrible, either.


    she grinned to herself. at the very least, she had a way to treat patients a little more effectively now. she could deactivate magic seeds that were going haywire, and possibly delete mana that wasn¡¯t properly integrated with a class seed. she could finally treat borris completely, instead of just giving him a ring to stave off the worsening of his illness. it was nowhere near enough to handle the problems caused by the collapse of the system, even in a country as small as illvaria, but it was definitely a good start.


    ¡°alice, are you done?¡± asked ethan. ¡°if so, we should go back for now.¡±


    alice nodded, and then gave the corpse of the woman she had failed to heal one last, sad glance.


    if she had access to her new perk before she had started treatment, she would have been able to keep the woman alive. but each patient had been worth about half of the levels she had gotten: she simply had no way to have made the timing work out.


    she sighed, and then followed ethan as the two of them left the healer¡¯s office.

 Notice: a Discussion about KU and the story

    notice: a discussion about ku and the story


    a few things:


    i¡¯ve signed a publishing deal for budding scientist with podium. i believe i mentioned in, like... february? march? something like that? that i was working on something, and well, that was the edits for the next draft of the volume 1 of budding scientist. i felt that it was important not to change it too much, but there were a bunch of smaller things that i felt should be changed, either for flow, consistency, or typo corrections. volume 1 of the story will be coming down from patreon, royalroad, and scribblehub near the end of next week. this means the majority of the first 62 chapters will no longer be available on these platforms. i am allowed to leave up 20% of the story, i believe? i will double check that number later, but that probably means the first 13 chapters will stay, if i''m doing my math correctly. the rest will be removed.


    now, i also wanted to discuss why this is happening. i was originally trying very hard to push for not taking down any part of the story until volume 3 of budding scientist was finished, meaning the entire story would have been available on rr/patreon/scribblehub, before i took it down a month later, or something like that.


    ultimately, the publishing company agreed with me, but recently, they emailed me and basically said ¡®this is a really bad idea. are you sure?¡¯ and we got into a discussion about it. i myself eventually changed my mind.


    why?


    simply put, it boils down to financial stability.


    i love writing. i spend about half an hour every night before i go to sleep just laying in bed, thinking about my stories and where i want them to go. i¡¯ll imagine scenes that haven¡¯t been written yet and adjust minute details in them, think about how a certain world should be structured, think about how some component of the world interacts with another, or how two characters should meet and interact with each other. every time i take a shower, i usually spend several minutes soaking in hot water and thinking about stories i want to write, or stories that i¡¯m currently writing and want to improve. i sometimes scrap these ideas (not every idea is a good one), but writing is a passion that i¡¯ve had since i was in elementary school. and while second-grade me wasn¡¯t that good at writing, their heart was in the write place (heh. puns).


    when i posted the first chapter of budding scientist, it was during the covid pandemic. my father had just had a stroke, i was unemployed and depressed, my cat died sometime around when i started releasing chapters, and i needed something to get away from everything for a while. i was very insecure about my unemployment, i felt awful, and i needed to do something. so i turned back to my at the time somewhat abandoned hobby of writing, dusted off an earlier draft of a story called ¡®alice¡¯s disastrous journey through an isekai world¡¯ (i was never that good at naming stories) that i had written, and started messing with it. i rebuilt alice¡¯s character, the worldbuilding, the system, and basically everything to turn it from an unrefined goop of ideas to a fully fleshed out story that was (hopefully) good, and renamed several times before i settled on ¡®a budding scientist in a fantasy world.¡¯ i went through a few drafts, fixing things here and there, and eventually, i ended up writing the draft of budding scientist you¡¯re familiar with today.


    while taking time out of my weekends is viable while i¡¯m super excited about the idea and really really happy to be worldbuilding and imagining and writing the story, the ¡®super excited¡¯ phase of writing a new story usually only lasts a few months. after that, i transition to a more ¡®i am enjoying writing this story¡¯ kind of state, where i¡¯m still having fun, but usually no longer invested enough in it to chop out several hours of my free time consistently to work on it and build it more. and inconsistency is never a good recipe for writing. frankly, going into the ku exclusive program with budding scientist is notably more likely to solve my financial issues - and it¡¯s also something i can do right now (well, in a few weeks, but you get the idea.)


    which is why i¡¯ve ultimately made up my mind to take down the first volume of budding scientist book 1 from rr, patreon, and scribblehub. it hurts me a bit to do, because i did want to have all 3 volumes up on said platforms before taking them down only once i was done with the webnovel draft of the story. but at the end of the day, this is what i think is best for me and my writing as a whole. not being stressed out and worried about whether my writing is a mistake will do wonders for my mental health and stress levels. and stress levels have a big impact on how well and how much i write. when stress is too high, i have a much harder time doing fun things like bonus chapters or longer chapters consistently, since there are some days where i just feel frazzled and blehh. (those are technical terms that i just made up).


    so this is my ultimate decision. on the 24th of this month, i will be removing volume 1 from this platform. and volume 2 will also be removed whenever i finish going through the editing process for it - which is still several months away, but whenever i get to that point, that will be what happens. i wish i could have given you more forewarning, but there were some miscommunications that happened that shortened the notice and forewarning i could give you.


    that being said, here¡¯s a link to the pre-order for volume 1 of the story, if any of you are interested. it would mean a lot to me if you pre-ordered it, but you do whatever makes the most sense to you. currently, my publisher says that it will be ''released'' on the 19th of september, unless something has changed and i didn''t get an email about it yet. and it has also gone through a notable amount of edits compared to the webnovel version - i tried not to change too much, but i fixed a lot of typos, consistency issues (there were a lot of weird bits about how much one gold crown could buy), and flow issues. there will be an audiobook and an e-book available. a link to one version is here, and i will get a link to the other up as soon as i have it.


    a small town in southern illvaria


    thank you very much for reading this far, and thank you for allowing me to pursue my dream as an actual job instead of just a hobby i sometimes have time for.


    ~acaswell

 Chapter 130

    chapter 130


    neither alice nor ethan said much on the way back to ethan¡¯s manor. the [guards] also remained fairly silent, simply leaving alice to stew in her thoughts.


    now that she wasn¡¯t worrying about her new perk, or the disappearance of the system, alice spent a few moments thinking about the woman she had failed to save earlier.


    alice sighed, and for a moment, she almost wished for the comforting presence of ethan¡¯s emotion-deadening perk. then, alice shook her head.


    trying to run from her emotions certainly wouldn¡¯t make things better.


    ¡°ethan? do you think there¡¯s anything i should have done better?¡± she asked.


    ethan paused for a moment, and the group of [guards] and the two mages simply stood there on the street near ethan¡¯s mansion. a burst of rainbow mana flickered into existence around alice and ethan, preventing others from eavesdropping.


    ¡°alice,¡± he said, sighing. ¡°a lot of [organic mages] and [doctors] start to lose confidence when their first patient dies. it¡¯s less common for patients to die in big cities, since there are more [organic mages], and thus there are more perk setups available to deal with unique illnesses. but in smaller towns and villages, losing patients is something a lot of medical practitioners go through.


    ¡°it would have been better if the second patient hadn¡¯t been treated in a way that left him in a great deal of pain and future medical complications, and it¡¯s unfortunate that the third patient died, but... keep in mind, you only have an apprentice healer¡¯s license right now. you¡¯re... what, level 20 in [organic mage]?¡±


    ¡°level 17,¡± said alice. ¡°and it¡¯s a secondary class.¡±


    ethan nodded. ¡°so not even a real level 17. you¡¯re basically a level 5 [organic mage], for most intents and purposes right now. you don¡¯t even have a level 10 perk from the class yet. and despite being a level 5 [organic mage], you managed to save a patient¡¯s life when i¡¯m pretty sure almost nobody else could have saved him. you also healed the first patient using a perk or achievement i¡¯ve never even heard of, and that gives you access to unique tools for handling problems like this.


    ¡°i said this while you were actually healing the patients, but i¡¯ll say it again. these people were dead without your intervention. you did everything you possibly could have, and you¡¯ll be able to do better next time. the biggest issue you ran into was that you were low on mana for the final patient. you did extremely well given the limited resources and knowledge you had available at the time. and now, you¡¯ve levelled up a bit more, and in the future you¡¯ll continue to level up more. you aren¡¯t even a real medical practitioner, and yet you still managed to save two people¡¯s lives today. you¡¯re doing a lot of good.¡± he gently reached down and patted alice¡¯s shoulder a few times. ¡°don¡¯t worry too much about what happened. you lost a patient, but it was due to factors entirely out of your control, and you¡¯ll keep saving people¡¯s lives just by experimenting with the system and learning more about our current situation. even though you might feel like a failure right now, you¡¯re doing better than i did when i was learning organic magic.¡± ethan gave her a gentle smile.


    ¡°did you ever lose a patient?¡± asked alice, despite herself.


    ethan paused, and for a moment, a dark grimace caused his lips to twist into an ugly frown. then, he sighed.


    ¡°i did. when i was younger, i was very confident in myself. i was, to put it bluntly, arrogant. i was a young mage, the child of two immortals, and i was making excellent progress towards immortality. i thought that i couldn¡¯t do anything wrong, and that every action i took was a guaranteed success. i tried to treat a rather complicated issue when i was way too low level to handle it, and... well, i messed up,¡± he said. he shook his head. ¡°i don¡¯t want to say anything else about the issue, but it was a big wake up call for me. i slowed down a bit in levelling, and started thinking a lot more about how to improve as both a person and a healer after that. i admit that i also didn¡¯t want to practice using my organic magic for almost an entire decade after the incident. obviously, i can use my organic magic just fine now, but at the time, it felt like the sky was falling. it took me a long time to move past it.¡± he sighed. ¡°sometimes, i wonder if i still haven¡¯t fully moved past it.¡± then, he gave alice another more relaxed grin.


    ¡°so you¡¯re not alone. even i¡¯ve lost patients before. and while i lost mine because i thought i was arrogant, you lost yours because you didn¡¯t have enough mana. so whatever you did, it¡¯s still far better than the reason i lost my patient back when i was younger. all right?¡±


    the rainbow mana in their surroundings disappeared after that, and the group started walking again. alice thought about ethan¡¯s words.


    the fact that ethan had lost a patient as well made her feel oddly better. she was used to seeing ethan as some sort of half-invincible person. most immortals that were old enough seemed to be nearly omniscient, at least within their respective classes. the idea that ethan, a mage focused on combat magic and, to a lesser extent, things like organic magic...


    it didn¡¯t make everything fine, but it made her feel better, at least. some of the pressure in her heart felt like it was dissolving, even if it wasn¡¯t completely gone.


    she wasn¡¯t happy that the woman had died. she wasn¡¯t happy that she had failed someone and that someone had died as a result.


    but she also realized that she had no idea what she could have done differently. perhaps if she had been smarter, and quicker on her feet, and made different choices during her perk selections, there might have been a different outcome. but she had no way of knowing that what would kill this woman today would be lack of pure mana, and she had genuinely done her best to keep her alive.


    the incident wasn¡¯t entirely behind her, but she could at least push it behind her for now.


    she would never forget the woman she had failed to save ¨C later, she would ask ethan to look up every single detail about the woman¡¯s life, history, and who she had been. she wanted to know who the woman was, and who she could have been if she had lived today. alice felt that it was the best way she could honor the woman¡¯s death.


    but she could at least function again.


    a few minutes later, the group arrived at ethan¡¯s manor.


    even though alice felt exhausted, she still needed to tell ethan about what she had seen today. since she had told ethan everything about her experiments on the system, system mana, and how this world¡¯s magic worked, she didn¡¯t need to try to solve every single problem on her own.


    even though she wanted nothing more than to sink into her mattress, fall asleep, and forget the world for a few hours, she knew that those hours might be the difference between hundreds of people living or dying as the collapse of the system and its aftereffects progressed. right now, as the effects of the system¡¯s collapse slowly made themselves evident, she needed to make sure that the relevant people knew everything she could possibly discover if she wanted to mitigate the effects as much as possible. she groaned, but waited as the [guards] started to disperse.


    then, alice quickly shared all of her memories about what had happened during her perk selection with ethan, as well as her thoughts and assumptions about what everything meant.


    she also requested that ethan keep an eye on the church of the system for her, as well as to look out for any reports of people behaving oddly after levelling up or seeing strange perk and achievement notifications.


    and then alice felt that her duty was done. she stumbled to her room, half-asleep by the time she got there, and collapsed onto her bed.


    she was asleep before her head even hit the pillow.


    * * *


    several hours passed. alice used her {sleep reading} perk to read a few lighthearted adventure stories she had laying around in her storage perk. she also discovered, for the first time, that she had a little more control over her dreams than she thought she did. since she was technically asleep and dreaming, it was easy to conjure up a cup of warm, soothing tea, for example, even though the perk said absolutely nothing about anything other than reading. alice could even imagine an entire, rather comfortable library while in her dreams, and then relax in a comforting environment for a while.


    she felt that she might have missed a few other ways to exploit her {sleep reading} perk, although she didn¡¯t feel like thinking too much about new, innovative ways to use her perks right now. that could wait a few days. for now, she simply did her best to relax and work through her emotions.


    she resisted the urge to growl in frustration. she had felt bad and wanted to distract herself, but she might have ultimately ended up wasting several hours of pure mana without accomplishing anything if she couldn¡¯t get rid of some of the excess mana in her body.


    alice split off three of her mana tendrils to keep the chunk of [scholar] mana next to the [scholar] seed, and then used the other four mana tendrils to try to grab the [scientist] mana that was clogging up the seed. it took a few tries, and at one point, alice was dangerously close to letting the [scholar] mana slip and return to the [scientist] seed. but after a particularly close call, she succeeded in nudging the [scientist] mana out of the way and getting the [scholar] mana to the correct seed.


    the class seed greedily absorbed the correct kind of mana, and alice let out a sigh of relief. even though she was still in an awful mood, at least she had accomplished something worthwhile today.


    you have leveled up!


    scholar: 56 -> 57


    a few seconds later, before alice could bring her [scientist] mana over to the [scientist] seed, alice ran out of pure mana.


    instantly, the chunk of [scientist] mana was dragged back towards her [scholar] seed, where it once again got stuck. most frustrating of all, alice could still see multiple chunks of [doctor] mana and a few other types still laying around in her body. they were much smaller in size, and they weren¡¯t really a big problem yet, but alice definitely felt that they would become an issue if she didn¡¯t deal with them eventually. but she didn¡¯t have a [doctor] class seed, meaning alice had nowhere she could go to remove the [doctor] mana from her body. and as she had already discovered while trying to move around the [scholar] mana, anytime she wasn¡¯t actively pushing mana away, it would fly right back to its starting position. meaning she couldn¡¯t just push it out of her body.


    a few moments later, another few globs of mana from her surroundings started to flow towards her class seeds. most of it was [explorer of magic] mana, which meant that at least there wouldn¡¯t be any other problems after absorbing this mana.


    you have leveled up!


    explorer of magic 76 -> 77


    and then, a few new types of unidentified mana quickly made their way into her body, and alice resisted the urge to curse.


    apparently, in addition to one level in [explorer of magic], alice had gained some mana for [pure mana manipulator], [esoteric mage], and some more misplaced [scientist] mana. some of which had promptly gotten stuck trying to enter her clogged-up [scholar] magic seed, and some of which had gotten stuck trying to enter her [explorer of magic] seed. the amount of [scientist] mana that made it to the correct seed didn¡¯t even give her a new level.


    alice felt an increasingly large headache start to form near her forehead. she took a few more deep breaths, and tried to quell the increasingly high level of annoyance she was feeling. annoyance was not a productive emotion, and she hated feeling it, but after everything else that had happened today, it was just so easy to be frustrated by small problems, even if she had the tools to resolve most of the issues she had run into after waking up. she took a final deep breath, and tried to focus on her new observations.


    she had a much better idea of just how important some of the steps the system usually took when people levelled up were now, and had a budding theory to go along with her new observations.


    alice now suspected that any time anyone did any action that was related to a specific ¡®idea,¡¯ they would get a huge hodgepodge of different mana types. for example, if someone healed someone, they would get a bunch of different kinds of mana. [organic mage] mana, [doctor] mana, and perhaps a few other similar kinds of mana, because those were the classes people associated with healing. despite that fact, when the system was still around, most people didn¡¯t have dozens, or hundreds of classes. it was pretty unusual for someone to have more than ten in total.


    why was this?


    it was likely because the system converted various similar kinds of mana into one, specific kind of mana, thus concentrating people¡¯s benefits for performing specific actions into a few categories they could make the most use of. there was probably some way to convert similar kinds of mana into each other, although there might be restrictions on the exact nature of these conversions.


    this might also be why there were requirements for people to get new classes: they acted as a way for the system to understand what people wanted to prioritize.


    of course, there were still some oddities with this theory. alice had looked it up before, and knew for a fact that nobody had ever observed a decrease in levelling speed for their classes, even if they had several similar classes. if somebody had twenty different research related classes and then made a new discovery, each class would level up just as quickly as if the person only had one research-related class. however, alice also knew that magic probably didn¡¯t follow the law of conservation of energy, so maybe this observation was simply because conservation of energy didn¡¯t always work in this context.


    either way, at least for now, she had to find a way to copy the system¡¯s filtering ability. she had a huge amount of mana her class seeds couldn¡¯t absorb properly, and if she didn¡¯t find a way to deal with it, it would cause huge issues for her mental stability sooner or later. especially right now, when she already felt bad, she didn¡¯t feel like trying to manage an increasingly strong desire to act like a [doctor] or a [scientist].


    the biggest question was what kind of magic seed she needed to properly convert mana from one type to another. she spent several minutes tossing ideas around, trying to figure out what magic seed she could form with {seeds of ambition} once the perk came off cooldown in about a week.


    as she was lost in her thoughts, she heard a sudden crash in the distance. it was loud enough that it threw her out of her thoughts, and she immediately started scanning the place outside of her window.


    what was that sound?


    moments later, alice began to pick up an increasingly noticeable set of clanging and scratching sounds, as metal clashed against metal in the distance.


    she frowned.


    something was very wrong.


    she immediately started preparing her magic tendrils. the sound of metal ringing against metal could be the sound of some [guards] training, but it was very late.


    suddenly, alice thought of the hostile gaze that had been centered on her earlier that day, and a chill ran down her spine.


    she wasn¡¯t entirely sure if the manor was under attack yet. however, she suddenly felt as if the night was filled with hidden eyes, hungrily gazing at her from the distance.


    she quickly moved away from her window and began heading towards the hallway.


    alice wasn¡¯t terrible in a fight, but she wasn¡¯t great either. if something bad was happening, the first thing she needed to do was find ethan or her [hidden guard]. preferably both.


    as she was moving through the corridors, the sound of metal clashing against metal became increasingly obvious. someone was attacking the manor, and they were getting closer by the second.


    author¡¯s note:


    note to self: change cover art for story. (don¡¯t forget today... unlike yesterday and the day before).

 Chapter 131

    chapter 131


    alice felt her heart leap into her throat for a moment, before she started to calm down.


    she still felt a little afraid because the manor was under attack, but her training started to kick in. ethan had explicitly taken her with him when the illvarian army had taken down the society base several months ago, in order to train her awareness of battlefields and fighting. he had also consistently made her think about what to do if an [assassin] came for her with his constant quizzes. combined with the combat training from her classes at her magic academy, alice had at least some idea what she needed to do right now.


    she still wasn¡¯t perfectly calm, but she could at least control her panic.


    she continued running through the halls of ethan¡¯s manor in a controlled jog, heading towards ethan¡¯s study. alice was decent at fighting now, but she was still a researcher first and foremost. trying to protect herself against someone brazen enough to attack an immortal¡¯s manor was a terrible idea. instead, she should be trying to meet up with ethan or her [hidden guard] so that they could keep her safe.


    and yet, despite her exceptional [dexterity] stat that would put an olympic athlete¡¯s running speed to shame, it wasn¡¯t fast enough.


    as alice was rounding a corner into another hallway, she stumbled upon two hostile mages fighting with a [guard].


    one of them noticed her, and yelled something in a language alice didn¡¯t recognize.


    the two had been conserving their mana during the fight with the [guard], but the moment they saw alice, they started flooding their bodies with organic mana. moments later, their strength dramatically increased. one of them continued to attack the [guard], trying to finish him off, while the other started charging towards her.


    organic mages, thought alice, grimacing.


    hostile [organic mages] attacking the manor immediately made her guess who the attackers were. there was one hostile organization that was famous for employing large numbers of [organic mages], and alice and ethan had destroyed one of their bases a few months ago.


    a moment later, {enhanced senses} kicked in.


    time seemed to slow down a bit. it wasn¡¯t quite as drastic as the boost from {adrenaline rush}, but alice¡¯s perception of where her enemies were and what they were doing also increased significantly. at the same time, alice felt a certain awareness of the strength of her two enemies settle into her mind.


    neither attacker is purely combat focused. they¡¯re still dangerous. i¡¯ll have a hard time keeping up with them once i use up {adrenaline rush} and {enhanced senses}. i can fall back on {speed experimentation} to boost my speed a little further, but they can probably also boost their speed. i need to win this battle fast or things could get dangerous.


    after alice finished processing the information from {enhanced senses}, she quickly reached out towards everything in her surroundings and ripped up four floorboards with her mana tendrils. then, she quickly used her remaining three mana tendrils to turn the floorboards into sharpened stakes by shaving off the ends.


    then, she fired the sharpened stakes at the [organic mage] charging towards her.


    the man lit up with rainbow mana, and suddenly, his movements stopped looking like they were in slow motion.


    he¡¯s using a perk similar to {adrenaline rush}, she realized.


    the man sprouted three mana tendrils of his own, and channeled kinetic mana through them.


    before she could react, he ripped a painting off the wall, and then hurled it at alice¡¯s projectiles. he managed to knock two of the sharpened floorboards off-course, before he stopped the other two dead in their tracks with his kinetic magic.


    and by the time he had finished stopping alice¡¯s first volley of projectiles, she had already prepared the next wave, using her enhanced speed.


    the next four projectiles nearly ripped into the man¡¯s chest, but rainbow mana surged through his body, and then he sped up again.


    alice felt {adrenaline rush} kick in as the man appeared right behind her. she couldn¡¯t tell if the man had teleported or simply sped up well beyond her perception, but if {adrenaline rush} hadn¡¯t kicked in, she wouldn¡¯t have even processed the man¡¯s disappearance before he attacked her.


    luckily, her ability to perceive her surroundings in all directions, as well as {adrenaline rush}, saved her. the man seemed to be trying to punch her in the back of the head, but under the influence of {enhanced senses} and {adrenaline rush}, he seemed to be moving in slow motion. alice noticed that his fist was aglow with rainbow mana, indicating that if his fist connected with her, she would have a very bad day.


    fear flashed through her veins. alice tossed a bit of display mana into {speed experimentation} to boost herself even further, by convincing herself that she was experimenting with how her new no_magic seed worked in a fight.


    then, with the help of {extended organics}, one of her mana tendrils simply popped into existence behind her and drilled into the man¡¯s arm. she activated her no_magic seed.


    the man¡¯s body became slow and sluggish. whatever perk he had been using to speed up his physical body and perception of time had been shut down, at least temporarily. the rainbow perk that had emanated from his fist and given alice a crippling sense of danger disappeared. all of the organic mana that he had been using to boost his arm disappeared. in a fraction of a second, the man changed from a dangerous enemy who was about to kill her to a weak combatant fighting a mage.


    at the same time, alice felt her no_magic magic seed start to bleed mana at a ridiculous rate.


    alice¡¯s new perk could deactivate every kind of magic, even the magic inside of someone else¡¯s body. but trying to push against the innate magic resistance of another person was also insanely mana inefficient. every single second that she tried to keep the other mage from using his perks and magic, mana flooded out of her magic seed like a collapsing dam.


    alice immediately dematerialized more of her mana tendrils, before they also appeared behind her. they quickly connected with the man¡¯s sleeve, and alice tried to use them to pick the mage up and slam him into the ground.


    instead of throwing the man around like a rag doll, his sleeve simply negated alice¡¯s attempts to manipulate it. it was clearly enchanted to prevent enemy mages from using it.


    alice¡¯s eyes widened in surprise, before she pulled her enchanted bead bracelet out of her storage perk and activated the enchantment on it.


    all of the beads on the bracelet propelled themselves into the man¡¯s face, shredding apart his skin and muscles as he screamed in pain. however, she didn¡¯t think any of her beads penetrated his skull. she had ripped apart one of his eyes and hurt him very badly, but she didn¡¯t think she had inflicted a lethal blow on him.


    ¡°lady alice, are you looking for honored immortal ethan? i believe that he would want you to find him as soon as possible,¡± said the [guard] after a few moments. ¡°i was originally trying to find your location to protect you, but i¡¯m glad you found me instead.¡± the [guard] chuckled grimly. ¡°although it¡¯s a bit embarrassing that you needed to protect me, instead of the other way around.¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°don¡¯t worry about it. two mages against a non-mage is a huge disadvantage. do you know where ethan is? we should meet up with him as fast as possible.¡±


    ¡°he is currently moving around in the area between the first floor and second floor of the building, last i knew. the attackers seemed surprised that honored immortal was still present in the manor, and he¡¯s taking the opportunity to ambush the attackers.¡±


    alice immediately nodded, and decided to wait a while before heading over. if ethan was caught up in the middle of a big fight, she might distract him if she went over right now. she had already burned through most of her best perks during the fight, and rushing to the front lines would just be stupid. if ethan was currently fighting the attackers by himself, it would be best to hunker down and wait for him to find her, instead of trying to find him.


    the two of them quickly stepped into the nearest room and started barricading it, as well as preparing for any potential threats that might find the room they were hiding in and attack.


    luckily, nobody else came to attack them.


    after a few minutes, a few more [guards] appeared near the room. one of them was sporting a rather large hole in his guts, although he was still moving around just fine, and another one of them was alice¡¯s [hidden guard]. he was currently missing an arm, which made alice wince a little bit. even if regenerating limbs wasn¡¯t too hard in this world, it was probably quite painful to lose a limb. and it also spoke to the strength of the people attacking the manor. alice and the [guard] had been luckier than she thought. if some of the stronger opponents had attacked them instead, alice would probably have been at the mercy of the attackers.


    alice and the [guard] let them in, and then re-barricaded the doors and continued to wait.


    the [guards] and alice¡¯s [hidden guard] grouped up around her in tense silence, keeping a wary eye on the two hallways leading into the room in order to keep alice safe.


    the sound of fighting in the manor started to die down as the minutes passed. alice¡¯s [guards] never stopped being wary of their surroundings, but no other enemies found them. half an hour later, ethan walked into the room. his eyes immediately flicked towards alice, and some of the tension bled away from his shoulders.


    ¡°good, you¡¯re still alive,¡± he said, immediately striding over to alice. ¡°are you injured at all? i have a lot of organic mana left over.¡±


    ¡°i should be fine,¡± said alice. ¡°just a few bruises.¡±


    ¡°good, good. i¡¯m glad you had the sense to leave your room ¨C the attackers seem to have been targeting you in particular. they managed to get into it and ransack it, and a few of the attackers seemed rather high level. i didn¡¯t even manage to kill all of them.¡± he said, shaking his head. ¡°the person who was watching you earlier seems to have been some sort of decoy. they led my [spies] to a hidden base that i thought was a society base, but it seems to have been an elaborate ruse. it has been quite a while since someone outwitted me like this,¡± said ethan, looking more than a little disturbed.


    then, he turned towards alice¡¯s [hidden guard] and the other few [guards] who had been protecting alice, before nodding at them. ¡°all of you did very well in protecting my apprentice during the attack. i¡¯ll personally heal your injuries in a moment, and i¡¯ll give you a very generous bonus. well done,¡± he said, extending a few mana tendrils towards the injured [guards]. a few moments later, all of their injuries were simply wiped away by ethan¡¯s organic mana. the [guards] looked much more relieved when all of their injuries were healed.


    ¡°go help the other [guards] check the manor for any hidden enemies. i¡¯ll arrange for you bonuses later,¡± said ethan.


    the [guards] dispersed. now that the two of them were alone, ethan frowned again. a rainbow perk shimmered into existence, safeguarding their conversation. ¡°this attack is very troubling. the attackers seemed to have been very focused on you. they either know something, or they¡¯re desperate.¡± he sighed. ¡°either way, it¡¯s not good that the attackers were willing to attack an immortal¡¯s manor in the middle of the city.¡±


    ¡°were the attackers from the society?¡± alice asked.


    ¡°almost certainly. every sign indicates that they were from the society, although i will confirm it later.¡± ethan shook his head.


    alice glanced at the splatters of blood in the hallway where she and the [guard] had fought against the attacking mages, and then nodded. she and ethan both knew that the society would go completely insane if they were aware of all of alice¡¯s research into the system. they would possibly literally toss all of their leadership, and a huge portion of their combat personnel, into kidnapping her if they knew everything alice could do and everything she had researched. her research was simply too important and valuable.


    it wasn¡¯t quite that bad yet. but the society was definitely thought she knew something. and they were willing to lose a huge batch of combat-ready mages just to steal her research notes.


    ¡°did you have any research notes laying around in your room?¡±


    ¡°i have a good memory perk. i don¡¯t usually write things down anymore,¡± said alice. ¡°i used to, when i first arrived in this world, but these days, i just don¡¯t really see the point anymore. my memory is the best notebook i have available to me.¡±


    ethan nodded. ¡°good. so they won¡¯t be able to steal any of your notes.¡±


    the two fell silent, as both considered the implications of the attack tonight.


    ¡°the person who was spying on you earlier seems to have been some sort of trap,¡± said ethan. ¡°i sent a few [spies] to track them down, and i also made it seem like i was leading the attack once i realized it was a trap. i wasn¡¯t sure if they were targeting you or me, and i wanted to be sure.¡± he shook his head. ¡°i thought they would send a few kidnappers after you, or maybe a dozen mages at most. i had the [guards] preparing to defend your room. they attacked with a few dozen mages instead, and managed to punch through the [guards]. i originally thought i had over prepared, and i even stayed away because i was worried they wouldn¡¯t take action if i was too obviously present in the manor. i apologize for the fact that my actions put you in danger ¨C you were never supposed to be in harm¡¯s way tonight,¡± said ethan. he looked truly upset for a moment, before he shuddered, and shook his head. ¡°considering their actions, the question of whether they¡¯re targeting you is clear. the society may not be aware of everything, but they¡¯re now clearly and explicitly targeting you.¡±


    alice felt a wave of cold anxiety worm its way into her stomach, but at the same time, she felt a strange sense of... relief?


    she was startled once she realized that she felt relieved. it was such a strange emotion to feel after confirming that the society of starry eyes was definitely targeting her, and it took her a few moments to figure out why she felt relieved.


    since the moment she had learned about this world¡¯s situation, she had been worried that the society would target her. she had spent almost every single moment of her time in this world aware that if her research was known, or if the wrong people learned about her home planet, she would probably be targeted by the society of starry eyes. every single move she took was careful, and she was always, always afraid that someone would find out more than they should know.


    and now it didn¡¯t matter. during the tea party a few days ago, ethan¡¯s mother had said that it probably didn¡¯t matter whether ethan and alice tried to cover up the fact that she was a researcher and not a combat mage.


    alice could now definitely confirm that it was irrelevant. the society was targeting her.


    it was a terrifying situation, but at the same time, alice didn¡¯t have to be worried about whether the society might target her anymore.


    she now knew for a fact that they knew something. and they were coming.

 Chapter 132

    chapter 132


    alice quickly dealt with her level-up notifications before she went to sleep.


    you have leveled up!


    survivor: 56 -> 58, kinetic manabinder 41 -> 42


    both her [kinetic manabinder] and [survivor] class seeds got clogged up after her level up notifications, meaning that if alice wanted to level up again, she needed to unclog her [survivor], [kinetic manabinder], [explorer of magic], [scholar], and [scientist] classes. in short, literally the only main class seed she had that wasn¡¯t currently clogged up was [careful enchanter]. alice had no pure mana left over right now, and some of the types of mana stuck to her class seeds were classes she didn¡¯t have a seed for. which mean that she would have to wait for a while to deal with the leftover chunks of [survivor] mana stuck to her [kinetic manabinder] class and the [kinetic manabinder] mana stuck to her [survivor] class seed. and then she would need to figure out how to deal with the various other kinds of mana that had gotten stuck to [kinetic manabinder], since there were apparently several subtypes of [kinetic mage] and alice had just gotten access to several of them that she couldn¡¯t use until they got converted to [kinetic manabinder]. she was probably missing at least one level in [kinetic manabinder], possibly two.


    she sighed in frustration before she looked over her other system notifications.


    through training, you have increased an attribute!


    magic 164 -> 165, endurance 134 -> 135


    the point in endurance must have come from when she got punched in the face by the [organic mage]. it had been a very minor injury, since her [endurance] was pretty good by this world¡¯s standards and unenhanced [organic mages] were basically just mediocre pugilists. alice was very thankful for her high [endurance] stat, despite how much muscle pain and cold, hungry nights she had endured to raise the stat to this point. it was more surprising that such a minor injury had actually managed to push her up a point in the attribute.


    she also noticed that, unlike her class seeds, her attributes didn¡¯t cause any noticeable clogging when they converted themselves into mana-flesh. however, her body seemed to have a harder time ¡®digesting¡¯ the new mana and turning it into mana-flesh. alice suspected that she had probably gotten slightly less progress towards improving her attributes than she should have. it wouldn¡¯t have been enough to boost her up another point in any of her attributes, but if she didn¡¯t figure out how to deal with the issue, she would certainly notice the effects over time. it wasn¡¯t a big deal, but alice certainly still wanted to raise her stats as much as possible when she had the opportunity.


    alice felt the urge to rub her temples in annoyance.


    she really needed to fix her class seeds and mana filtration somehow. she would look into it when {seeds of ambition}¡¯s cooldown ended next week. there was probably some way to do it using just pure mana manipulation, but alice wasn¡¯t at that skill level yet, and there was probably a filtration magic seed that would solve her immediate needs until she got better at manipulating mana.


    after finally looking over her system notifications, alice spent some organic mana healing up the bruise on her face, and then went to sleep. there was nothing else she could do for the day, and she was exhausted after the society attack.


    the next day, alice had a quick breakfast, before ethan called her into his study. there, ethan handed her a stack of reports.


    alice scanned one report after another, and started frowning. what she had read didn¡¯t make sense to her.


    through the reports, alice learned that the attack on ethan¡¯s manor wasn¡¯t an isolated case. in fact, it wasn¡¯t even close.


    several towns and cities that could get news to the capital quickly had sent reports of a society attack on four other important researchers, three of which had been kidnapped in their sleep. the final mage had managed to flee for his life in his nightclothes and made it to the [guard], before they managed to just barely fend off his attackers. all four attacks were centered on other prominent research-based mages in and around metsel.


    alice had originally thought that the society knew something about her research. she had assumed that perhaps they knew she was researching the system, or perhaps they knew that she was from earth, and had explicitly launched an attack against her because of that.


    however, while the society clearly knew something if they were willing to devote several dozen mages to attacking her, it was also clear that the society hadn¡¯t targeted her because they discovered just how important her research was. they weren¡¯t targeting alice individually at all: they were targeting every single mage with good levels in researcher classes. they were looking for some sort of information, and they were desperate enough to find that information that they didn¡¯t care what they risked in the process.


    the society launching attacks on almost a dozen mages over the course of a night wasn¡¯t just stupidly courageous. illvaria had already been working to root out the society of starry eyes and drive them out of the country, but the crown had never forgotten that its first priority was to further the recolonization effort of southern illvaria. everything else had been treated as secondary. not to mention, society bases were very hard to find, so unless the crown got lucky, it was usually pretty hard to retaliate against the society of starry eyes on a large scale. it was difficult to attack a foe that couldn¡¯t be located, after all.


    however, if the society of starry eyes attacked several different researchers in the country, the illvarian crown might very well drop everything to exterminate the society no matter the cost. not only that, but organizing five different large, coordinated attacks against prominent researchers around metsel had to have left behind some trails that competent [spies] would be able to follow. meaning that directly after this, the society would probably lose at least a few of their hidden bases, and they would possibly lose several of them. the society¡¯s actions tonight had basically directly sacrificed several society mages and research bases to steal some research notes and kidnap some resaerchers.


    alice couldn¡¯t fathom why the society was taking such extreme actions. the society was behaving as if it had no sense of self-preservation at all. and for an organization that had survived decades, this made no sense to alice.


    ¡°what do you make of all of this?¡± asked ethan, putting the reports back on his desk before turning to alice. he seemed genuinely curious about what her opinion was, rather than as if he was testing her.


    ¡°well... i doubt all of these people were secretly researching system mana,¡± said alice. ¡°the rarity of the achievements i¡¯ve gotten for studying system mana strongly imply that it¡¯s unusual for mages to study system mana. and the society is clearly desperate to find out something. otherwise, they wouldn¡¯t have done something so harmful to themselves. what were these mages studying? if we can figure that out, maybe we can figure out what the society is so desperate to learn.¡±


    ¡°hmm... two of them had dimensional mana research licenses, and two others were focused on fairly exotic research on pure mana and how it interacts with other forms of mana.¡±


    alice nodded thoughtfully. ¡°both branches of research are somewhat in line with their interests. but i just can¡¯t figure out why they¡¯re so willing to pick a fight with the illvarian crown. if a real ¡®war¡¯ between illvaria and the society broke out, the society might win, but it would be a pyrrhic victory. and the other nations of the shil confederacy would probably help illvaria out. right?¡± asked alice, turning towards ethan.


    ethan nodded. ¡°the shil confederacy barely ever unites unless a massive external threat invades. however, i seriously doubt that the shil confederacy would ignore massive society activity, especially if it looks like they¡¯re directly challenging the authority and power of the illvarian crown. most of our ¡®allies¡¯ are happy to see us face some problems, but if those problems look like they might spread to their lands, they will help instead of taking delight in our suffering. and the society going all out to launch suicidal attacks definitely qualifies as a weird and dangerous threat that might spread out of illvaria. so i¡¯m also baffled. the society shouldn¡¯t be behaving like this, but they are. i mean, i know that the system broke, because i¡¯ve seen your memories. but after looking through the research we stole from the society base, as well as my own information channels and other reports, i¡¯m not convinced that the society knows much about system mana. and if they don¡¯t know anything about system mana, why are they panicking and going crazy?¡± ethan shook his head. ¡°thus far, there aren¡¯t any major signs of the cataclysmic results of the system breaking. there hasn¡¯t been enough time for things to go horribly wrong yet, unless you know exactly what to look for. right now, we¡¯ve just had a few isolated cases of mages forming seeds incorrectly and getting hurt because of that. but the society is acting like a beehive that was lit on fire, and i don¡¯t know why.¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°we¡¯ll talk about that in a bit. some things have happened, and i haven¡¯t had time to talk to you about it. this week has been... very chaotic. and terrifying.¡±


    cecilia turned back towards ethan, and shivered under ethan¡¯s gaze. ¡°yes, honored immortal, alice has told me about her research, and i have participated in it,¡± she said. ¡°alice originally asked me for help with creating enchanted items when she was doing her research. nowadays, she doesn¡¯t really need my help as much as she used to, but we still talk about her research, and i occasionally help her.¡±


    ¡°have you told anyone else about alice¡¯s research?¡± asked ethan.


    ¡°i haven¡¯t, honored immortal. i would never betray my friend¡¯s confidence like that, and alice¡¯s research might get her hunted down by the society if they learn about it. there¡¯s no way i would ever willingly leak that secret.¡±


    ethan gazed at cecilia for a few moments, and then nodded. the disapproval in his eyes faded.


    ¡°that¡¯s good to hear. i thought it was likely, but i needed to make sure.¡±


    ¡°but do you happen to know why the society is going nuts right now?¡± asked cecilia. she looked baffled as she pored over the reports of the attacks. ¡°their actions are... inconsistent with their own long-term survival. this doesn¡¯t look like a crazy plan that will get their organization exceptional benefits if it succeeds... it looks more like the society has just randomly decided to commit suicide for some reason. and i can¡¯t figure out why.¡±


    alice paused, and then reached her hand out. ¡°we don¡¯t know for sure. as far as we can tell, the society didn¡¯t seem to know about system mana. but we could be wrong. alternately, something has gone horribly wrong when it comes to dimensional mana, which we are currently unaware of. regarding system mana, i want to use {shared memory} to show you something. are you willing to let me use it on you?¡±


    ¡°go ahead.¡±


    alice immediately touched cecilia¡¯s hand, and then shared the memory of the system and its mana collapsing into thin air.


    cecilia turned even paler than before.


    ¡°when did this happen?¡±


    ¡°about two days ago.¡±


    ¡°that¡¯s... fuck. no wonder you said this week has been chaotic.¡± she paused. ¡°so... the two reasons that the society seems to have lost its mind are both horrible. either the society knows about system mana, meaning that they¡¯re reasonably likely to discover your own research into the topic and then target you... or they have discovered some sort of horrifying secret about dimensional mana?¡± cecilia shuddered.


    ¡°it certainly appears that way,¡± said ethan. ¡°of course, even if our assumptions are wrong, the society acting like a horde of lunatics is cause for concern.¡±


    ¡°at the very least, i doubt they discovered my research specifically,¡± said alice. ¡°which is something. they¡¯re probably just targeting me as a matter of course, since it¡¯s not really that hard to figure out i¡¯m a research focused mage if one pays attention to the details. and if an immortal is paying attention to my research, there¡¯s obviously something special about it. which is pretty much the only bright side about the current situation.¡±


    cecilia nodded, and then took a deep breath. she turned back towards ethan. ¡°what about alice¡¯s classmates? the ones that come to board game night every week? i mean, i imagine the society would try to target me first, since i¡¯m alice¡¯s closest friend that is actually targetable... but they could be targeted too.¡±


    ¡°i¡¯ve instructed alice¡¯s magic academy to up their security quite a bit once i realized just how dangerous her research is,¡± said ethan. ¡°i will probably need to upgrade it a few more times, but i don¡¯t know if the society would be quite as keen to target the classmates alice is close to. since they seem to spend most of their time at school or at home, i intend to get the [guard] more active in those areas.¡± ethan paused, and then narrowed his eyes. ¡°however, ultimately, while i intend to upscale the defenses in the city, defending alone will not protect everyone. the society dared to attack an immortal¡¯s manor in the middle of the city. they attacked my apprentice. there will be consequences,¡± ethan said, his voice practically a low growl. then, the ice-cold rage in his eyes dissipated. he turned back towards cecilia, and adopted a somewhat gentle expression, as if the earlier suspicion towards cecilia and anger towards the society had been a lie.


    cecilia absorbed ethan¡¯s words for a moment, and then sighed softly. ¡°i suppose that¡¯s everything, then. should i go and pack my things?¡±


    ¡°i¡¯ll send a few [guards] to grab everything for you, if you don¡¯t mind. no sense in having you wander around the city right now. even if the presence of the [guard] will increase drastically within the next few days, for now, it could still be dangerous before the commands are given and work schedules adjusted.¡±


    cecilia nodded, and a few moments later, another [guard] was sent to retrieve cecilia¡¯s things.


    when the [guard] returned, alice quietly helped cecilia move to a room right next to her new room ¨C her old room had been abandoned, due to having been trashed during the society attack and for having a window, which now seemed rather dangerous. the two of them were located basically down the hall from ethan¡¯s study, where he spent most of his time, and so that they could immediately find ethan if the society managed to attack the manor again.


    less than five hours later, another report came.


    true to alice¡¯s suspicions, people were now flocking to churches of the system and trying to figure out what the heck was wrong with their status screens. and while ethan had given orders for [enchanters] to start manufacturing as many anti-mana rings as possible, many, many children were unlocking their status screens far before they were supposed to, and more and more people were beginning to notice.


    it had been three days since the system disappeared. and the first effects were finally starting to ripple through illvarian society.


    the collapse of the system, and its effects, was now fully underway in illvaria.

 Chapter 133

    chapter 133


    alice spent the next day skipping school and observing the church of the system¡¯s reaction to the increasingly noticeable crisis of the system¡¯s disappearance. she also took the time to use pure mana and unclog what parts of her class seeds she could unclog, although it was a very frustrating and tiring process.


    you have leveled up!n?00v€l--?1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.


    kinetic manabinder 42 -> 44


    alice learned that nearly two levels of [kinetic manabinder] had been ¡®stuck¡¯ trying to integrate with the wrong class seeds, although none of her other classes levelled up this time. which made alice nervous about just how much worse people¡¯s minds and status screens were going to get before the crisis was resolved. alice at least had some tools to combat the issue of her status screen getting frozen and her class seeds failing to process the mana they needed to. despite that fact, at least right now, alice¡¯s pure mana seed was frequently overtaxed dealing with minor issues she noticed cropping up in her class seeds. if she didn¡¯t have {lesser organic vision} and {intuitive magic modelling}, alice would have struggled to even maintain her own class seeds, since she would have had a hard time ¡®looking¡¯ at her brain and moving around chunks of mana as needed.


    she was getting the feeling that the system¡¯s collapse was going to be even more of a mess than she had imagined.


    at the very least, ethan¡¯s subordinates and the [enchanters] at the palace had been working to churn out as many rings of mana-blocking as they could reasonably make per day. the number of rings they could make at once was pitiful compared to the number illvaria as a whole would need, since there were around a million inhabitants in the country, and pure mana seeds weren¡¯t a very popular magic seed choice for most mages. when alice and ethan had originally discussed the use of mana-blocking rings, they had assumed that it would only be needed for children below the age of six, to prevent them from absorbing mana they didn¡¯t have a way to get rid of. even creating enough rings for all of the children in the country would be practically impossible, although making as many rings as possible would at least help.


    however, given what alice had learned about class seeds getting clogged up after the system collapsed, it was obvious that illvaria¡¯s supply of mana-blocking rings was going to be so utterly and completely inadequate that it would barely make a dent in the pool of people who would need one. and even the people who managed to get ahold of a mana-blocking ring would stop levelling up, which would certainly make the ring less popular. people in this world highly valued gaining levels. even if it was ultimately the best way to safeguard their mind from corrosion, there would certainly be some people who refused to wear mana-blocking rings because they wanted to keep gaining levels.


    alice felt an even greater headache coming on every single time she thought about the aftereffects of the collapse of the system.


    she took a deep breath, and tried to calm down. at the very least, rings were being made. even if supply would be nowhere near what was needed, it was better than nothing.


    alice also briefly wondered if she was being selfish, by continuing to level up and sort out her own mana instead of spending all of her time constructing anti-mana rings. each anti-mana ring would be one more person who would be safe from the aftereffects of the system collapse, after all.


    when she shared her concerns with ethan, he flatly stated that the ¡®best¡¯ thing alice could do with her time was to find a permanent solution to the problems caused by the system¡¯s collapse. the rings were just a stopgap measure ¨C ultimately, the main issue hadn¡¯t been dealt with at all. which, after some thought, alice realized was probably a logical statement, even if it felt wrong to be wasting her pure mana levelling herself up and unclogging her class seeds, instead of just grabbing an antimagic enchantment ring and then churning out as many copies of the enchantment as she could manage.


    however, ethan¡¯s argument was that if alice got a few more perks, that might allow her to fix the system, or find a way to make class seeds artificially and get them to filter mana on their own, or... something. alice wasn¡¯t really sure what a ¡®permanent¡¯ solution would look like yet, and it seemed that while ethan had some ideas, he wasn¡¯t sure what the best option was either. however, ethan still made a good point. every single perk alice got was an investment in fully solving the problem, instead of just treating a few of the symptoms. alice couldn¡¯t say she felt great about that, but she had to admit that it made sense.


    apart from waiting for more news about the church of the system and unclogging her class seeds, alice took the time to work on some enchanting. even if it would clog up her seeds for her enchanting classes, alice was mostly sure that she could fix the issue, even if she had no way to make the solution widespread right now. and she really needed to be using every possible moment she had to level up. for now, alice just made a few mana-blocking rings with the pure mana she had left(while leaving a bit of mana to unclog her class seeds again), as well as making a few more offensive kinetic bracelets. since the society could attack her at any moment, she wanted to have as many disposable magic items on hand as possible.


    you have leveled up!


    careful enchanter: 27 -> 29


    finally, on tuesday, as alice ditched school for the second day in a row, reports started coming in, and alice finally got an idea what the church of the system was doing.


    and after reading it, alice felt... depressed.


    there were several smaller churches dedicated to the system in metsel. after all, the capital had over a hundred thousand people living in it. it would be almost impossible for one church to meet the needs of the entire populace. however, there was still one ¡®main church¡¯ that acted as ¡®main church¡¯ for all smaller system churches in illvaria. basically, all churches of the world fundamentally responded to the main headquarters of the church of the system, but since that was located on the central continent, it was rather impractical for nations like illvaria to receive news from there in a timely manner.


    so most countries had a smaller, local system headquarters that managed smaller, day to day administration, such as replacing heads of smaller churches when they died, recording new immortals after reaching immortality and becoming a saint of the church, and so on. and local headquarters were usually tied to the crown or the local nobles in some ludicrously tangle web of politics, which alice was admittedly unfamiliar with. for now, it wasn¡¯t that important.


    what was important was that the local headquarters of the church of the system seemed to have totally melted down in the wake of the ¡®silence¡¯ of the system.


    the main [priest of the system] had retreated to his quarters yesterday, in wake of the strange, garbled perks and status screens that were starting to show up. he had not left his quarters since then. he had not issued any words of comfort to the believers of the system, or come up with any idea why the system had suddenly glitched out, or even told people to ¡®have faith.¡¯ instead, as more and more people stopped by the church of the system to ask what the heck was going on, the head of the church of the system decided it was a good time to have a crisis of faith.


    ¡°i understand. i don¡¯t think i¡¯m qualified to make decisions for cecilia, though. she¡¯s her own person, and she should decide whether she¡¯s willing to bear the risks associated with trying to get good achievements like this,¡± said alice. ¡°being targeted by the society is nothing to scoff at.¡±


    ¡°fair enough,¡± said ethan. ¡°i¡¯ll arrange a meeting with the [priests] for tomorrow. cecilia can come or not come as she prefers. and for now, i¡¯ve sent your magic academy word that you¡¯ll be taking a leave of absence for some ¡®special training.¡¯ given the fact that the society attacks aren¡¯t too difficult to learn about, most of your [teachers] will probably decide that you¡¯re being placed under house arrest so that i can keep you safe until further notice,¡± said ethan. ¡°you can still attend classes if you want to, but i do suspect that this is going to take up most of your time in the future.¡±


    alice sighed, but nodded.


    she had fought tooth and nail to get into a magic academy, but only got to spend most of one semester inside before moving on. in a way, it felt strange that something she worked so hard for would be placed on the sidelines so easily. on the other hand, it also represented her growth, and her larger and larger impact on the world. at the start of summer, she had been unimportant enough that she could barely get a sponsor to help her attend a magic academy. now, she was arranging meetings with a third of the [priests of the system] in metsel, and was the apprentice of an immortal.


    life was strange.


    alice shook her head, brushing her thoughts away, and started walking towards cecilia¡¯s room.


    * * *


    after knocking on the door, cecilia opened it and gave alice a quick glance.


    ¡°come in,¡± she said.


    alice quickly entered the room, and looked at cecilia. alice tried her best to smile at her best friend in this world, and realize that her lips weren¡¯t moving quite as fluidly as she wished they would.


    she felt... nervous?


    very nervous.


    alice realized that she was very worried about how cecilia would answer her question. on one hand, alice was worried that cecilia would die if she joined alice in talking about researching the system. after all, the society would definitely target cecilia if it was known that she was involved in alice¡¯s research. and while ethan was trying to protect cecilia, alice was very sure that ethan would prioritize her over cecilia if push came to shove. ethan¡¯s primary goal was to add a new immortal to illvaria¡¯s ¡®family¡¯ of immortals ¨C and cecilia was currently highly unlikely to join that family. while ethan might feel some sadness if she died, it seemed to be mostly in relation to how it would affect alice¡¯s mental state.


    on the other hand, alice also didn¡¯t want to see cecilia get older and older and then pass away. alice was growing more and more aware that her odds of reaching immortality were excellent, if she could survive the society of starry eyes. and if she reached immortality and cecilia didn¡¯t, she would ultimately have to watch cecilia die of old age sooner or later. no matter what cecilia chose, it had a chance of backfiring horrifically.


    she took a deep breathe, trying to push her erratic thoughts away, and then looked at cecilia. she realized that after entering cecilia¡¯s room, she had simply stood there, lost in her thoughts, and snorted.


    ¡°cecilia, how do you feel about going at least somewhat public about researching the system with me?¡±


    cecilia looked baffled, and stared at alice.


    alice started explaining her reasoning to cecilia.


    ¡°i think it¡¯s a good chance to really reach towards immortality,¡± said alice. ¡°it would give you an excellent achievement, and it would also really help me to have someone there to back me up. i mean, you know me ¨C i¡¯m good at research, but my people skills are definitely on the weaker side. having you there would help a lot,¡± she said.


    cecilia seemed to consider alice¡¯s words, mulling them over. eventually, she sighed.


    ¡°all right. let¡¯s explain your research to the church members that it seems possible to work with,¡± she said.

 Chapter 134

    chapter 134


    ethan, alice, and cecilia walked into the room filled with [priests of the system] while alice tried not to feel nervous.


    there were forty-four total people assembled in the room ethan had set aside for this meeting. forty-one [priests] of the system, plus ethan, cecilia, and alice. ethan had judged that this crowd was good enough for alice to start testing things, sharing information, and feeling out how the [priests of the system] might respond on a larger scale if she attempted to work with them.


    of course, alice already knew about everyone who was going to participate in the meeting. ethan had forced alice to vet the list of people who were invited here, and made her explain why she needed to vet every person who was invited here as well.


    it hadn¡¯t taken her too long to realize that every single person who came into ethan¡¯s manor was a potential security risk. they could, at least theoretically, be [assassins] from some neighboring nation, sent to remove alice before she reached immortality. they could also be informants for the society of starry eyes: while the society wasn¡¯t known for their infiltration abilities, alice doubted that they had no informants at all in illvaria. money could make some people do anything, after all.


    as for [assassins]... alice hadn¡¯t thought about that one quite as quickly as she had thought of the possibility of society infiltrators. ethan had given her a hint before she got the answer. alice wasn¡¯t sure how to feel about being a more and more plausible target for assassination. now that it was starting to become obvious just how good her odds of reaching immortality were, it seemed quite normal for other countries to try to kill her. heck, the first thing she had come across in this world upon reaching civilization was news that the sigmusi colonia was orchestrating a war of assassinations and espionage against the illvarian south while the area was cut off from easy reinforcements by snow. however, until the society had attacked ethan¡¯s manor, the idea of being assassinated always seemed like a distant problem for future alice to deal with. now, she was very abruptly aware of the fact that she was a target now. in fact, if somebody wanted her dead, now was the best time to kill her, because in the future she would be higher level, which would naturally make her harder to kill.


    then, after alice finished vetting the list of [priests of the system] that she felt were fine to invite, ethan had gone over her list and knocked out another twenty names, leaving forty-one [priests of the system] who he felt were actually safe enough to invite. according to ethan, those twenty people that alice had missed were probably fine, but right now, alice was weak in comparison to the threats arrayed against her, and thus needed be extra cautious. and ethan backed up his statement by going over their recorded history and actions in great detail, making it clear exactly why he felt she should have known to exclude them.


    alice considered it a somewhat depressing lesson in how much more attention she needed to pay to her surroundings, until she was strong enough to shrug off most casual assassination attempts. but as always, she attentively listened to ethan¡¯s lesson on how to behave as a future immortal and keep herself safe. ethan wouldn¡¯t always be nearby to protect her, and the sooner alice started instinctively getting herself away from danger without ethan¡¯s prompting, the better her odds of surviving to reach immortality.


    besides the somewhat depressing lesson on caution, alice also felt very nervous. she had been in this world for almost a year now, and for most of that time, she had explicitly avoided sharing information with the church of the system or other people about her most important research topic. some part of her half-expected that they would react the same way people on earth had reacted to ¡®witches¡¯ during the middle ages and try to burn her alive, or at least make her life difficult. that was unlikely to actually happen: after all, it would take monumental courage to start raising metaphorical pitchforks against the apprentice of an immortal, especially when ethan was very visibly standing at the front of the room with her. however, humans weren¡¯t always rational ¨C especially during times of fear and stress. and when the god of this planet suddenly stopped behaving as usual, it would be quite normal for [priests of the system] to feel very stressed out and tense. even if nobody present was likely to be able to actually physically harm alice, revealing her research focus still felt very concerning.


    alice sighed, trying to push those thoughts away and focus on the task at hand again.


    she stepped to the front of the room, along with cecilia.


    upon looking at the [priests], for a moment, alice had the bizarre impression that she was holding a press conference, even though there weren¡¯t any cameras or reporters present.


    ¡°ahem,¡± said alice, clearing her throat. she scanned the [priests of the system] one more time, before she started talking.


    ¡°it¡¯s nice to see you all, and thank you for coming here. i wanted to talk about the system. as many of you have noticed, the system is behaving... oddly, recently,¡± said alice.


    she saw a few [priests of the system] nod or wince in the background.


    one of the [priests of the system] had a slightly more unusual reaction. instead of wincing or nodding like the others, she gave alice a dubious look before alice could continue speaking. ¡°no disrespect to the apprentice of an honored immortal, but... why are you giving this speech? i imagine you¡¯re quite accomplished for your age, but i had heard that you were combat-specialized, and i also imagine that you¡¯re probably only a bit better than a regular adult right now. you¡¯re... what, seventeen? most of ethan¡¯s apprentices over the years usually only hit a little over level 50 by your age. and while that¡¯s pretty impressive, i don¡¯t know if it¡¯s really a good idea for you to be giving this speech.¡±


    the woman narrowed her eyes at... ethan?


    alice blinked in confusion. why did the woman look so annoyed at ethan? and why was she questioning alice about this?


    a few moments later, it clicked inside of her mind.


    ethan had a large group of mages and researchers under his command. ethan was also well-known for trying to propel new apprentices into immortality, and had gone through several rounds of failed apprentices before eventually taking alice as an apprentice. doing impressive things would cause the system to give alice good achievements, many of which would likely boost her levelling speed. and while achievements currently seemed a little bit garbled, ever since the system went down, it was still obvious that they worked, even if in a somewhat weakened form.


    alice wouldn¡¯t be getting a particularly amazing achievement if she led this meeting but hadn¡¯t done all of the legwork behind it. however, it would still probably be a good enough achievement to help her grow faster, especially when combined with whatever other achievements the people here assumed she had. after all, alice would need something impressive for ethan to have accepted her as an apprentice in the first place.


    this woman thought that ethan had gotten a huge number of mages and researchers to do all of the legwork, and then had alice present it specifically to earn an achievement even though, in her eyes, alice was unqualified to lead the conference. she likely thought that ethan was treating the collapse of the system as something of a joke or an opportunity to let alice level up, instead of the horrifying disaster that it was. and since she was also likely a religious person, someone treating the malfunctions of her god as an opportunity to earn levels probably rubbed her in completely the wrong way.


    alice felt a strange urge to laugh bubble up in her chest for a moment. she and ethan had talked about how obvious it would be to most people that research her that she was research focused. they had discussed how anyone who was paying attention would know that alice was probably the brains behind alice¡¯s research, and ethan was only tangentially related to her work.


    the society¡¯s actions seemed to bear out their beliefs that it wasn¡¯t really that hard to discover alice¡¯s real focus. however, that didn¡¯t mean that everyone had extensively researched her before now. alice found it a little amusing that the potential allies in this room were the last people to realize that alice was almost entirely research-oriented instead of combat-oriented.


    ¡°i¡¯ve kept this research to myself and a close circle of friends for a long time. however, as many of you have noticed, the system has been behaving oddly ever since a few days ago,¡± said alice. ¡°that is because the system mana in all of the air around us simply disappeared for some reason.¡±


    a few of the [priests of the system] gave alice blank looks, as if they were trying to process what she had said. a few of the other [priests of the system] started to look at the air around them, as if they were trying to see the missing system mana and figure out where it had gone. a few other [priests of the system] furrowed their brows, as if they were trying to put the puzzle pieces together and figure out what could have possibly happened to make system mana ¡®disappear.¡¯ and alice noticed that perhaps four [priests of the system] were frowning at her again, although she wasn¡¯t sure why this time. she started racking her brain, trying to figure out what they might be unhappy about, but before she could focus more on the frowning [priests], a different [priest] interrupted her.


    ¡°what does that mean?¡± asked one of the [priests of the system]. this one seemed more horrified than upset, which alice was much happier to deal with. someone who understood the gravity of the situation and wanted to help was the kind of person alice wanted to see in the meeting. and luckily, it seemed like the majority of the people here were reacting the way alice had hoped they would, even if a few people were instead glaring at her for some reason.


    ¡°i suspect it is the reason that the status screens started to get weird recently,¡± said alice. ¡°i would like to say that this is a lot worse than one might expect: the system didn¡¯t just create our status screens and system notifications ¨C it also did a lot of other very important things. for example, the system helped people form magic seeds ¨C and without the system, trying to form a magic seed is very difficult. cecilia can tell you a bit more about this,¡± said alice, gesturing towards cecilia.


    in order to get the achievement for forming a magic seed without help, cecilia had also formed a magic seed without the help of the system. naturally, this meant that this was the best topic for cecilia to talk about if alice wanted cecilia to get a good achievement for helping to manage all of this.


    however, before alice could step back and let cecilia take over the conversation for a bit, one of the [priests of the system] who had been frowning at her stood up and pointed at alice, looking like he was about to explode.


    ¡°did you make the system mana disappear? did you do something with your studies? if you dared to experiment on the system itself-¡°


    ethan glared at the man, and rainbow mana flashed across ethan¡¯s eyes.


    the man¡¯s face turned white, as ethan applied some sort of intimidation perk to him. ¡°my apprentice did not do a thing to harm the world, or illvaria. she is currently placing her life at risk due to the presence of the society, explicitly in order to save people¡¯s lives. if you have a problem with that, you may leave.¡±


    the man shut up.


    ethan nodded at cecilia. ¡°you may continue.¡±


    cecilia, who seemed a bit rattled by the interruption, took a moment to stabilize her emotions, and then stepped forward. she began detailing her attempts to form a magic seed without the help of the system ¨C first detailing how the two had cut off the system mana from their surroundings, and then talking about how the numerous attempts to form magic seeds without system help had gone. once cecilia finished talking about forming magic seeds without help from the system, alice stepped back in, and talked about the mage that had recently died while she was trying to help the mage keep control of their messed up mana-flesh. her voice caught in her throat a few times, but alice managed to push forward until she finished speaking.


    ¡°excuse me cecilia, but may i ask why you were trying so hard to form a magic seed without help of the system?¡± asked one of the [priests of the system]. once again, a few of the [priests of the system] were frowning, although they were different ones this time, and they seemed far more civil than the last man that interrupted the meeting.


    ¡°i felt it was reasonably likely that the system would give me a nice achievement for doing so,¡± said cecilia, not mentioning the fact that she was confident about this because alice had gotten a nice achievement of her own for forming a seed without the help of the system. {seed creator} was a rarity 8 achievement, and while cecilia had gotten a degraded copy of the achievement, it was cecilia¡¯s best achievement, as far as alice knew. ¡°and i turned out to be correct. the resulting achievement was somewhat combat-related, so i would prefer not to discuss the details, but it was indeed quite high rarity, and rather helpful for my future as a whole.¡±


    some of the [priests] looked mollified. while it still seemed like a few [priests of the system] were merely trying to hold back their temper because of ethan¡¯s presence, most of them still looked thoughtful and concerned, instead of angry or suspicious.


    alice stepped forward again, and began talking about class mana ¨C and how, now that the system wasn¡¯t present in the world, unfiltered class mana may forcibly warp people¡¯s personality or mess with them if it wasn¡¯t properly filtered and dealt with.


    after a few more moments of thought, one of the concerned-looking [priests] spoke up.


    ¡°what do you propose we do about this as a whole?¡±


    ¡°i think that it wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea if we start talking about cutting off mana, and about how to manage the strange instincts people will start to have in the near future. it¡¯s also probably not a bad idea to encourage people to buy manaless rings, since some [enchanters] under ethan have been manufacturing them since the moment we realized the system had disappeared. and i would also really appreciate it if any mages that were part of your churches came to see cecilia or me, so that we can help them get pure mana seeds,¡± said alice. ¡°i can help some with perk selections, although only for a few specific people ¨C but we can use that to get people a few more magic seed slots, and then help them get the right magic seeds. that would help alleviate some of the problem we¡¯re having with not having enough [enchanters] to meet the needs of the country as a whole.¡±


    the [priests of the system] discussed alice¡¯s requests and suggestions between themselves for a while.


    after some discussion, many of them agreed to her requests, apart from the few [priests of the system] that still looked more suspicious than helpful. alice decided to memorize their names and faces, and mention them later to ethan to make sure they wouldn¡¯t become problems. even though alice didn¡¯t like the feeling of effectively telling ethan to assign a few [spies] to watch over people on the suspicion they might become dangerous, ethan would probably have already taken note of them and prepared to spy on them anyway. alice just wanted to make sure that threats to her and her friend¡¯s safety and attempts to save everyone didn¡¯t get screwed over by a few people who were more suspicious of her than they were willing to help.


    however, alice was still satisfied with the number of [priests] who were discussing how to implement alice¡¯s suggestions and were willing to help, even if not everyone was on board.


    the first step to quell the chaos following the collapse of the system had been taken.

 Chapter 135

    chapter 135


    after the meeting with the [priests], a few more days passed. during that time, alice had numerous smaller meetings with [priests of the system], all of which included both ethan and cecilia. alice clarified and reclarified what she had seen of system mana, what specifically it did, and her understanding of how to handle the effects of its disappearance.


    most of the [priests] seemed open to continue talking with her, which was a relief. apart from the few [priests of the system] that had seemed disgusted with her for the very act of treating the system as an object of study, the rest seemed much more worried about evaluating what alice¡¯s information meant to illvaria and the innocent citizens of the area than worrying about how alice had gotten that information. the one time her research methodology was questioned for morality, alice had willingly read through several lists of statements under the watchful eyes of a few lie-detectors, which seemed to ease most of the remaining concerns about her experiments. alice wouldn¡¯t say that the [priests] were happy about her experimenting on the system, but they weren¡¯t angry, at least. she could live with that.


    the 38 cooperative [priests] also seemed more than happy to spread a limited version of alice¡¯s information to the people who frequented their church.


    while the [priests] and ethan had both agreed that telling people absolutely everything was probably a bad idea, through a mixture of mail and in-person visits, the [priests], ethan, cecilia, and alice worked out a full idea of what to tell people about the system.


    first, the [priests] that were keen to work with alice fully acknowledged that the system was ¡®damaged¡¯ right now. the [priests] stated that they weren¡¯t quite willing to discuss how or why the system¡¯s ¡®divine mana¡¯ had been injured with any of their followers, which alice was fine with. frankly, alice suspected that the [priests] who were working with her believed that the system had ¡®dumbed down¡¯ what was happening in order to reward alice for her efforts, creating some sort of unique worldview that alice could use for her experiments without telling her everything. that was the impression she got after talking with a few of them, at least.


    as long as the church didn¡¯t push a narrative that was actively against her and didn¡¯t hurt people, alice was fine if they refit all of her explanations into something that made more religious sense to them. normally, she would have been a lot more worried about giving people accurate information so that they could expand on it in the future. however, right now they had much bigger problems to deal with.


    after all, people¡¯s lives came first. if this was what it took to get the cooperation of the [priests], then so be it.


    the [priests] also revealed the existence of class mana to the people who followed them, and taught people about the help the system usually gave people when forming magic seeds. the [priests] seemed quite gleeful to learn just how critical the system was to mages everywhere, although they were slightly less pleased to hash out the exact details of how class seeds worked. this information ensured that people were aware of the danger of collecting any kind of mana from their surroundings, and also to ensure that as many people as possible were informed of the dangers of forming a new magic seed. it would take time for this information to spread beyond metsel, but alice hoped that the more people were talking about it, the more likely someone would be able to avoid ending up in dangerous situations. they could at least keep the injuries and deaths to a minimum this way.


    apart from that, the church of the system actively told people what they could do to help themselves stay safe ¨C which mostly boiled down to getting ahold of the rings that blocked mana from their surroundings.


    apart from that, with ethan and several [guards], alice and cecilia also ended up meeting with a few mages who had classes that gave them lots of magic seed slots and had recently passed another perk level. this was for the explicit purpose of helping them form a pure mana seed, so that they could help pump out more anti-magic rings. cecilia took over part of that project after alice used her display mana to help them figure out what their perks did and choose the ones they wanted ¨C it was the biggest part of the project cecilia could help with, and it was also a load off of alice¡¯s shoulders to delegate that to someone else.


    of course, when the mages in question actually got around to forming seeds, alice would still need to be ready to step in and shatter their magic seeds if something went wrong. for now, cecilia was leading them through visualization exercises and teaching them about her and alice¡¯s experiences forming magic seeds without the help of the system ¨C while under heavy guard, of course. alice also used {shared memory} a few times, to share her own experiences with forming magic seeds without the help of the system. it wouldn¡¯t completely cover the experience these mages would be missing, but hopefully it would keep mistakes to a minimum.


    apart from the cooperative [priests], there were still the three disgruntled [priests] to deal with as well, in addition to the attention some other people were starting to pay to the [priests] talking about the weakened system and the need for more pure mana seeds.


    ethan had [spies] keep a close eye on the three [priests] who were less willing to play along with alice¡¯s program. and he also started keeping an eye on every single person who seemed to question the wisdom of claiming that the system was in any way damaged or weakened. keeping an eye on every single person of power who was even mildly dissatisfied with alice¡¯s program was a massive drain on manpower, even when compared to the resources one of illvaria¡¯s six immortals could mobilize. it was also a time where it became clear to alice just how much ethan was giving to her to make her as safe and efficient about levelling up as possible ¨C she had always known that he was helping her, but to have the completely ludicrous costs of keeping a spy network active over the entirety of metsel metaphorically shoved into her face during the entire fiasco really showed just how much ethan was helping her.


    the [priests of the system] who were willing to work with alice also started sending reports and pages of statistics to ethan, which was a huge help for alice. even if the [priests] might not have the memory or mana-sensing perks she had, and might not have the ability to precisely quantify how much mana someone¡¯s class fractals absorbed, they could still roughly gauge how quickly some of their more well-known members were growing, and quantify some of their stats and note changes in personality. it wasn¡¯t the most precise information ever, but it was at least good enough that she could work with it. with this information, alice was able to start checking some of her previous assumptions and guesses about how the broken system would interact with things like people¡¯s levelling speed, personality corrosion, and the impact of achievements when the system wasn¡¯t around to mess with them.


    alice didn¡¯t even have to go over the data entirely on her own. ethan had pulled a small team of high-level [mathematicians] and [analysts] to go over any information collected by the [priests of the system], and then put them under alice¡¯s direct command. alice didn¡¯t know how ethan had convinced a bunch of high-level people to follow the commands of a teenager, but suspected her title as the apprentice of an immortal and hefty paychecks were a huge part of it. instead of pushing through every speck of data herself, alice was free to try to put together the big picture.


    for example, alice could now confirm that [willpower] was a stat that actively fought against the personality corrosion of unfiltered class mana. the higher one¡¯s [willpower] stat, the lower the reported influence of one¡¯s unfiltered class mana on one¡¯s mind and personality. this was at least slightly reassuring to alice ¨C evidently, the system hadn¡¯t left people with no defenses against its collapse, even though people were still pretty screwed in the long run.


    combined with the increasing awareness of people regarding the catastrophe, as well as the knowledge and cooperation of many [priests of the system], most people began putting aside some of the more traditional exercises of the church, which usually focused on helping children get some of their early skills, attributes, and levels, and instead focused almost exclusively on willpower training. and through alice¡¯s own experiences, she could confirm that there weren¡¯t any problems with levelling up attributes, even if class levels all carried some danger with them.


    by thursday, the cooperative churches of the system began targeted [willpower] training, with a plan to keep it up every single day of the week. the exact nature of these [willpower] training sessions varied from one church to another. some of the more extreme churches subjected people to relatively painful situations, while forcing people to work through the pain to accomplish some sort of ultimately unimportant task that the church assigned as the objective of the exercise. even though it was done with people¡¯s full knowledge and consent, it still made alice flinch a bit when she thought about what some of those churches were putting people through.


    most churches chose much less extreme methods, though. after explaining the situation, they would encourage people to take part in tests that would give them some sort of reward ¨C and then delay that reward, explicitly withholding it and asking people not to ask about it in exchange for a larger reward later, as a method of training their willpower.


    it strongly reminded alice of some sort of bizarre version of the marshmallow test. she wasn¡¯t sure how effective it was as a training method for [willpower], but it would hopefully be somewhat useful for the people who were a bit less willing to subject themselves to agony in exchange for improved future safety.


    she spent a few hours carefully thinking about exactly what image she was planning on using to build the seed, and exactly what she needed out of it. then, she got started.


    she almost expected something to go horribly wrong. in the week after the system had collapsed, alice had gone through a slowly escalating series of catastrophes, all of which needed to be dealt with before they spiraled out of control. so part of her expected that something would just fail to work while she made her new magic seed.


    and nothing did. for once, things went exactly as she hoped they would.


    alice spent several minutes after she finished just using {safety analysis} over and over again, trying to figure out if she had missed something. finally, she accepted that things had actually gone according to plan. after that, she grinned, and started working on filtering away several kinds of mana that had gotten stuck to her magic seeds.


    [doctor] mana became [student of organic magic] mana. newly built-up [scholar] mana became [scientist] mana. [scientist] mana became [scholar] mana. all of the incredibly random miscellaneous types of mana that alice had collected over the past week started to melt away as she purified and filtered them, turning them into the correct kind of mana to meld with her class seeds.


    she was gratified to see that her new magic seed was doing exactly what it was supposed to ¨C and she was equally pleasantly surprised to see a new wave of level-up notifications, as all of the mana types that had previously been unused got converted into the appropriate type of mana, before her class seeds ate them and converted them into parts of her class fractals.


    you have leveled up!


    survivor: 58 -> 59, student of organic magic 22 -> 24, scholar 57 -> 58


    the leftover chunks of mana weren¡¯t quite enough to level up all of her classes, and it didn¡¯t bring her to a point where she unlocked any new perks. however, four of her classes were now only one level away from getting a new perk, which made alice very excited. soon, she would probably have a new wave of perks to use while trying to put things together in the aftermath of the system¡¯s collapse.


    as an added bonus, moments after alice finished dealing with all of the leftover mana, a final wave of mana came and rushed towards her [explorer of magic] class fractal. after alice used her filtration seed to convert all of the [scholar], [arcane researcher], and [organic mage] mana into [explorer of magic] mana, she just barely got one, final level.


    you have leveled up!


    explorer of magic: 76 -> 77


    the levels in that class were still excruciatingly slow right now, but the boost from ethan¡¯s mother she had gotten from the tea party, as well as the fruits of her own hard work, were beginning to pay off.


    after that, alice spent several minutes thinking about what she wanted to do with her second class seed, before she eventually settled on dimensional mana.


    less than a month ago, she and ethan had gone to a village that had been strangely flooded with broken dimensional mana. the society was also one of the major institutions in the world that focused on studying dimensional mana, and for some reason they were losing their minds recently.


    that seemed like pretty good evidence that there might be something going horribly wrong with dimensional mana, somewhere in the world.


    and alice already had a license to form a dimensional magic seed laying around, although she hadn¡¯t taken advantage of it yet.


    besides, if alice ever wanted to go back home, she definitely needed to understand how dimensional mana worked.


    those seemed like pretty good arguments to prioritize making a dimensional magic seed over anything else. if a crisis involving dimensional mana popped up, alice wanted to have some way to respond to it.


    therefore, with a mixture of excitement and nervousness, alice finally started forming a dimensional magic seed for her second magic seed of the month.

 Chapter 136

    chapter 136


    alice had always wondered why dimensional mana behaved the way it did. she had heard, multiple times, of the tragedy of allenheim ¨C where a bunch of dimensional mages had effectively nuked their kingdom into the ground by polluting it with dimensional mana.


    for a while now, alice had been tossing around ideas for how this worked. her most recent theory, and the one that she favored the most, was that any objects, such as oxygen molecules, that passed through a portal would start to ¡®infect¡¯ any mana they came in contact with, turning it into broken dimensional mana. this would imply that dimensional broken mana worked kind of like how class mana worked.


    her second idea was that mana itself became broken while passing through any portal. she was pretty sure that mana did naturally pass through portals. that wouldn¡¯t explain why broken mana had such a ridiculous cascading effect, but if alice was missing something, it was entirely possible.


    her third idea was that portals just warped mana that existed near them. this would be a little odd by the standards of the way most mana alice had observed acted so far. most mana only broke when a mage lost a little bit of efficiency while using magic. however, dimensional broken mana had already proven that it was unusual in a wide variety of ways ¨C and it also made perfect sense for dimensional mana to ignore things like distance in a way other broken mana types might not.


    since alice had only seen dimensional mana used by society mages and natural occurrences so far, she wasn¡¯t sure which of the three theories she had was correct. it was even possible that all three were wrong, and alice was overlooking something.


    either way, alice was eager to finally put it to the test. since the broken mana part of dimensional mana was what made it so dangerous, alice needed to have an idea what caused broken dimensional mana to form before she could start trying to figure out how to defend against it.


    figuring out how dimensional broken mana worked might also help alice protect herself against any society teleportation in the future, and protect herself against whatever was causing the society to freak out. so there was a lot more than just alice¡¯s curiosity at stake right now.


    she waited a few hours, for her new magic seed to form some mana for her to experiment with. then, she informed ethan that she was going to be experimenting with dimensional mana.


    this was in case alice messed up and accidentally created a massive cloud of broken dimensional mana, potentially causing everyone in the area to undergo broken mana baptisms. even though alice doubted she would create such a massive problem just by creating a few basic portals and testing how they worked, there was no sense in taking risks with other people¡¯s lives, or her own. having someone willing to watch over her tests and step in if something went horribly wrong was a good idea when playing with something as dangerous as dimensional mana, even though alice¡¯s {safety analysis} had already claimed that the tests she wanted to run were probably fine.


    after alice outlined the tests she wanted to perform and her reasoning, ethan gave her the green light to start her tests. he brought her to one of the testing rooms in the mansion, located a reasonable distance underground. it was already enchanted to keep broken mana inside of the room from spreading. he took a seat nearby and watched as alice got started.


    the first thing alice tried was opening up a small portal between two spots in the room. it was best to start simple.


    alice quickly noticed that there was a great deal of resistance against opening portals.


    when she tried to use dimensional mana, it felt like she was trying to wrench open a firmly closed door. she had imagined that opening a portal would be... easier. instead, she could actively feel her mind and her mana straining to make her portal appear, fighting against space to make her portal happen. alice vaguely wished that she had a lot more mana to work with ¨C it would certainly make portal manipulation dozens of times easier.


    the resistance she felt grew based on how big of a portal she wanted to make, and also increased based on how far away the other end of the portal was.


    interestingly enough, once alice stopped messing around with little flecks of dimensional mana and finally opened a thumb-sized portal that teleported things about a centimeter away, she realized something else. alice¡¯s ¡®portal¡¯ didn¡¯t cost any mana to toss items through it. it simply consumed a big chunk of mana when she created it, and then consumed a small amount of mana to remain every second.


    absently, alice wondered how the passage of time interacted with portals. there didn¡¯t seem to be any time at all that passed between an object entering one end of the portal and exiting the other, although that could just be because of how limited her eyesight was. her [perception] pushed her senses well beyond what a regular human was capable of, but she still couldn¡¯t register things that happened on the scale of nanoseconds.


    for a moment, she wished that she hadn¡¯t sacrificed the {timer} perk a while ago. it would have been quite helpful here.


    the reason she was so focused on the time between entering and exiting a portal was simple. alice vaguely remembered from her physics class that time and space were the same thing, or very closely related, and that the faster one travelled, the weirder the flow of time got for them compared to ¡®normal¡¯ time.


    or something like that. even if she hadn¡¯t taken all of the physics classes available at her high school before being pulled out of earth, she at least remembered that the passage of time got very weird once one started travelling at or near the speed of light. alice¡¯s understanding of why that happened was a bit patchy, but it still raised an interesting question of how exactly time worked in this world. there was obviously time mana that she could use, but this world also seemed to mostly work off of the same physics that earth did. since that was the case, did this dimension¡¯s laws of physics regarding time just work completely differently from earth¡¯s?


    alice honestly had no idea, although she did wonder what would happen if she sling-shotted a pocket watch back and forth between two portals at opposite ends of this planet for a few hours. sadly, that experiment was completely impractical to arrange, even if ethan used all of his influence trying to make it happen.


    alice spent a while thinking about weird questions related to time and space, before she decided to set it aside for now. even if the questions were interesting, she certainly had other priorities. her memory of how relativity worked from earth was also a patchy framework of understanding she got from a high school physics class. as much as she wished she knew enough to test more, she simply didn¡¯t have the knowledge foundation to play with this subject.


    the second thing alice noticed was the broken mana. alice had already seen a few other portals before, but now that she had time to study them in greater detail (and without people throwing knives or firing objects at her), she confirmed that her first and second hypothesis about what caused dimensional broken mana to appear were both correct.


    during the time alice had been working on treating borris and his early status screen, alice had mused that perhaps the reason that dimensional mana ¡®spread¡¯ so quickly was because the air travelling from one portal to another somehow caused the concept of dimensions to ¡®infect¡¯ the air around it, sort of like how people ¡®broke¡¯ the mana in the air around them by doing things one typically associated with a class.


    after some testing, alice¡¯s observations lined up with this hypothesis. when alice used a mana filter to let air pass through the portal without any accompanying mana, the mana on the other side of the portal still turned into dimensional broken mana after a few seconds. the same thing occurred when mana passed through a portal ¨C however, mana didn¡¯t ¡®naturally¡¯ pass through portals very quickly at all, unlike air. alice mused that if one made a longer-range portal, the difference in air pressure would probably accelerate the process of air molecules passing through the portal, causing one side to suddenly break out into a massive flood of broken dimensional mana. meanwhile, even if alice created a massive difference in mana concentration on each end of her portal, it didn¡¯t cause mana to flood through the portal and create the kind of cascading broken mana flood that dimensional mana was infamous for causing. while this could be an issue with alice¡¯s testing conditions, she was pretty sure that the majority of broken dimensional mana came from air¡¯s interaction with broken mana.


    scientist: 60 -> 62, scholar 58 -> 60


    sadly, despite doing an entirely new experiment, as well as benefitting from ethan¡¯s mother¡¯s boost since it hadn¡¯t quite worn off yet, alice still didn¡¯t get quite enough xp to level [explorer of magic].


    alice noticed, with some concern, that there was now a fair amount of [dimensional mage] mana floating around inside of her body. she was pretty sure she had seen a few society researchers that looked like they had a class built around dimensional mana, but it hadn¡¯t occurred to her until now that she could now get mana for a class she couldn¡¯t form a seed for.


    which would be very bad. the influence on her personality wasn¡¯t very noticeable yet, but if alice didn¡¯t find a way to deal with it, she would have to stop messing with dimensional mana. the idea of wasting all of her work here and being forced to give up on searching for answers left a horrible taste in her mouth, even if she still intended to mostly focus on system mana as her subject of study.


    the [dimensional mage] mana kept swirling around near her mage core, as if it were trying very hard to form a class seed but simply couldn¡¯t. this made alice very, very concerned.


    luckily, after a few minutes of worrying, alice realized that even though her [dimensional mage] mana wasn¡¯t sticking to any nearby class seeds, unlike all of the other mana she had gathered while levelling up her classes, it was still sort of similar to [explorer of magic]. or at least, she hoped it was. she had no clue how to form a proper class fractal yet, and without that knowledge, alice was pretty sure any attempts to make a [dimensional mage] class seed would backfire horribly and possibly kill her.


    after a quick confirmation with {safety analysis}, alice started using her filtration magic seed to whittle away at the [dimensional mage] mana. even though the efficiency was horrible and half of the mana was disappearing into who-knows-where, alice managed to get rid of the unsafe mana with some effort. this made alice feel very relieved.


    at the very least, she wasn¡¯t going to accidentally wipe out her mind during her experiments. unfortunately, even that wasn¡¯t enough to get [explorer of magic] to level 78. alice was finally starting to understand why so many people struggled to reach immortality. [explorer of magic] was probably close to levelling up ¨C but it hadn¡¯t levelled even after experimenting on an entirely new kind of magic. which was very frustrating.


    then, as alice was thinking about the way she had converted [dimensional mage] mana into [explorer of magic] mana, and idea hit her. it wasn¡¯t related to her own status screen ¨C instead, she started thinking about all of the problems caused by the disappearance of the system.


    currently, it was a huge problem if people got more mana from their environment, because their class seeds weren¡¯t properly handling the mana they absorbed the way the seeds were supposed to. [farmers] who worked in the field, for example, might get a level or two of [farmer] experience over the course of a few weeks of farming now ¨C but they also got a whole lot of other, similar classes that would clog up their seed and gum everything up, then cause an overflow of mana that they couldn¡¯t absorb and would corrode away their personality.


    but what if alice could create an enchantment out of her filtration mana that solved this problem?


    sure, the system itself was still missing, but alice could, theoretically, create a type of enchantment that would reach into someone¡¯s body, grab all of the kinds of mana that were ¡®similar¡¯ to [farmer] mana, and then convert it all into [farmer] mana before stuffing it all back into the body and letting the class seed do its job.


    after all, the system had clearly been doing it before it shut down. it was very obviously possible. alice was nowhere near as skilled as the system was at mana filtration and manipulation, but she could already manage to do this without enchantments. the trick was just figuring out how to automate it.


    and having rings that could permanently ¡®cleanse¡¯ mana problems would be a huge breakthrough in solving the current crisis.


    after all, people didn¡¯t need to have any problematic mana wiped out immediately. they could obviously last several days without the bad types of mana from their environment wiping away their personality. a few wisps of a different kind of mana wouldn¡¯t do much to someone besides annoy them a bit, as long as it didn¡¯t build up. if alice¡¯s idea worked out, people might just be able to wear a [farmer] ring once a month to get all of their ¡®pending¡¯ levels, clear out the mana harming their mind, and then get back to work in the fields. not only would it solve all of the health problems associated with too much buildup of the wrong mana type, but it would also let people keep levelling up, and it would take far fewer resources and much less time than it would take to make a mana-blocking ring for everyone in illvaria.


    after all, right now people were scrambling to get one mana blocking ring per person and then wear it all the time. however, if alice¡¯s ¡®mana filtration¡¯ rings could be made, a farming village could probably get by just fine if they shared a ring for [farmer] mana and just swapped it from one person to another every few hours. it wouldn¡¯t be too hard to organize, and it would require far fewer enchanted rings to be made.


    the mana blocking-rings would still probably be useful for children, since the system restricted children from gaining access to their classes until the age of six. alice had no idea why six was such a magic number for getting class seeds, but it was probably logical to do the same thing until she could figure out the reasoning behind it and determine whether or not it was needed. however, for adults, as long as their class seeds only needed to deal with the right kind of mana, it was entirely possible to keep levelling up, gaining perks, and growing stronger even with the system down.


    of course, alice also realized that she would run into a few problems.


    first, all enchantments needed three things. a power source (usually a monster core), a material that could contain ¡®instructions¡¯ which an enchanter programmed into the material, and finally, an [enchanter] to actually bring everything together.


    power sources weren¡¯t that hard to find ¨C even if it was best for enchantments if they had a similar kind of mana to the type the enchantment used, most enchantments could run on any monster core. they would just degrade a lot faster if the monster core used a totally different kind of mana. which was a good thing, because as far as alice knew, no monster in existence used any kind of system mana as its primary mana type, meaning that it was probably impossible to get something like a ¡®filtration mana¡¯ monster core.


    however, the other two things would still be major problems. alice had no idea where to find materials that could memorize ¡®filtration mana¡¯ instructions, and alice was also the only filtration mana mage that she knew of. cecilia might be able to pick up a similar kind of mana with alice¡¯s help, though. and perhaps the mages who were training under cecilia could be trained to make filtration mana seeds instead of pure mana?


    admittedly, the fact that they had never seen or heard of filtration mana before today would make it far harder for them to conceptualize and build the magic seeds, compared to pure mana magic seeds, which were already well-known, even if they were uncommon.


    alice sighed.


    it was something worth trying, at least. she made a mental note to herself to let cecilia know about her new thoughts, and then walked over to ethan to discuss her failed dimensional mana experiments and her new request to look for ¡®weird¡¯ enchanting materials. maybe some [adventurers] or [enchanters] could scrounge something up, either by finding it in the wild or by artificially forcing a material to accept instructions from unique types of magic seed. it was worth a shot.


    alice now had yet another project to work on. and this one might actually be game-changer that started solving the problem, instead of just mitigating damage. it was nice to know that she had gotten something out of her dimensional mana experiments besides a massive headache.

 Chapter 137

    chapter 137


    after settling on her new plan to mitigate the impact of the system collapse, alice finally took a moment to settle her new perk from [scholar].


    alice started out by scanning over her perk combination options, as well as her options for new perks.


    after a few moments, she felt a flicker of disappointment.


    she had really been hoping that some of her new perk choices or combinations would either help her restore some semblance of the system and its mana, or help her a lot more with her enchanting experiments. after all, if alice wanted to create a ring that mimicked the effects of the system, she was going to need a lot of time and effort to succeed. having a perk that made the process easier would have gone a long way right now.


    unfortunately, she didn¡¯t find any perks that directly impacted her enchanting or her experiments with system mana components. so she ultimately decided on a different perk combination by sacrificing {delve into the arcane} and {improved memory}.


    delve into the arcane


    requirements: scholar level 50 or higher, magic 150 or higher, intelligence 100 or higher, some sort of perk which gives you the ability to learn information, rarity eight or higher achievement related to magic and research


    if you have spent at least an hour learning about magic within the past 24 hours, your mana regeneration rate is increased by 100% (this multiplier takes effect after accounting for all other perks you have that multiplies mana regeneration, working multiplicatively instead of additively).


    alice had leaned into {delve into the arcane} to help fuel the mana she needed for her experiments for quite a while, and to some extent, she still relied on it. in fact, considering the fact that she spent 8 hours a day reading while she was asleep, she found it easier than ever to trigger the perk¡¯s activation conditions, meaning that she was basically always enjoying the benefits of the perk.


    however, she was also starting to run into limitations on what she could do even with all of her mana regeneration stacked together. right now, her biggest limitations weren¡¯t mana-based at all ¨C they were usually based on either the amount of time she could spend researching something, even with all of her time-efficiency enhancing perks tossed together, or they were limitations based on the usage of her perks. her limitation of using {broken seed} once every four days, {seeds of ambition} once a month, and {expanding comprehension} every 2 weeks currently proved to be the biggest blocks on her forward progress. right now, alice had several magic seeds she wanted to try forming ¨C and she seriously struggled to get all of them built. even with two seeds a month, she already had several components of system mana that she wanted to make and experiment with, and nowhere near enough time to make them all. and having only 24 hours a day to experiment often proved a major problem for her progress.


    therefore, even though losing {delve into the arcane} would sting, it was a bearable loss. and the text alice had seen for her new perk combination seemed promising enough that she was willing to lose the perk.


    the other perk alice was losing was much less of a struggle.


    improved memory


    requirements: scholar level 5 or higher, intelligence 100 or greater


    greatly improves your ability to remember information.


    as for {improved memory}, {photographic memory} was simply a much better version of the same perk. alice felt absolutely nothing at the prospect of losing it, and probably wouldn¡¯t even notice that it was gone.


    so, without further hesitation, alice combined the perks into something new.


    perk naaaame: delve _ memories


    perk costs: delve into the arcane + improved memory


    perk _ synergy detected: sleep reading


    vastly improved understanding while using remembering. can level, analyze, and improve magic better.


    synergy detected_ sleep reading.


    add_text synergy.


    ah yes, the ever-enlightening ¡®add_text synergy,¡¯ thought alice, sarcastically. even with the help of display mana, she had no idea what the ¡®synergy¡¯ part of her perk did.


    it took several more moments for her perk to figure out it was bugged and fix itself, although alice was pleasantly surprised the perk actually fixed itself. she hadn¡¯t really expected it to, now that the system was down and most other things remained bugged once they became glitch.


    perk naaaame: delve _ memories


    perk costs: delve into the arcane + improved memory


    perk _ synergy detected: sleep reading


    vastly improved understanding while using remembering. can level, analyze, and improve magic better.


    while {sleep reading}, can use objects you remember. levelling speed improved by get_number while sleep reading. experiments and enchantments very accurate while sleep.


    as her perk rewrote itself in front of her eyes, alice blinked.


    the chunks of the system that were still active in her [scholar] class fractal had reached out and rearranged themselves, even without the input of the system from the atmosphere. it had never done that before. at least, not that she had seen. equally interesting was that alice¡¯s {intuitive magic modelling} caught sight of a new type of mana, operating purely within her class seeds. she wasn¡¯t entirely sure what type of mana it was, but as far as she could tell it was something like ¡®meaning¡¯ mana, or perhaps ¡®correction¡¯ mana. it felt like the mana leaned a bit into both of those concepts ¨C almost like it was capable of correcting information from ¡®display¡¯ mana, but also like it was meant to interact with something else on a deeper level.


    of course, as of now, there was a whole lot more that she could do while she was asleep.


    she looked at the new enchanting room, and grinned.


    she didn¡¯t know exactly what materials she would be working with when she tried to make her rings of [farmer] levelling, since right now, alice had no knowledge of any enchanting materials that could work with system mana. and her new perk specified that it would only let her interact with materials she remembered. meaning that she needed to have had contact with an enchanting material first.


    however, she was pretty sure she could design new enchantments inside of her dreams now, using materials she had already made. and if she liked a particular design, she could then save it into her {blueprint} perk, making it easier to replicate in reality. and she could probably also test what new materials were capable of inside of her dreams. her new perk also implied that she would now have a boosted levelling speed inside of her dreams, making it easier to get new perks and make the whole process even easier.


    alice took a step into her new dream enchanting workshop, and took a few materials off the wall before experimenting with them. just as she had expected, they behaved exactly like they did in real life ¨C leaving her free to mess with materials and practice enchanting as she pleased.


    even better, while she was asleep, she didn¡¯t seem to be spending any of her ¡®real¡¯ mana on the enchanting experiments. she would have to wake up to check if she really was leveling up her enchanting classes efficiently this way, but at least so far, alice was pretty sure she had just hit the jackpot with her new perk.


    she just needed to find a material that could use {filtration} mana, and she could put her class rings idea into practice. and now she had an easy and efficient way to test new materials without wasting her time and mana.


    alice felt herself getting more and more excited as she started messing with her enchanting materials, and in the span of a few minutes, got lost in her work.


    * * *


    illa weissaurus stepped down from her ship and onto docks with a sigh, before grimacing and using one of her kinetic mana tendrils to float her luggage behind her.


    the news that she had come across as she was sailing towards metsel was not promising. all of the passengers that had boarded the boat were discussing strange things. things like the system bugging out, or acting oddly. more recently, they were talking about [willpower] training, or the [priests] of the church of the system going mad, or... frankly, a wide variety of other scenarios, all of which illa found disturbing and ridiculous in equal quantity.


    illa was usually skilled at picking out which information was accurate and which information was worthless from a large stream of information. ever since she had started delving into politics, it had become something of a necessity for her. however, she usually picked out useful information by comparing it to what she already knew and figuring out what actually made sense. right now... nothing made sense.


    people that had boarded her ship and spoken with the other passengers were scared, and a strange sense of tension hung in the air. however, concrete information was hard to find.


    illa dearly hoped that was simply because [messengers] hadn¡¯t reached most parts of the kingdom yet, because if nobody knew what was going on, it would be even more of a catastrophe.


    she strolled through the streets of the little dock town that was only an hour or so away from the capital, and after some hesitation, decided to spend a few hours chatting with some other patrons of a tavern. drunk people passed information back and forth between each other far more easily than people who were sober, after all.


    she took a few steps into the first decent looking tavern she saw, and spent a few moments relaxing as the nostalgic scent of alcohol hit her in the face like a giant boulder thrown by a [kinetic mage].


    absently, she wondered how long it had been since she last stepped into a tavern on her own. she had used to hit up a tavern with a few other [mages] she was good friends with during her time in the army, whenever they could sneak away from the barracks for a few hours. however, once she transitioned from a [warmage] to a political figure, she had never quite found the time to just sit in a tavern and relax, the way she used to.


    ¡°hello there, lady mage!¡± said a [waiter] after she took a seat near the center of the room. it was harder to notice the strain at the edge of his voice than it had been with some other people, but illa could still detect an edge to his demeanor that most professionals wouldn¡¯t normally show. ¡°what can i get for you?¡±


    ¡°a mug of beer, please,¡± said illa, trying to push back her nerves a bit, and feeling a bit nostalgic for her army days. there had been plenty of nightmares during her time in the army, but there were also plenty of good memories associated with those times.


    the [waiter] quickly got her a mug of beer, and illa felt a little bit of the stress and frustration she had accumulated during the journey melt away after taking a few sips of the cheap-tasting swill they served in the establishment.


    it tasted foul. which, frankly, was what illa preferred if she was drinking beer. the point of beer was to get drunk, not to taste good.


    after that, illa simply settled down to relax and listen in on conversations. luckily, unlike the scattered, ambiguous information she had collected during her travel north, the people this close to the capital seemed to have much better information on whatever was happening to the system right now.


    ¡°-say that the church is trying to raise people¡¯s [willpower]. if your [willpower] is too low compared to... something about ambient mana, or something, your personality will start to get warped by your classes. not sure what the heck anyone means by ¡®ambient mana,¡¯ since they don¡¯t seem to be talking about the pure mana in the air around us, but i don¡¯t like the idea of my personality-¡°


    ¡°-heard that the apprentice of honored immortal ethan discovered it. i heard she was a combat mage, but i didn¡¯t really pay much attention. the guy who claimed she was a combat mage must have been drunk. she¡¯s clearly a researcher, if she found-¡±


    ¡°-society is openly at war with the shil confederacy! they have to be, with the way they¡¯re openly attacking people!¡±


    ¡°-something about perks is wrong. all of my perks just look like error messages when i go to the perk selection screen. my daughter got her first couple achievements last weekend when i brought her and a few of her friends to kill a few spidercrabs, and they just didn¡¯t get the full stat boost they should have! with both perks and achievements getting weird ¨C¡°


    ¡°-and the high [priest] of the system church collapsed, or so they say. hasn¡¯t seen anyone since-¡°


    ¡°-[farmer] edmund hasn¡¯t spoken with anyone since yesterday. he just keeps throwing seeds onto the ground over and over again. it¡¯s the wrong season to sow seeds, and i know for a fact he isn¡¯t high enough level to ignore planting season yet. i can¡¯t tell of this is some sort of version of the personality-warping the... uhh... ¡®ambient class mana¡¯ stuff causes, but something¡¯s wrong with his head right now. maybe if we get him to a church -¡±


    illa spent nearly two hours collecting conversation fragments and stringing information together, before she got a solid idea what was happening right now.


    it seemed that the system was truly collapsing, at least in some limited way. the church of the system had a variety of mixed responses to that, but it looked like at least somebody knew what was going on and was trying to organize a response to it.


    and the more she listened, the more illa was fairly certain that somebody was her former apprentice, alice.


    illa grinned as she finished up her last tankard of beer, paid, and left to continue moving towards the capital.


    it was becoming increasingly clear that whatever was going on, her former apprentice was right in the center of it.

 Chapter 138

    chapter 138


    alice woke up from her nap with an excited grin, and checked her class fractals.


    just as she had hoped, there were several chunks of mana stuck to her enchanting-related class fractals, and her class fractals had also grown by more than they normally would after several hours of testing ingredients.


    clearly, she could not only level up in her dreams as usual, but if alice wasn¡¯t mistaken, she was getting somewhere between a 50% and 100% boost to the xp for her enchanting classes while asleep. while not exactly massive, it was certainly a nice boost, especially since she had much weaker multipliers for her enchanting classes compared to her research classes. a 50%-100% increase in her levelling speed to whatever she worked on while asleep wasn¡¯t bad at all, especially now that alice was trying to bring her enchanting up to speed with the rest of her build.


    it had even been enough to tip [careful enchanter] up to the next level, despite the fact that she had only put in one night of work.


    you have leveled up!


    careful enchanter: 29 -> 30


    alice briefly considered grabbing a new perk immediately, before she decided to wait a while. she had a few different ideas on what functions she might want from her next [careful enchanter] perk, and she would need to talk with cecilia and ethan before she finalized her decision. after all, alice might need her new perk to help her compensate for lack of enchanting materials, or boost her speed, or do something completely different depending on the situation.


    apart from boosting her levelling speed, {delve memories} had a lot of interesting effects that alice had noticed during her testing.


    apart from the obvious new ability to test enchanting materials in her dreams, alice had also noticed that she now understood things better when trying to remember them as opposed to the first time she saw them. for example, if she tried to think over the text of a particularly dry study written several centuries ago, she would now have a much easier time understanding the text if she read it and then tried to remember it afterwards, instead of simply reading it once. of course, that in itself wasn¡¯t particularly strange: humans usually tended to understand things better if they spent more time thinking about it and analyzing it, after all. however, if alice simply memorized the ¡®picture¡¯ of a page in a book and then ¡®read¡¯ it in her memories, she would get a much better understanding of it than if she simply read it normally. in addition, while thinking about experiments that she had recently done, she would get certain instincts and flashes of insight that she wouldn¡¯t normally have about what the ¡®answer¡¯ was. which had proven exceptionally useful when trying to figure out which enchanting materials she wanted to pay more attention to.


    unfortunately, her newly improved understanding and instincts still couldn¡¯t help her figure out what the heck was up with dimensional mana, but alice figured she would understand it sooner or later.


    the new perk was a small, but useful boost to alice¡¯s comprehension and levelling speed, as long as she used it well. alice was certainly happy to have the perk in her toolkit.


    alice¡¯s material testing in her dreams had mixed results. alice hadn¡¯t found any materials that synergized with filtration mana during her dream-testing, unfortunately. however, alice had found that a few miscellaneous chunks of tree bark that accepted instructions from display mana, even if it didn¡¯t seem like it was a perfect fit. the material clearly wasn¡¯t the optimal material for handling display mana, but it worked.


    the material in question was a type of gray colored tree bark that cecilia had stored in her old shop in cyra, before the two had moved to metsel.


    alice hadn¡¯t originally been as focused on display mana. however, for people to choose new perks, it was obvious that they needed to be able to see what their new perks did. since the system¡¯s perk selection screens were bugged out unless someone manually fixed them using display mana, it was obvious that people needed some way to fix that problem as well. right now, all of cecilia¡¯s mages that she was training were personally assisted during their perk selection by alice (while ethan stuck around to make sure an [assassin] or society member didn¡¯t sneak in and attack her while her guard was down). this was workable for now, but wasn¡¯t really a good long-term solution.


    making a ring out of the tree bark that let people read their perk choices normally would fix this logistical issue. which meant that alice needed some way to get access to large quantities of that tree bark. that meant that she needed to ask cecilia where the bark came from.


    she quickly left her room and moved to cecilia¡¯s room, where she found cecilia sitting at her desk, buried in paperwork.


    alice tried not to chuckle at the sight. ever since the collapse of the system and the start of the pure mana mage project, cecilia had nearly as much paperwork to manage per day as ethan. [mathematicians] and [data analysts] could only work their way through so much of the information, since alice and cecilia were the only two with direct familiarity with the system and its mana. some information simply needed to be handled by the three of them to properly make sense of everything. and since alice¡¯s time tended to be spent dealing with experiments and working through information, the paperwork tended to fall to cecilia right now.


    ¡°cecilia, do you have a moment?¡± asked alice.


    cecilia quickly put down the document she had been messing with and looked at alice.the roots of this story extend from novell bi?n origin.


    ¡°i can certainly spare a few moments,¡± said cecilia, quietly shoving her paperwork as far away from her as possible.


    alice looked at the document cecilia was so eager to avoid, and tried not to wince as she read through a few of the questions. one in particular brought back a few bad memories.


    it was a letter that had obviously come from one of the mages cecilia was training. in it were outlined several variations on odd questions about pure mana, system mana, and the way the two interacted with each other. several of the questions were actually kind of interesting ¨C for example, the man who had written the letter cecilia was currently looking at had asked whether it was possible to manually tear apart a failed magic seed using pure mana. which was something alice had already seen firsthand and was eager to never repeat.


    ¡°illa weissaurus?¡± asked ethan with a frown. ¡°you mean the retired [warmage] that taught alice before she moved to metsel?¡±


    naturally, ethan had done an in-depth investigation of illa¡¯s recent past after he had taken in alice as an apprentice. ethan had initially been rather familiar with illa, since he had hoped that she would become another immortal, but had stopped paying much attention to her after she stopped racing towards immortality and decided to go into politics instead. everyone¡¯s choices were their own to make, but ethan had always felt it was a shame the woman wasn¡¯t pushing towards immortality anymore.


    what he had not expected was for one of his [spies] to let him know that illa was now approaching his manor. what was illa doing in metsel? given the collapse of the system that alice had talked about, as well as the various issues that were more evident even to people like him who couldn¡¯t see system mana, ethan had assumed that illa would be busy putting out fires in her own territory. what would be the point of wasting so much of her potential to try to found a barony if the woman didn¡¯t even look after the land she was in charge of?


    ethan frowned, and then realized that perhaps he was thinking about it incorrectly. the woman might have heard that there was more information in the capital about the current crisis, and come here to collect data. illa might even know that alice was one of the bigger sources of information about the current crisis, and might have come to get information firsthand.


    although if that was the case, the timeline for illa¡¯s arrival would be quite strange. the system had collapsed a little over a week ago, so illa would have needed to start moving towards metsel almost immediately after the system¡¯s collapse. either illa had a way to speed up her movement, or she was very good at figuring out who had information that she needed to deal with the current crisis.


    ethan thought about it for a few moments, trying to figure out if illa had ever had a reason to pick up a powerful movement-based perk, and then shrugged. ultimately, it didn¡¯t really matter much. if illa was making her way towards the manor, she probably wanted to see her old apprentice. ethan didn¡¯t see anything wrong with that, as long as alice was willing to see illa again. illa might also want to see him, which was also fine. ethan normally wouldn¡¯t make time to see a minor potential baron from southern illvaria ¨C but he was perfectly willing to make time for the former mentor of his current apprentice. especially now that the system had collapsed, and illa¡¯s influence in the south might help quell some of the chaos there.


    ¡°if illa stops by the manor, make sure she¡¯s who she claims she is. have several people with lie-detection perks verify it, just in case she¡¯s a [spy] or [organic magic] impersonating illa,¡± said ethan, giving his spy a nod. ¡°if she is who she claims she is, i¡¯m willing to see her.¡±


    ¡°understood, honored immortal,¡± said the [spy], before she left the room. a few moments later, the [spy] moved around a corner and ethan lost track of her.


    ethan quickly got back to his paperwork, until a few minutes later, there were several knocks on the door.


    he quickly activated {pervasive perception}, allowing him to see past most lower-level disguise perks and get an excellent grasp of the properties and existence of nearby physical objects, and quickly confirmed that alice was on the other side of the door.


    ¡°come in,¡± said ethan.


    alice quickly opened the door and gave ethan a quick nod, before she started speaking. ¡°ethan, do you have a few minutes? i had an idea for how to start the system-enchanting rings project i mentioned yesterday, but i ran into a few issues.¡±


    ¡°what do you need?¡± asked ethan, trying not to feel a little burst of excitement when alice mentioned that she already had an idea for how to start.


    when alice had mentioned that she wanted to get rings enchanted with filtration mana, ethan had thought it was a good idea. however, he hadn¡¯t expected her to find a way to implement the idea for quite a while: after all, doing tests and making new enchantments could take months if led by a team of lower level researchers, and weeks even if led by higher level [scholars] and [scientists] with good perks and achievements to boost their progress along. and alice wasn¡¯t working with a known kind of mana or readily available kind of enchanting material ¨C instead, she had to develop everything almost completely from scratch, and almost entirely alone, because there was nobody else in illvaria that ethan knew of who could interact with system mana. this made her job several times harder.


    for alice to have made any progress at all in just a day was rather impressive.


    when alice had talked about her origins, ethan had found it ludicrous that somebody could reach level 75 in less than a year. now that he knew alice better, he felt it would be ludicrous if she didn¡¯t reach immortality in a decade.


    ¡°i found an enchanting material that can work with display mana. it isn¡¯t quite the filtration mana ring that i wanted to make, at least not yet. however, i did realize that there is another major area of concern that we need to address, which is letting people actually see what new perks they can take. this can allow people to at least reshape a little bit of their build even while the system is down ¨C which is critical for allowing people to adapt to the collapse of the system and allow the workforce of illvaria to start managing the crisis on its own,¡± said alice. ¡°the problem is acquiring more of the material ¨C it¡¯s a type of tree bark that cecilia had laying around in her shop, which was acquired from cyra...¡±


    alice quickly began detailing the conversation she had just had with cecilia, especially regarding the details of where the tree bark had come from, while ethan nodded along in thought.


    ¡°i¡¯m still assembling my own samples of enchanting materials. they should be ready in another day or two,¡± said ethan. ¡°in the meantime... you say that the enchanting material comes from southern illvaria? specifically cyra, the town run by illa weissarus?¡±


    alice nodded.


    ethan felt a grin tugging at his lips.


    illa just so happened to be in town right now. and cecilia was apparently going to get a sample of the material that alice needed, which would make it very easy for illa to see what was needed and possibly help work out a supply route of some sort.


    ethan felt that all of the puzzle pieces for how to start solving the enchantment problem were assembling themselves for his apprentice, right in front of his eyes.

 Chapter 139

    chapter 139


    ¡°honored immortal ethan, lady illa is at the door of the manor. she has requested to see you, and also requested to schedule a meeting with her former [student],¡± said someone from the shadows, startling alice out of her discussion with ethan.


    ¡°illa?¡± said alice, suddenly feeling very confused. the first person she thought of when she heard the name ¡®illa¡¯ was the leader of cyra, who had spent a few months training her when she was new to this world. however, the idea that illa would have shown up here and requested to see her was very strange. why in the world would illa have come to metsel in order to see her? didn¡¯t she have a town to run?


    alice turned towards ethan, and hoped that he would explain what was going on. ethan, instead of telling her what was going on, simply looked at her and grinned.


    alice stared at ethan some more, until ethan finally burst out laughing. ¡°you need to work on controlling your facial expressions, alice. yes, the illa outside is the same one you know. i admit, i haven¡¯t confirmed why she¡¯s here. but i assume she gathered some sort of information about the collapse of the system, and then came here to ask you what you knew?¡± ethan grinned. ¡°there¡¯s a reason she lived through so many close scrapes in the military. she has good instincts, so i wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she figured out that you¡¯re the best source of information about the current crisis. although i¡¯m a bit surprised that she managed to get to metsel so quickly. perhaps she has a perk that lets her move more quickly? or perhaps she simply got information about the collapse of the system more quickly than i expected. i wasn¡¯t sure if illa would come to see you, but i had thought it would take her another week or two to arrive if she did.¡±


    alice felt her memories of illa spring to mind, and after a few moments of consideration, she nodded.


    during the time she had spent in cyra with illa, alice had shown herself to be extremely interested in mana, the system, and how this world as a whole worked during the time she had interacted with illa. heck, alice had explicitly told illa about the achievement she had gotten for observing the interaction between attributes and mana. even if alice hadn¡¯t outright said she was studying the system, it wouldn¡¯t be very hard for illa to put two and two together, especially if illa knew that [priests of the system] were talking about the collapse of the system and how people should mitigate its impact. the information about the system and how it worked would have had to come from somewhere, and illa was certainly smart enough to put all of the information she had together and realize alice had been researching the system all this time.


    ¡°are you willing to meet with her?¡± asked ethan, breaking alice out of her thoughts. ¡°if you aren¡¯t willing to see her, you are free to leave the room for a while,¡± he said. ¡°i intend to speak with her, since she is your former [teacher] and she could have a role to play in stabilizing this whole mess. but you are naturally free to make your own decisions. i will not force you to see people you don¡¯t want to.¡± ethan paused. ¡°although i do think that speaking with her would be beneficial.¡±


    and so ethan will still encourage me to meet with illa, even if he won¡¯t actually force me to, though alice, completing the rest of ethan¡¯s words in her mind.


    alice thought about it. was she willing to meet with illa?


    while most of illa¡¯s reasons that she had helped alice in the past were pragmatic, it was also true that alice had received a fair amount of assistance from illa during her initial months in this world. not to mention, illa had been very fair in her dealings with alice during the time alice had worked with her. she had always made it as clear as possible what consequences alice could expect to deal with if she worked with the woman, and even raised alice¡¯s payment during the expedition to see the broken mana zone outside cyra, once it became clear that alice was in more danger than expected. in alice¡¯s mind, that action proved that illa was a fair person.


    alice could also see some benefits to working with illa. alice was currently in desperate need of weird enchanting materials. the south of illvaria was known for producing enchanting materials, even if it was currently rather underdeveloped. illa was the leader of one of the best maintained towns in the south, since it was ruled by a massively overleveled [warmage] with connections to the military and a surplus of mages. while most southern towns struggled to draw in mages, illa had managed to hold on to the mages in her town. her city was also positioned on a river that many trade routes from the south to the north passed through. it seemed likely that illa could help alice resolve her pressing needs for enchanting materials.


    ¡°i¡¯d be happy to see her again,¡± said alice after she finished thinking.


    ¡°good,¡± said ethan, giving alice a curious look. ¡°well, potentially good. why did you agree?¡±


    ¡°i was thinking about the potential for getting enchanting materials, and the fact that the previous cooperation i had with illa turned out well. illa is fair and easy to work with,¡± said alice. ¡°and she also has direct access to several southern trade routes, and direct access to the southern illvarian wilderness. i know that that a lot of illvaria¡¯s enchanting materials used to come from the south, so illa is in a position where she could help us get access to a large quantity of weird and potentially useful enchanting materials. i know that you said that you would have a set of sample enchanting materials for me to work with tomorrow, but getting access to more raw materials could be critical if we want to get a large number of [enchanters] working on this problem. and having more options is never a bad thing.¡±


    ethan grinned incredibly widely. ¡°you¡¯re learning to think properly about how and when to interact with people. i¡¯m very glad that some of my lessons are sinking in.¡± after that, the two of them fell into a comfortable silence as they waited for the new visitor to come to the meeting room. a short time later, illa weissaurus came to the room, before giving alice and ethan curious glances.


    ¡°honored immortal ethan,¡± said illa, giving ethan a respectful nod. ¡°i thank you for being willing to meet with me, and allowing me to see my old [student].¡±


    then, she turned back towards alice, and alice saw a brief moment of confusion on illa¡¯s face, as if she wasn¡¯t quite sure how to address alice now. ultimately, she gave alice a quick nod. ¡°lady alice,¡± said illa. ¡°i am glad to see that you are doing well.¡± then, alice saw a little bit of the pragmatism and bluntness that had characterized all of her interactions with illa fade away, and illa gave her a cheeky grin. ¡°perhaps saying you¡¯re doing ¡®well¡¯ is an understatement. honored immortal ethan does not take in many apprentices per century, and i imagine that you¡¯ve levelled quite significantly. the way you sit is much more poised as well. is your [dexterity] simply much higher than before? or have you taken some kind of {etiquette} lessons?¡± illa¡¯s grin widened. ¡°if you weren¡¯t very promising, i doubt ethan would waste time helping you learn {etiquette}, so you must be doing quite well, both as far as levelling speed goes and as far as societal position goes.¡±


    alice felt a hint of pride as illa mentioned her levelling progress and the strides she had made over the past six months. when she had left cyra, her highest level class had been level 47. she had already felt decent about her progress at that time ¨C after all, the average adult in illvaria was somewhere between level 40 and level 60, depending on their age, achievements, and work ethic. for alice to reach the same level in only a few months had felt quite good to her at the time, even if she knew that a lot of her success came from the advantage of being born on earth and picking up the {outworlder} achievement right after arriving on this planet.


    however, alice¡¯s status screen had grown leaps and bounds since the last time illa had seen her.


    alice glanced at her status screen again, to see just how much she had grown.


    name: alice verianna


    age: 16


    strength: 117 -> 119 (122%)


    perception: 139 -> 140 (165%)


    dexterity: 119 -> 120 (124%)


    intelligence: 169 -> 170 (128%)


    endurance: 134 -> 135(121%)


    willpower: 148 -> 152 (108 -> 109%)


    charisma: 132 -> 133 (107%)


    magic: 164 -> 167 (122%)


    primary classes: 6/6


    survivor: 56 -> 59


    explorer of magic: 75 -> 78


    scholar: 55 -> 60


    scientist: 58 -> 62


    kinetic manabinder: 41 -> 44


    careful enchanter: 27 -> 30


    evolved classes: 2


    student of kinetic magic: 25


    (apprentice) enchanter: 25


    secondary classes: 2


    fisherwoman: 3


    student: 8


    student of organic magic: 11 -> 24


    courtier: 1


    perks:


    survivor perks:


    foraging (survivor 5)


    microbe resistance (survivor 10)


    extremophile (survivor 15)


    camouflaged (survivor 20)


    enhanced training (survivor 30)


    moderate tissue regeneration (survivor 40)


    adrenaline rush (survivor 45)


    extended organics (survivor 50)


    enhanced senses (tier 2) (survivor 55)


    explorer of magic perks:


    enhanced regeneration (explorer of magic 10)


    seeds of magic (explorer of magic 25)


    broken seed (upgraded) (explorer of magic 35)


    expanding comprehension (tier 2) (explorer of magic 55)


    combat seed (tier 2) (explorer of magic 60)


    intuitive magic modelling (tier 2) (explorer of magic 65)


    seeds of ambition (tier 2) (explorer of magic 75)


    scholar perks:


    accelerated thinking (scholar level 15 (-5))


    rhetorical flourish (scholar level 20)


    photographic memory (scholar level 25)


    improved multitasking (scholar level 30)


    physical skills:


    dodge: 31


    etiquette: 21


    spearmanship: 19


    sprinting: 22


    riding: 15


    climbing: 9


    fishing: 9


    digging: 8


    stealth: 4


    basic medicine: 3


    dancing: 6


    magic seed: 1/1


    (unused seed has 15% conversion rat. max)


    kinetic seed 154 -> 157%/159%


    healing mana seed 55% -> 58%/60% (deactivated - you may link this to a perk if desired!)


    electromagnetic seed (15%) (deactivated)


    no_magic (33%/35%)


    lesser magic seeds


    (base max 25%, achievements now apply as usual)


    display seed (11%) -> 14%/16


    organic seed 74% -> 77%/79% (6% exp. comp.)


    pure mana seed 44% ->47%/49% (12% exp. comp.)


    filtration seed -> 37%/40%


    dimensional seed -> 37%/40%


    achievements:


    outworlder (rarity: 10)


    seeker of truth (iv) (rarity: 10)


    baptized by broken mana (rarity: 6)


    survivor of winter (rarity: 3)


    monstrous encounter (rarity: 1)


    monster slayer (iii) (rarity: 2)


    well trained (rarity: 4)


    murderer (rarity: 4)


    bookworm (rarity: 3)


    kinetic manabinder (rarity n/a)


    careful enchanter (rarity n/a)


    capable enchanter (rarity: 5)


    seed creator (rarity: 8)


    scientific discoveries (iii) -> (iv) (rarity n/a)


    immortal''s apprentice at the battle against the society (rarity: 4)


    legendary healer (rarity: 7)


    creative healer (rarity: 4)


    alice¡¯s highest level class was now level 78. level 75 was already considered the level of a properly elite craftsmen or warrior, and was a level few people would reach, even with an entire lifetime of hard work. it was only when seeing illa again and thinking about her progress over the past several months that alice could truly feel how much she had grown in a short five or six months. she had come a long way from the scared teenager who was dumped into the middle of the illvarian forest nearly a year ago.


    of course, as much as alice was happy to see her levels steadily increasing, she also felt the urge to wince. most of her classes had gone up by 3-4 levels... which was pretty good when one considered the fact that her highest level class was above level 75. at the exact same time, almost every action that alice had taken recently was primarily focused on exploring magic, and despite that fact, she had only gained three levels in the class. if it had been before she reached level 75, alice was willing to bet she would have gained six or seven levels in [explorer of magic] instead of three. trying to level up classes after level 75 was incredibly painful if one didn¡¯t have the achievements to support it.


    ¡°i¡¯m indeed doing very well,¡± said alice, giving illa a smile. then, feeling just a little bit cheeky, she gave illa a slightly more mischevious grin. since illa was dropping a bit of formality around her, it felt right to do the same. ¡°i might even be higher level than you now.¡± then, alice laughed. ¡°thank you for all of the work and time you put into training me when i was in cyra and had no connections or abilities to fall back on.¡±


    illa chuckled. ¡°a sixteen year old who might be higher level than me... that would really be something.¡± then, she shook her head. ¡°we both benefitted from your actions in cyra. you don¡¯t need to thank me ¨C your current state is a result of your own hard work and your willingness to pursue your interests to the very end.¡± then, slowly, the mirth faded from her face, as she adopted a more serious expression. ¡°now, for the reason i came here. i¡¯m sure you¡¯re aware of it already, but recently, things are quite... odd. a little over a week ago, i got a very strange feeling, as if something important had simply vanished into thin air. shortly after this, people started to notice all sorts of oddities regarding their status screens. people couldn¡¯t read their new perks anymore, achievements started to incorporate strange glitch symbols into their words, and last i heard, there are also issues with mages forming new magic seeds?¡± illa frowned. ¡°the last one is harder to verify, since there aren¡¯t that many mages forming new magic seeds on a regular basis. but i am greatly concerned by these changes. and as far as i know, you are probably aware of how and why these changes have occured,¡± she said, nodding at alice. ¡°i would greatly appreciate more information.¡±


    alice glanced at ethan, who simply gave her a curious look. alice realized ethan was testing... how well she would handle this interaction?


    maybe he¡¯s testing me, to see how i handle trading with illa, thought alice, frowning. illa had something that alice needed. illa had also come all this way to see alice, so she certainly wanted the information alice had.


    or at least, illa had wanted that information. alice and ethan had gone to a decent amount of effort to get more people informed about the current state of affairs, and even if they weren¡¯t giving away every shred of information available, they were still making a very large part of alice¡¯s research results freely understandable to the public. almost everything relevant to regular people regarding the crisis was currently available in some part of the city. illa had likely already found some of this information out herself, if she had done any investigation into the city at all.


    alice resisted the urge to sigh. if ethan was testing how well she tried to bargain with illa, her position would definitely be weakened by these facts. of course, illa wouldn¡¯t give her a terrible deal ¨C after all, alice was confident in illa¡¯s long-term planning abilities, and it was obvious that dealing with the current crisis was priority one. but that didn¡¯t mean it was fair to ask illa to spend huge amounts of time and manpower helping to solve the current crisis without being compensated for her time and effort, either.


    alice sighed. she had been in a vastly inferior bargaining position the last time she was in cyra, and almost all of her deals with illa had been rather one-sided. illa had still treated her fairly, but it was also unquestionable that alice hadn¡¯t had much of a bargaining position at the time.


    now, she needed to bargain with her former mentor from a very different position. this was also the most freeform test ethan had given her so far. usually, he asked her how she should respond to something, and would then give her ¡®the answer¡¯ right afterwards. this time, she needed to do this on her own.


    ¡°i do, indeed, know quite a bit about the current situation. i¡¯m in the midst of developing countermeasures for it at this very moment, in fact,¡± said alice. ¡°for this, i would very much appreciate some help from you.¡±


    ¡°oh?¡± said illa, sounding genuinely surprised. ¡°what can i offer to the apprentice of an immortal? i¡¯m sure you have much better tutors available if you want training for magic or combat, and immortal ethan certainly has more resources than me when it comes to experiments...¡± illa trailed off, giving ethan a curious glance.


    ¡°i need enchanting materials. specifically, i need a material with certain properties, but i haven¡¯t found anything suitable yet. for the other, i need a specific kind of tree bark that cecilia purchased in your town several months ago. will you permit me to use a certain perk to give you an image of what tree bark i am looking for?¡±


    illa hesitated for a very long moment, eyeing both alice and ethan, before she finally nodded. alice quickly grabbed illa¡¯s wrist and sent over an image of the tree bark she needed, before retracting her hand and waiting for illa to process the information alice had sent her. after a few moments of processing, illa nodded at alice, indicating that she could continue. ¡°as for the other enchanting material i need, i would like something that allows me to use a certain kind of mana with it. the mana type is... somewhat similar to pure mana, but has a few different characteristics. it needs to work with filtration mana, which, as far as i¡¯m aware, isn¡¯t a mana type that is particularly well known...¡± alice started describing what kinds of mana were at least similar enough to work as a ¡®starting point¡¯ for what materials she might need, while illa nodded.


    ¡°and in exchange, i suppose you¡¯re willing to give me information on whatever is going on?¡± said illa, giving alice a grin.


    alice nodded.


    ¡°i¡¯m afraid that¡¯s not good enough as a trade,¡± said illa. ¡°i want to know more, but it¡¯s also obvious that you¡¯re already taking efforts to spread this information far and wide. i would like a little bit more out of this deal. after all, you¡¯re asking me to tie up a bunch of my own funds and manpower finding weird enchanting materials.¡±


    ¡°i don¡¯t recall you having any [enchanters] in the south since cecilia left,¡± said alice. ¡°meaning that we¡¯re still going to need to do a lot of the testing and processing on our end. even if nobody else is likely to have access to filtration or display mana, most [enchanters] still have perks that let them gather information. and if you don¡¯t have an [enchanter] on your end, that still leaves a lot of work for us. unless you¡¯ve lured another one to your town?¡±


    ¡°i have found a replacement, yes,¡± said illa, grinning. ¡°it took a pretty penny to get a new [enchanter] to come to my town, as well as a sponsorship for one of the woman¡¯s children into a magic academy. but do indeed i have a new [enchanter] that can help gather information for you... for a price.¡±


    alice nodded, trying to think. illa still probably wanted information, and alice could give her some unique information that wasn¡¯t available to the public. but what else could she offer illa?


    as if sensing alice¡¯s thoughts, illa leaned a little bit closer. ¡°i¡¯ll tell you what i want,¡± said illa. ¡°right now, it seems like you have a lot of information about the current crisis. i want a more in-depth discussion of exactly what¡¯s happening, straight from the source of the research herself. and i also want first priority for whatever you¡¯re making with your enchanting materials. i don¡¯t know exactly why you need enchanting materials that can hold filtration mana and display mana... but i imagine it¡¯s somehow related to solving the current crisis. i want you to prioritize cyra as the first town that gets access to these solutions the moment they¡¯re implemented.¡±


    alice thought about it. that was... fair. probably. and if cyra turned into the main supplier for alice¡¯s enchanting needs, keeping cyra stable would ensure that future supply shipments weren¡¯t disrupted. by becoming a useful component for solving the current crisis, illa was basically guaranteeing that alice would need to keep the town safe and up to date until the crisis was over.


    alice looked at ethan, who simply shrugged.


    ¡°i think i would probably need to prioritize the capital first,¡± said alice, after some hesitation. ¡°but after that, i could put cyra as the next priority for this?¡±


    illa thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. ¡°that¡¯s reasonable. i accept.¡±


    a deal was struck.n?00v€l--?1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

 Chapter 140

    chapter 140


    after the more concrete negotiations between alice and illa ended, there was a strange pause in the conversation. alice hadn¡¯t seen illa in months, and it almost felt like a lifetime ago. the negotiations had given her a topic to focus on, but now that it was over... alice felt strangely blank. she simply didn¡¯t know how to interact with her former mentor anymore.


    illa eventually broke the silence.


    ¡°so you say you might be higher level than me? i see that times have been even better for you than i expected.¡±


    alice nodded. her highest level class was [explorer of magic], and while the class had some combat applications, most of them were related to getting her more magic seeds and increasing the number of magic tendrils she could control at once. it... didn¡¯t seem too bad to at least hint at her current level, even if alice would avoid giving overly specific numbers. oddly enough, a lot of her combat abilities were from achievements and long-term growth perks these days.


    ¡°i¡¯m pretty high level now,¡± alice said. that was vague enough that it wouldn¡¯t give illa a complete picture of her current status, but would still allow alice to talk a bit about how far she had come.


    illa nodded. ¡°if you¡¯re pretty high level now, you must be at least over level 65. perhaps even over level 75? the levels after level 75 are very hard to acquire,¡± she said. ¡°they¡¯re a massive slog to get through if you don¡¯t have enough experience boosters to work for you. but you¡¯re a smart girl. i¡¯m sure you¡¯ll manage.¡±


    alice nodded and tried not to wince. she had very much noticed how hard it was to gain levels in [explorer of magic] these days. even if she took actions directly focused on improving the class, it still barely levelled up.


    ¡°still... i¡¯m very surprised by how much you¡¯ve grown. you¡¯ve been in this world... what, a year?¡±


    ¡°about a year, yes,¡± said alice. ¡°i don¡¯t have an exact date for when i was dropped into this world, and i didn¡¯t get all of my memory perks until a month or two after i arrived. but it was probably somewhere between 11 and 13 months ago.¡±


    illa nodded. ¡°more or less a year since coming here, then.¡± she grinned. ¡°almost surpassed by a kid in a year,¡± she said, shaking her head ruefully. ¡°well, either way... i¡¯m glad for you. i never thought you would reach this far, especially considering your late start. normally, i would have thought it would take a miracle just for you to catch up to people who were born on this planet, considering the fact that you¡¯re years behind everyone else. somehow, you¡¯ve already caught up though.¡± illa gave alice a meaningful grin. ¡°though you¡¯re underestimating me a bit, if you think you¡¯ve surpassed me already and you¡¯re only level 70 or even 75. maybe in another few months or a year you¡¯ll be ahead,¡± she said as she chuckled.


    then, illa turned back towards ethan. ¡°so how exactly are we going to do this, logistically?¡± she said. ¡°the easiest way for you to handle this would be to simply let me return to cyra, and then wait for me to start sending shipments of enchanting materials up north. but that also risks a few things ¨C most notably among them being that i spend months searching for materials and can¡¯t find anything useful. we did already talk about my [enchanter], and she¡¯ll certainly be helping out ¨C but there¡¯s only so much she can do on her own.¡±


    ethan looked at alice for a moment, and then nodded to himself. ¡°there are a few ways we can handle this. the first way is to head to cyra ourselves, and directly process and test ingredients on the spot. we could also leave things to you, or send over some decent [enchanters] to help speed things along. i personally favor sending over some members of the military and a few [encahnters], but... alice, would it be faster and safer if you did the testing? if so, it might not be a bad idea to consider heading to cyra ourselves for a while.¡±


    alice thought about her as of yet unchosen [careful enchanter] perk, as well as her new ability to test enchanting inside of her dreams. the fact that she could process information incredibly quickly now, as well as her effectively unlimited mana while testing things out in her dreams, would definitely make it much faster and easier to test enchanting materials. there might also be more... alice finally popped open her options for [careful enchanter].


    ¡°lemme look at some perk options for a moment,¡± said alice. ¡°i¡¯ve been holding off since i wasn¡¯t sure what i needed until now, but now i¡¯m thinking i want a way to test materials faster.¡±


    ¡°take your time,¡± said ethan. ¡°you should choose your perks carefully. we can wait.¡±


    alice nodded and started scanning her perk options, while using display mana to actually see the descriptions for her perks.


    the first option she saw wasn¡¯t particularly impressive: it made any monster core that she personally added to an enchantment slowly recharge itself. this was nice, since it would save a great deal of monster cores for her personally made enchanted items in the long run. however, alice didn¡¯t think it was anywhere near high priority, especially with the current situation. it saved a bit of money and time, but it just wasn¡¯t worth a perk slot.


    the second perk choice was a bit more interesting. rather than make monster cores recharge themselves, it made enchantments that alice made slowly repair themselves. however, it still wasn¡¯t that impressive. wear and tear was a common problem for enchanted items, but it still usually took years before it mattered. alice had bigger priorities than saving on material costs a decade from now.


    the third and fourth perks were far more interesting than the first two options.


    perk name: perk name


    perk reqs: perception greater 100, level 30+ class_name


    perk gives user option to process better. learn enchanting material property fast!


    perk name: seed enchanting


    give information to user: relate class seeds to enchantments. instincts for class seed enchantments.


    error: system related perks must remain hidden. hide perk_option 4.


    hiding failed. seeking main server to rectify error... cannot connect to main server.


    @#)(*$@%*()@&#$ @#)($*@#$()#@ @#$)(@*#


    a few moments later, the fourth perk¡¯s error messages disappeared, leaving a much simpler perk behind.


    perk name: seed enchanting


    requirements: level 30+ enchanter_class_quality_enchanter, perception______ ____


    alice blinked.


    the system had just used the human brain and ambient mana as enchanting materials to construct a class seed. the moment the class seed was finished, the mana inside of the body¡¯s person seemed to light up for a moment, although alice wasn¡¯t quite sure why. a moment later, the image started to fade, and alice¡¯s view of the process was redirected towards the seed itself. alice saw mana start to run through it, and through some quirk of how her new perk worked, she understood.


    without the freeform nature of a regular magic seed, the newly made class seed couldn¡¯t do anywhere near as much as a normal magic seed with the same amount of mana. the amount of mana that a regular kinetic mage would be able to use to hurl a boulder through the air and send it flying like a kite could only be used to create a few ¡®perks,¡¯ all of which were sort of like vastly weakened versions of the usual abilities of a magic seed.


    however, the class seed had two additional benefits.


    first, it vacuumed up problematic mana from the body, compressing it inside of itself and using it to boost the strength of the magic seed. through some side components of the perk providing her with her vision-trip, alice could see that the class seed could theoretically grow without limits, although the denser the mana was inside of the class seed, the more difficult it would become to compress more mana inside of it. this was likely why people had a harder and harder time levelling up as they got higher in level.


    it also lined up with all of the other observations that alice had made about class seeds so far. alice still wasn¡¯t quite sure how class seeds vacuumed up mana from inside the body, or how the system normally did some of its mana filtration tricks to keep the whole process running smoothly, so this observation didn¡¯t tell her anything new. the second thing she noticed was much more valuable.


    the second thing she noticed was something she had observed before, but never paid much attention to. class seeds were magic seeds that weren¡¯t stored inside of the mage core. alice had already realized that class seeds didn¡¯t require a mage core to be stored. this was obvious, since there were very few mages in the world and yet everyone on the planet over the age of six had access to the system.


    however, she hadn¡¯t realized quite how important it was that the magic seed wasn¡¯t stored inside of the core.


    instead of being stored inside of a mage core, most magic seeds were stored near the brain, although they were occasionally stored in the heart or lungs instead. this limited the power of class seeds greatly, but by creating a magic seed that was also, in some respects, kind of like an enchantment, the class seed was much more stable than a normal magic seed. this made them less volatile and potentially harmful for their user... which probably had something to do with why people needed a mana baptism to become a mage, but anyone could get a class.


    as alice was mulling over what she had seen, she felt the vision start to fade, and she was pulled back to reality again.


    she blinked.


    alice... finally had some guess as to how she could create a class seed.


    out of curiosity, she tried checking with {safety analysis} to see if she could safely make a new class seed for herself... and got back the equivalent of a giant siren blaring at full volume with hundreds of flashing red lights sent right back to her the moment she activated her perk.


    bad idea. she might have a guess about how to move forward, but she didn¡¯t have anywhere near the data that she needed to make her ideas work yet.


    alice sighed.


    at the very least, she had a guess about where she was supposed to start, now. she could refine what she had observed today and think about it more later, and see if there were some other ways to make the whole process work. since she had {safety analysis}, she could always get at least some idea whether what she was doing was a bad idea or not, even if the perk wasn¡¯t perfect. the idea of using human organs as an enchanting material was... novel. especially since human organs weren¡¯t naturally enchanting materials at all, apart from the mage core.


    then, alice thought about something else. she had felt that there was something familiar about system mana that she had seen for quite a while. now that alice was explicitly thinking about it, she remembered an old perk she had picked up quite a while ago. she had occasionally used it to improve her enchantments, but had often struggled to make the time she needed to maximize the value of the perk. however...


    kinetic enchanting


    requirements: kinetic manabinder level 25 or higher


    if you interact with an enchanting material for an extended period of time while focusing on this perk, you may increase the amount of ''instructions'' the enchanting material can remember by 1 permanently. this extra instruction may only be used to increase its memory for kinetic enchantments, and the material must already have some affinity with kinetic mana or the perk will not work.


    this can only be used on a given material once, and will fail if other similar perks, achievements, or any other effects have already been used on it.


    if at level 25, she had gotten a perk that let her add the capacity for extra instructions to an enchanting material... maybe it was possible to use other perks to just transform materials entirely, using a similar perk?


    for that matter, what if one wanted to enchant something nobody else would think of enchanting?


    what if someone wanted to make the air an enchantment? every single atom of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and all of the other gasses in the atmosphere? was it possible to enchant them?


    and suddenly, alice finally realized why the system enchantments she sometimes saw floating in the air around her looked familiar.


    they were paired enchantments.


    the system had, turned the entire atmosphere into a paired enchantment, and used it as a conduit to make the rest of the system work with people properly. as long as someone interacted with air in the world, the system should theoretically have access to them and be able to help them control the mana inside of them. it wasn¡¯t perfect ¨C since alice had managed to create environments without system mana, it was obvious that the way the paired enchantment had been created was a bit weirder and more fluid than regular enchantments. however, unless someone knew what they were doing, creating an environment without system mana would be very difficult ¨C and since the system actively hid its existence from the world, it was almost impossible to get the data one would need to intentionally create an environment without the system.


    in other words, normally one wouldn¡¯t create an environment without system mana unless they knew what they were doing. and nobody was ever supposed to know what they were doing.


    either way, she had gotten a huge amount of useful information and ideas from her new perk. even though the perk didn¡¯t seem to do much else besides provide her with that one vision trip, similar to the perk she had eventually turned into {expanding comprehension}, alice was more than happy with the perk she had taken.


    then, as alice returned to the present and looked at her mentor and illa, who were still waiting for her to confirm whether or not alice was about to head to cyra with ethan, alice realized something else.


    during her entire vision trip, alice hadn¡¯t gotten a better idea how to solve her current problems. she had gotten all sorts of inspiration for how to start making class seeds, but she hadn¡¯t gotten a specific, concrete boost to her abilities from her new perk. she would eventually be able to transform her new inspiration and ideas into something amazing, but the perk she had saved hadn¡¯t contributed anything directly to the current situation. she winced.

 Chapter 141

    chapter 141


    after alice finished processing the information from her new perk, she took a few moments to realign her thoughts with the present again.


    originally, she had been wondering if there was a reason to go to cyra with ethan. after all, going to cyra would represent a huge time commitment, and during that time, alice wouldn¡¯t be in metsel.


    she had also been trying to find a perk that would make it easier to test new materials, since alice would be able to use that regardless of whether she went to metsel or cyra. she had gotten something much, much better than a perk for testing materials, but she still hadn¡¯t gotten what she was originally looking for. and while she now knew that the system had a physical mainframe somewhere, she didn¡¯t have any idea where it was yet. was it in a location with dense mana? thin mana? was it on land, or in the ocean?


    considering how good the system was at hiding itself, any irregular phenomenon related to mana could potentially represent the physical location of the system. but there were so many irregularities related to mana flow around the world that alice could probably spend decades examining each mana irregularity, if that was the only thing she had to go off of. alice sighed, and realized she had gotten distracted.


    alice returned to her original question. should she go to cyra with ethan? did she provide anything that ethan¡¯s subordinates couldn¡¯t make up for? also, what opportunities would it cost her if she went to cyra instead of staying in metsel?


    alice hesitated, mulling over her options again and again.


    she had just established some level of cooperation with the local churches of the system, which could provide a pretty hefty incentive to stay in metsel. but cecilia was taking over most of the important aspects of that cooperation. and right now, the cooperation mostly boiled down to the church sending along potential [enchanters] to get trained by cecilia and alice. alice could simply take cecilia and the trainees with her when she went to cyra if needed.


    meanwhile, going to cyra, at least for a while, seemed like a reasonable way to solve the enchanting material problem. the [enchanter] who lived in cyra wouldn¡¯t be able to test for everything alice needed ¨C after all, they likely didn¡¯t have a display mana magic seed or filtration magic seed. this would make it hard for them to test how compatible new materials were with those magic seeds. if alice could test things personally, she would have a much easier time figuring out what materials cyra needed to prioritize.


    as she mulled over her options, alice started to come to the conclusion that going to cyra, at least for a while, might be for the best. even though there might be a few [enchanters] among ethan¡¯s subordinates who could fulfill some of the testing needs alice had, since she was the only person in illvaria with a filtration magic seed she should do her testing herself.


    of course, that would happen after alice spent a few more days in cyra. her {broken seed} perk had just come off cooldown, so one of cecilia¡¯s students could try to form a magic seed safely. alice didn¡¯t think that anyone would succeed in forming a magic seed without the help of the system the first time they tried it, but they needed to get people started as soon as possible. the collapse of the system was creating problems much faster than alice could solve them, and having mages with useful magic seeds would go a long way towards alleviating some of the problems of the system¡¯s collapse.


    ¡°i think it¡¯s best if we go south for a while,¡± said alice, finally turning her attention back to ethan. ¡°there are a lot of things that would go much faster and smoother if i personally test them. we should spend a few days in cyra to handle your enchanting material samples, and do some magic seed testing ¨C but unless we find a cheap and useful enchanting material from your samples, going to cyra for some material searching is probably for the best,¡± she said.


    ¡°also, there are a few things we should talk about later,¡± she said to ethan.


    ethan¡¯s eyes narrowed for a moment as he processed alice¡¯s words, before he nodded. at alice¡¯s final comment, illa gave alice an appraising look, before she tactfully ignored it.


    ¡°that sounds reasonable,¡± said ethan. ¡°as long as you¡¯re sure that heading to the south for a while is for the best, we can leave the moment it¡¯s convenient. i¡¯ll arrange for transportation and [guards]. you also mentioned that we should do something involving magic seed testing?¡±


    ¡°yes. {broken seed} is off cooldown, and i currently feel that i should be using that perk the moment it comes off cooldown, since it¡¯s so important for getting more useful mages that can help us. i think that the most promising of cecilia¡¯s mages should try forming a magic seed without the system, so that i can break down the seed once it starts to catastrophically fail. it takes several tries to successfully make a magic seed alone, and the sooner we get the best mages started, the sooner they¡¯ll succeed,¡± said alice.


    ¡°very well,¡± said ethan, after a few moments.


    ¡°if you two are planning to go to cyra, and bringing along a contingent of important mages, i will excuse myself. i need to send a few messages to cyra, to make sure that it¡¯s prepared for your arrival,¡± said illa. ¡°honored immortal, lady alice, thank you for being willing to see me. i know that this must be a very busy time for you, and i appreciate you taking time to meet with me and discuss the future anyway. may we find a solution to this crisis as soon as possible.¡±


    ethan nodded, and a few moments later, illa left.


    afterwards, alice waited a few moments.


    ¡°are we alone?¡± asked alice.


    ethan paused, and then motioned towards the wall.


    a [spy] that alice had somehow failed to notice melted out of the wall, and quickly left the room, before ethan turned back towards her. ¡°we are now,¡± he said. ¡°what did you need to talk about?¡±


    ¡°it¡¯s very important,¡± said alice, doing her best to emphasize her words as much as possible. ¡°when i picked my last perk, i didn¡¯t get anything that would make it faster or easier to process and interact with enchanting materials. instead, i got a pretty... interesting perk. let me show you what i found,¡± she said, before extending a hand towards ethan.


    ethan seemed to realize what she wanted, and a moment later, stretched out a finger. alice immediately used it to activate {shared memory}, and showed ethan what she had seen while using her newest perk.


    after seeing alice¡¯s memories, ethan frowned.


    ¡°that is... not what i expected to see,¡± he said, finally. ¡°the system has... a physical body? that idea is very... i don¡¯t...¡± for once, the immortal seemed completely at a loss for words.


    alice felt a flicker of amusement at ethan¡¯s expression. she didn¡¯t see ethan so totally lost for words very often, and she was rather enjoying seeing him so baffled for once.


    after several seconds of long, drawn out thought, ethan shook his head.


    alice quickly used {safety analysis}, confirmed that this magic seed had gone wrong, and used {broken seed} to remove his failed magic seed.


    the man blinked, before opening his eyes and sighing.


    ¡°my apologies, lady alice,¡± he said.


    alice shrugged. she had been hoping to get lucky, but she hadn¡¯t really expected a success.


    ¡°not bad for a first attempt,¡± she said. ¡°keep it up. you¡¯ll get it within a few tries.¡±


    the man nodded and left.


    it seemed that luck was not on their side this time.


    * * *


    a day later, alice looked at the massive tray of enchanting materials in front of her, and grinned. ethan had managed to put together a huge number of enchanting materials in just a day. such was the influence of an immortal. alice had a sneaking suspicion that a lot of these materials had previously kept around in various collections as novel items, which would make collecting more of them rather difficult. however, it would still be better than nothing.


    she also noticed that at least a few of the enchanting materials seemed to be covered in rainbow mana. having only recently thought about the {kinetic enchanting} perk from her [kinetic manabinder] class, and how it allowed alice to improve the maximum capacity of enchanting materials, alice suspected that these materials were probably man-made. they would probably take a fair number of man-hours to create more of them, but it would also be much more possible to acquire a steady stream of manmade materials.


    ethan had also sorted the enchanting materials into different rows. alice looked over some of the labels, before nodding to herself. ethan had sorted the materials based on how easy it was to acquire more of the material. the enchanting materials at the top, while not exactly common, were at least possible to acquire more of on short notice. meanwhile, the enchanting materials near the bottom of the case of enchanting materials were hard to acquire more of. in other words, she needed to start testing from the top, and then work her way down, and hope that something from the top of the case of enchanting materials worked.


    she sighed, before stuffing it all into her storage perk and then going to sleep.


    it was time to do some dream testing.


    it only took alice a few moments to reappear inside of the dream library, before she made her way to the enchanting room and got to work.


    the first material alice tested was a kind of white plant. frankly, it looked like a human finger bone, and it took alice a few moments to confirm that the item wasn¡¯t an actual finger bone. after making sure she wasn¡¯t holding on to part of a human skeleton, alice tried injecting a little bit of filtration mana into it, as well as a bit of display mana into it, before shaking her head.


    this material was useless.


    the next item was a type of reddish-green moss. it looked almost like someone had bled onto a patch of moss, and then collected it for some reason.


    this one also didn¡¯t work.


    alice didn¡¯t say a word, and simply continued working in her dream. like a machine, she grabbed one material after another, injected the relevant types of mana into it, and tossed it aside after confirming it was useless.


    the first forty-two test materials were all completely unable to interact with the necessary kinds of mana. however, when alice got to the first artificially made enchanting material, she was pleasantly surprised to see that it was able to hold on to some filtration mana. this was the kind of mana that she had been most worried about, since it was very important for people to avoid getting hurt by mana. she grinned to herself.


    finally, a successful test result.


    alice continued testing materials, but unfortunately, didn¡¯t find very many more materials that were actually compatible with the mana types she needed them to be. the other artificially made enchanting materials were usually at least somewhat usable, but only just. the most useful material she found, out of the one hundred and sixty two materials she tried, was material one hundred and forty seven. it was an amber-colored rock. but more importantly, it was an artificial material that could hold four enchanting instructions instead of one, and was compatible with both display and filtration mana. however, since it was an entirely man made material, and seemed to require a fair number of specific perks to create, it wouldn¡¯t be easy to mass produce. if alice wanted to create large quantities of class-related filtration rings, she would need a better option than this.


    alice sighed.


    at least it was better than nothing, for now.


    after that, alice started toying with the actual process of creating a filtration enchantment. after all, figuring out how to create an enchantment that actually did what she wanted it to do would be a slow, difficult process. alice wasn¡¯t bad at creating enchantments, but she wasn¡¯t amazing, either. and there were several difficulties in the process ¨C first, alice needed to get the enchantment to find and ¡®hook up¡¯ with the appropriate magic seed. getting an unintelligent enchantment to sense which magic seed was which was surprisingly difficult, and this was the part of the process alice got stuck on that night while.


    she woke up feeling rather frustrated by how poorly her first attempts had gone, but she also felt relieved. at the very least, there were a few materials that she could use to start implementing her enchantment plan. they might be rare and hard to make, but it was better than there being no options at all.


    after that, she quickly rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, got dressed, and went to meet up with ethan.


    it was time to head back to cyra, where she had begun her journey in this world.

 Chapter 142

    chapter 142


    one day later, alice, cecilia, illa, ethan, and the five mages that cecilia was training set off towards cyra. the last day was mostly filled with packing bags, stuffing bags into storage perks, and arranging last-minute guard details. even though ethan and illa were both competent combat mages, it was never a bad idea to have more eyes to watch out for potential threats, especially since it was unknown when the society of starry eyes would strike again. the society of starry eyes seemed to have entered a period of silence following the attacks on the cities of illvaria, but with how utterly bizarre their recent behavior had been, it was best to remain as cautious as possible and be prepared for anything.


    after that, the group boarded a ship that ethan¡¯s mother had, at one point in time, used to level up her [admiral] class, and which had been stuffed inside of a storage perk and left to gather rust for over a century after ethan¡¯s mother had reached level 50 in [admiral]. the ship had been created by doll, illvaria¡¯s fifth immortal, and was more suited for deep-sea travel rather than river travel. however, thanks to doll¡¯s exceptional craftsmanship, as well as a healthy number of high-level perks, the design of the ship would somewhat adjust itself to fit whatever body of water it was travelling through.


    when the [blacksmith] who doubled as a human storage locker for ethan¡¯s mother pulled the ship out of his storage perk, alice was more than slightly surprised to see a massive wooden boat quickly shrink itself to a much smaller, more river-worthy vessel.


    after that, the group quickly boarded the ship, along with a crew of hastily-assembled [sailors] and [soldiers].


    unlike alice¡¯s journey to metsel all those months ago, this time, she didn¡¯t need to keep an eye on other passengers, or worry about other stops. the ship was filled with [sailors], [soldiers], and mages directly under ethan¡¯s command, and the ship travelled as quickly as possible to cross the distance between metsel and cyra. this time, alice felt like she was travelling on a floating wooden fortress. it felt oddly reassuring, especially since she knew that the society of starry eyes was aware of her.


    the first three days of the journey were uneventful. alice tested ways to make her enchantments work while she was asleep, and when she was awake, she played board games with cecilia and ethan. illa even joined them for a few games of the settlers, although she usually preferred to do her own thing instead. alice also helped cecilia¡¯s mages analyze alice¡¯s memories of forming a magic seed without the help of the system. one of the mages even joined in for a game of the settlers, although the other four seemed a bit too intimidated to join in. which made alice feel faintly amused. the idea of someone feeling intimidated by her struck her as incredibly bizarre ¨C however, as an apprentice of an immortal, it made sense that ordinary people would feel a bit nervous around her.


    it didn¡¯t make it feel any less weird for alice, though.


    on the fourth day of travel, alice and cecilia once again sat down with the mage who had nearly succeeded in forming a seed without the system¡¯s aid last time.


    unlike the first time, this time, the middle-aged man succeeded in forming a magic seed without the help of the system. it was a near thing ¨C alice was pretty sure the magic seed the man had formed barely worked. it probably had all sorts of issues, such as leaking broken mana everywhere, having problems regenerating mana efficiently, and other general issues.


    however, the seed wasn¡¯t harmful to the man, at least. {safety analysis} didn¡¯t detect any problem at all with leaving the magic seed intact inside of the man¡¯s body, and the man didn¡¯t state that he felt any discomfort after forming the magic seed, either. furthermore, once the man finished forming a seed, alice got a surprising achievement.


    you have gained an achievement!


    system_teacher (rarity:7)


    you have le@rned and ta__ught about collapse of system, and its imp@ct on the world. yyyyy have taken variety ____ other steps to mitigate the impact. of the collapse of the system.


    ++50% class experience for all main classes that research, +15% class experience for all secondary classes that researrch, +100% teaching experience classes. support from the sy@@@tem increased further.


    error ¨C cannot connect to mainframe of system. support from system weakened.


    alice frowned after reading the new achievement.


    +50% experience points for research-based classes was certainly nice. since achievements were weakened due to the collapse of the system, alice was probably getting something closer to +25% experience points, but it was still better to have it than not have it.


    +15% class experience for secondary classes focused on research meant very little to her, and she doubted it would make much of a difference now or in the future. similarly, alice didn¡¯t have any teaching-based classes, and so she doubted she would benefit much from getting an extra +100% experience points to those kinds of classes. perhaps it would matter if she ever felt like picking up a [teacher] class or something, but alice didn¡¯t really find the boost that important.


    however, the ¡®support from the system increased further¡¯ line caused alice to raise an eyebrow after reading it.


    when alice had first arrived in this world, she had gotten the {outworlder} achievement, which stated that alice got ¡®increased support from the system.¡¯ alice had never figured out what ¡®increased support from the system¡¯ meant. it was one of the points of curiosity that alice still hadn¡¯t found any strong hints about since arriving on this world. did increased system support make it easier for her to see and interact with system mana, compared to other people? did it somehow make it easier for alice¡¯s body to adapt to mana, thus improving her survival odds during a mana baptism? was it some sort of hidden levelling speed boost, that enhanced her attribute and levelling growth? did it do something completely different?


    alice had absolutely no idea.


    alice spent several minutes after getting the achievement trying to find something different. anything at all. the achievement mentioned that ¡®support from the system¡¯ was weakened since the achievement couldn¡¯t connect to the system¡¯s mainframe ¨C but alice was still hoping she would notice something unusual. even if it only gave her a vague hint about what was different, alice wanted to know what ¡®support from the system¡¯ was.


    her ability to interact with mana felt exactly the same as before.


    her body felt exactly the same as before. her magic seeds seemed no different than usual, and her class seeds were also completely unchanged.


    alice spent half an hour trying to find anything at all that was different, but couldn¡¯t find anything unusual at all.


    eventually, alice gave up. since she couldn¡¯t find anything different, she would just keep living her life and keeping an eye out for anything different than before.


    in the meantime, the mage who had formed a display magic seed reported that even after alice finished looking for oddities, he still didn¡¯t feel anything wrong with his new magic seed. which put alice and cecilia into an interesting position.


    alice blinked, and then turned towards cecilia.


    ¡°wait, what?¡± asked alice. ¡°what do you mean?¡±


    ¡°the giant wave of rainbow mana,¡± said cecilia. ¡°is that what the system always looks like?¡±


    alice felt rather surprised. this had been the first time someone other than her had seen system mana, at least without her help. usually, if alice wanted to talk about her observations during a specific experiment or event, she needed to use {shared memory} first so that the other person could actually see what alice was talking about.


    the idea that someone else would actually see system mana was strange.


    ¡°you can see the system mana?¡± asked alice.


    cecilia nodded.


    ¡°that¡¯s... odd,¡± said alice, narrowing her eyes as she glanced at the giant block of rainbow mana hovering in midair.


    cecilia seeing the system and its mana wasn¡¯t necessarily a bad thing. cecilia was both a friend alice trusted, and somebody that was developing into a useful ally for trying to contain this mess. her learning and seeing more was a good thing.


    that being said, alice couldn¡¯t help but feel rather gloomy when she thought about the fact that people had seen system mana in the real world. alice and ethan had been working to make people aware of the dangers in their surroundings, but system mana exposing itself to the people around her was evidence of the further deterioration of the system. alice wasn¡¯t sure what had gone wrong in the system¡¯s mainframe, but it must have been something horrendous if the system had accidentally made its own mana obvious to other people.


    ¡°well, as someone more experienced in enchantments than me... do you have any guesses where the system¡¯s mainframe might be?¡± asked alice, trying to push aside her fears and dark thoughts for the moment. ¡°i can¡¯t find any clues about the physical location of the system based on the giant wave of rainbow mana, but as an experienced [enchanter], do you have any ideas?¡±


    cecilia sighed, and shook her head. ¡°none. it¡¯s too complex for me to really understand.¡±


    alice sighed, but nodded.


    ¡°hold on, let me see if other people saw it too,¡± she said, before making her way out of the cabin she and cecilia had been playing board games in.


    she started moving through the boat, listening in on other people as they talked. and to alice¡¯s growing concern, she could hear other mages talking about the giant wave of rainbow mana they had just seen.


    clearly, she and cecilia weren¡¯t the only ones that had noticed the system mana this time. everyone had seen it.


    alice frowned.


    something about that idea bothered her, beyond just the fact that the system was clearly deteriorating further and further. however, the exact problem wasn¡¯t springing to mind immediately.


    * * *


    deep within the woods of illvaria, pack after pack of monsters hungrily tore into the air in front of them, where a giant feast of mana had suddenly appeared without warning.


    the mana was rainbow in color. the monsters had never seen such a strange kind of mana before. if they had the intelligence to remember their own past in any level of detail, they probably would have found the feeling of the rainbow mana to be familiar, even if they didn¡¯t have enough intelligence to properly recognize that they had seen it before.


    however, monsters weren¡¯t a particularly intelligent species.


    all they knew was hunger and desire. with the sudden, miraculous feast of rainbow mana appearing in front of them, they didn¡¯t think about how the mana had appeared, or why it had appeared.


    they simply ate. and ate. and ate.


    of course, this phenomenon wasn¡¯t limited to the monsters within illvaria.


    throughout the world, mages were wondering why a random tidal wave of rainbow mana had suddenly appeared in the air in front of them.


    and all of the monsters in the world had noticed it too.

 Chapter 143

    chapter 143


    the group docked in cyra less than a day later. alice was actually looking forward to seeing what had become of her first stopping point in this world, an emotion that surprised her. she had grown so much since her days in cyra, and alice wondered if cyra was the same as it had been since she had left it. had cyra also undergone shocking changes? had it grown steadily? had it shrunk during the aftermath of the system¡¯s collapse?


    she also felt a bit nostalgic for her time in cyra. even though not all of her memories of cyra were good, she had met cecilia and learned magic under illa here. she had taken her first steps back into civilization here. she had learned the basics of enchanting here. in many respects, alice¡¯s time in cyra formed the foundation of who she had grown to become during the time she had lived in this world.


    after the boat docked, the [guards] quickly fanned out and double checked the area for suspicious activity while alice and the others remained on the boat. the society was an ever-present danger, as were foreign [assassins], so everyone remained on the boat until the surroundings were secured.


    after half an hour of tests, perk activations, and scans, the area was finally deemed secure. alice and the others were allowed to get off the boat, and alice got her first good look at the town she had started her journey in.


    the streets of cyra were still well-maintained and ordered. alice could see that the strange, wooden streets that had baffled her when she came to this world were still intact, and whatever perks were making them as sturdy as stone were present within the wooden constructions.


    the population of cyra seemed to have shrunk a bit ¨C likely as a result of the chaos ensuing from the collapse of the system.


    of course, that didn¡¯t meant that cyra was deserted now. far from it.


    there were still quite a few people sticking around in the settlement ¨C alice estimated that there were still several hundred permanent residents the little town, based on how many people she could see walking through the streets and how many houses emitted smoke from their chimneys. for a frontier town that had been established a few years ago, the number of inhabitants was still quite impressive, even if it had suffered some from the collapse of the system.


    furthermore, the town had finished quite a few of the buildings that had still been under construction the last time alice had been here. the dock was fully constructed and capable of holding several boats and loading or unloading large quantities of goods. there was even a distinct district surrounding the dock, where people who had just sailed up or down the river could relax after unloading all of their supplies into cyra. further away from the dock, a few residential areas seemed to be finished as well. the wall surrounding the town was also clearly higher and thicker than before, and the rainbow mana inside of the wall was thicker and more densely packed than before.


    ethan took a glance at the town, and nodded in approval. ¡°this town is quite well developed,¡± he said, with a faint note of approval in his voice.


    illa smiled faintly at ethan¡¯s praise, although she didn¡¯t say anything in response to ethan¡¯s words. a few moments passed in silence, as alice simply took in the sight of cyra again, before ethan interrupted her thoughts.


    ¡°first thing¡¯s first, we should head to the city lord¡¯s mansion. i could use a break from the swaying of the boat, and a nice hot meal.¡±


    illa nodded, and cecilia quietly trailed after them as the group started heading towards illa¡¯s residence.


    as they walked, alice kept an alert eye on her surroundings.


    even if the [guards] hadn¡¯t noticed any problems, alice knew that there were always ways to fool people if one¡¯s level was high enough. if she managed to become an immortal in the future, she would probably need to get used to relying on her own perception, since there was only so much that [guards] who were much lower level than her would naturally notice. the more time alice spent with ethan, the more she was getting used to trying to think about what she would need to do as an immortal, and how she would need to balance keeping herself safe and relying on potential subordinates. even if alice currently didn¡¯t have any particularly outstanding perception abilities besides {enhanced senses}, that wouldn¡¯t always be the case.


    luckily, nothing disrupted their journey. alice had been half-expecting the society of starry eyes to somehow show up and madly attack the group, but at least so far, there hadn¡¯t been any signs of the hostile mage organization.


    a few minutes of walking later, alice came face to face with a person she vaguely remembered. it was illa¡¯s [maid], ellia. now that alice¡¯s perception was better than before, she noted that ellia actually had several rather... interesting features. she moved with a grace that alice hadn¡¯t thought much of when she first came to cyra ¨C after all, everyone had seemed superhuman at that time, and alice hadn¡¯t been able to easily pick out which people were even more superhuman than all of the other superhuman athletes in her surroundings. however, now that she could see ellia again, she realized that the [maid] moved with a grace and strength that even most [soldiers] failed to match properly. alice¡¯s eyes narrowed a bit in curiosity ¨C perhaps there was more to ellia than she had seen the first time she passed through cyra?


    ¡°my lady,¡± said ellia, giving illa a courteous curtsy, before she gave ethan an even deeper curtsy. finally, she gave alice a curtsy as well ¨C which alice noted, with some amusement, was about the same depth as the bow ellia had given to illa. despite having no formal title or land, alice now apparently ranked the same as a decorated war hero with a non-inheritable title, and a town that was nearly large enough to grant illa a formal, inheritable title as well.


    ¡°ellia. i¡¯m glad to see that the town looks as if it has been handled well,¡± said illa, giving ellia a grin.


    then, illa quickly gave ellia a brief hug, before stepping back.


    ¡°have you already prepared rooms for everyone?¡±


    ¡°of course, my lady. should i see everyone to their rooms?¡±


    illa nodded. ¡°please do so. i imagine that everyone would like to take a rest after travelling here.¡±


    illa immediately handed the piece if paper over, and then started distributing extra copies of the drawing.


    ¡°i believe i¡¯ve seen this before,¡± said one of the [adventurers], after a few moments. ¡°i can mark the spot on a map, if you have one that covers the nearby area.¡±


    ¡°oh? already?¡± said illa, sounding pleasantly surprised. ¡°all right, mark it. i¡¯ll send a few [scouts] to examine the area, if and if your claim can be verified, i¡¯ll give you the reward.¡±


    a [cartographer] led the [adventurer] to another room, where alice could see the two of them start messing with a larger sheet of paper.


    after the first [adventurer] spoke up, there was silence for a while. then, the [adventurers] started looking at alice with fervent expressions.


    ¡°you¡¯re the one in charge of figuring out if any ¡®weird¡¯ enchanting materials meet the criteria for the reward, right?¡± asked one of the [adventurers].


    alice nodded.


    the [adventurer] grinned. ¡°i have a few weird materials at my home. can you wait half an hour for me to get them and come back?¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°i expect to stay in this manor until a stable source of enchanting materials is found.¡± alice glanced at illa for a moment. ¡°if you have any materials you want to submit to me... give them to illa, so that she can turn them over to me?¡± alice said. the last half of her statement came across as more of a question than a statement, since she wasn¡¯t sure if that would ruin illa¡¯s schedule or something. illa, however, simply nodded.


    ¡°that works for me,¡± she said.


    the [adventurers] nodded, and started discussing with each other. then, in twos and threes, they started running out of the manor, as if the reward money reward depended on how quickly they could run.


    alice resisted the urge to chuckle.


    illa turned towards alice.


    ¡°once they get back, i¡¯ll send any relevant materials to your room after a few [guards] make sure there aren¡¯t any weird enchantments or poisons mixed into the materials. you can check them afterwards, and then tell me if any of the objects meet your needs. after that, i¡¯ll do follow-up questions about the mass extraction of the material. does that work for you?¡±


    ¡°yeah, that should be fine,¡± said alice.


    illa nodded. ¡°good. then in that case, i¡¯ll leave you to it,¡± she said.


    alice quickly retreated to her room, before she quickly went back to sleep so that she could keep testing her enchantments.


    * * *


    alice was occasionally woken up by a [maid] depositing more enchanting materials into her room for testing purposes, which alice would immediately stuff into her storage perk before going back to sleep. sadly, after two days, none of the enchanting materials so far had met her needs. her progress in creating a prototype enchantment setup, however, had made some progress. as long as alice mixed in a pure mana enchanting material that could remember at least 3 instructions, the material was able to locate the human body, refine that to find specifically large clumps of mana inside of the body, and then confine one ¡®cluster¡¯ of mana for the rest of an enchantment to work on. in other words, the ¡®isolate¡¯ part of her enchantment was now working properly.


    she just needed to figure out how to locate the correct class each time and ignore other class fractals. and then she needed to get the actual filtration part of the enchantment working... but she was making progress. right now her enchantment latched on to the nearest class fractal, which was obviously a problem. but she was getting closer to a working prototype.


    the [adventurer] who had claimed to know the location of the tree bark alice wanted had come through, unlike the search for filtration mana enchanting materials. there was a decently large grove of trees about three hours away from the city, which was practically filled with the bark alice had wanted. while it was a bit of a long walk, the bark was plentiful enough that it could easily meet alice¡¯s needs for the future. even if the [adventurers] of cyra tried to focus on sustainable harvesting, the section of trees could probably last a year or two, and by that time, alice hoped that she would have resolved the crisis or found a better source of materials.


    as alice was thinking about enchanting materials, she heard someone gently but firmly rap on her door. alice frowned, and opened it. on the other side of the door, she saw the [maid] ellia, standing there and looking anxious.


    ¡°lady alice, honored immortal ethan and lady illa request your presence,¡± she said. ¡°it¡¯s an emergency. a large swarm of monsters is attacking the city walls.¡±

 Chapter 144

    chapter 144


    alice stood on the wooden walls of cyra, looking at the giant pack of wolves that sat at the edge of the forest while throwing giant fireballs at the wall. their bodies were half-hidden by the trees, making it easy for them to dodge the stray arrows and missiles that the other mages on the walls were throwing at them, and while some wolves occasionally fell, the number of wolves that died each second was alarmingly low. the distance between cyra¡¯s walls and the wolves was simply too great for many of the [archers] to easily hit the monsters with arrows, and while the mages were having better luck, there weren¡¯t that many of them, and their mana was limited.


    that wasn¡¯t the alarming part of the whole scenario.


    the alarming thing was that there seemed to be two different kinds of monsters out in the forest below them.


    every single time alice had seen two different species of monster near each other, the monsters had reacted the same way they did when they saw a human. they would immediately attempt to eat the other.


    now, there were two monster species close to each other, and neither species was interfering with or attacking the other.


    the second kind of monster didn¡¯t take any action at all. alice had no idea what they were doing. they looked like what would happen if one took an ordinary crow, added a few extra eyes to their wings, and then surgically removed its torso and replaced it with a mirror. the mirror crows weren¡¯t a species alice recognized from her monster biology classes, and they weren¡¯t doing attacking the wall yet. alice didn¡¯t know if the monster species were working together, or had a non-aggression agreement, or what. but the prospect of monsters working together was terrifying.n?00v€l--?1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.


    alice narrowed her eyes, and turned towards ethan, who stood on the wall just a few meters away from her, and illa, who stood nearby and directed the [archers] and mages.


    ¡°the wolves are trying to burn down the wall,¡± said ethan, after a few moments. ¡°since the wall is mostly made of wood, they¡¯re trying to turn it into charcoal. and the crow monsters aren¡¯t attacking the wolves, or helping them. it feels like they¡¯re waiting for something. i don¡¯t like this.¡± he turned towards illa. ¡°what do you think?¡±


    ¡°ignoring the fact that two different monster swarms aren¡¯t eating each other... the monsters are intelligent enough to stay out of range and use the trees for cover?¡± said illa, sounding genuinely shocked. ¡°this situation could certainly be better. do you see either monster alpha? if we can take them out, the monsters might stop using tactics and just charge like they usually do,¡± said illa as she looked around the area, frowning in concentration. after a moment, alice did the same.


    normally, monster alphas were pretty easy to notice. they were bigger than their subordinates, usually by quite a large margin, and they usually sat in the center of their pack and glowered at nearby food sources.


    however, this time, it was hard to spot either of the alphas. either they were hiding in the trees, or they were hidden among their subordinates ¨C but either way, alice couldn¡¯t see either target.


    ¡°how long can the wooden walls last under this bombardment?¡± asked ethan.


    ¡°the wooden walls have enough perks backing them up that they are flame-resistant, but we need to kill the alpha sooner, rather than later,¡± said illa, also frowning. ¡°they can probably last fifteen to twenty minutes before giving way. maybe half an hour if we thin out the swarm more.¡±


    then, she frowned further. ¡°{locate the leader} isn¡¯t picking anything up. i can feel my perk activating, but... nothing is happening. i can¡¯t find a result. it¡¯s like...¡± illa frowned. ¡°alice, that rainbow mana cascade that we saw a few days ago... it looks like the mana that you¡¯ve spent so much time studying, right?¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°it¡¯s system mana, yes.¡±


    illa simply took alice¡¯s words in stride, nodding as she looked over the monsters.


    ¡°the feeling i¡¯m getting from my perk is similar to the time i tried to locate a [nomad commander]. he specialized in stealth and movement perks, and he was a massive pain in the neck. eventually, one of the [assassins] in the group i was with managed to {locate target} and cut him down. but my perk kept failing to find the [nomad commander], even though i could feel it activating each time.¡±


    ¡°is your perk high level?¡±


    ¡°no. it¡¯s actually mostly used to find my own commander. i used it back when i was a more normal part of the army. it¡¯s not that useful against anyone that has any sort of defense at all against it, and one of the ways [commanders] send signals to the troops during combat. for example, my old [commander] made sure we knew that ¡®if i move west a lot, swap to ranged attacks and start harassing.¡¯ if he needed to move for other reasons, he would use a perk to disguise his location from perks like {locate the leader}. however... the problem is that monsters shouldn¡¯t have a defense against this perk, even if the perk is useless against humans,¡± said illa. ¡°i¡¯ve found the perk pretty useful for hunting down any spidercrab alphas that pop up too close to the farms. and now it¡¯s failing.¡±


    alice felt a worm of anxiety start to crawl through her guts.


    the wolf alpha and crow alpha were shielding themselves against illa¡¯s searching perk?


    alice started wondering if the monster alphas for these particular types of monster specialized in stealth in addition to the fire attacks of the wolves. or perhaps the crow alpha, wherever it was, was using cloaking magic on itself and the wolf alpha? alice found herself dearly hoping that this was some sort of innate, biological ability that some of the monsters here had.


    because if it wasn¡¯t a normal species trait...


    alice started to have a very bad feeling about what that meant for the world as a whole.


    and, as if to corroborate alice¡¯s fears, a moment later, she saw something that sent chills down her spine.


    one of the monsters pulsed with a type of mana none of its brethren had.


    the monster didn¡¯t use rainbow mana. not a single fleck of the mana inside of its body resembled the insanely complex, detailed constructions that the system routinely created for its basic routines.


    however, alice still felt that the mana was completely different from the mana the rest of its brethren were using. it was like a severely dumbed down version of the system¡¯s mana ¨C far more basic, but still at least somewhat effective.


    for a brief moment, ethan¡¯s volleys of stones seemed to disappear into thin air.


    then, all of his attacks were suddenly reflected right back at him, illa, and alice.


    ethan frowned, and his 40 mana tendrils suddenly multiplied, until he reached 140 in total. then, he easily stopped the wave of flying projectiles in midair.


    then, ethan pointed at one of the wolves, before alice saw him activate his electromagnetic seed.


    a blast of lightning slithered out of his hands and leapt towards the nearby wolf. several of the wolves reacted immediately, activating their own magic as they glared at ethan¡¯s lightning bolt. ethan¡¯s lightning bolt seemed to slow down, as if it were crawling through molasses. a few moments later, ethan¡¯s lightning bolt fizzled into nonexistence, failing to harm a single wolf. apparently, lightning was close enough to fire that the wolves could control it, which was an ability that was far more generalized than the magic seeds humans had access to.


    alice grimaced.


    experimentally, ethan heated up a few of the stones with his thermal seed, until they became closer to magma than proper stone, and then tried tossing them at the crows in the distance.


    however, the globs of magma were reflected back towards the wall, and the heat from the globs of magma were absorbed and removed by the wolves.


    alice felt her heart sink further.


    the monsters were definitely working together. the crows were handling physical attacks, and the wolves were handling light and heat based attacks. meanwhile, the wolves seemed unwilling to give up their assault on cyra¡¯s wall.


    before alice could stew in her dread any further, ethan suddenly grinned, and then a few of his magic tendrils reached towards the ground. normally, any magic performed more than a meter away from somebody required exponentially more mana to activate than before, getting worse the larger the distance was.


    and ethan didn¡¯t seem to care about that at all, as the grass on the ground outside illvaria¡¯s gate quickly slithered together like dozens of tiny snakes. in moments, they formed a giant set of vines, which then lunged towards the wolves and began ripping into them.


    the light wolves seemed to realize that they were outmatched after their fire beams failed to do anything at all to the vines, and giant reflection didn¡¯t stop the vines from moving forward at all. alice squinted at the giant reflection that still hovered in the air in front of the forest, wondering why the giant mirror stopped the stones but not the grass and vines.


    ¡°whatever they¡¯re doing, it can¡¯t stop living things or non-physical objects,¡± said ethan, seeing her confusion. ¡°not sure why, but that¡¯s what my perception perk is telling me.¡±


    wolves started to howl as the vines ripped them apart, and after another few dozen wolves were ripped to pieces by the vines and grass, the wolves started howling at each other. then, without another sound, the pack of wolves and their crow allies turned around and began fleeing at full speed, leaving alice feeling unnerved.


    ¡°they can¡¯t win, so they¡¯re running away?¡± she said.


    monsters did sometimes run away ¨C but it was rare. and it was usually never when the monsters were in a pack.


    however, despite alice¡¯s disbelief, the horde of monsters seemed done attacking the town. the fled for the woods as ethan started launching volleys of stones at them again and the [archers] and other mages tried to kill the fleeing monsters. however, the distance and the tree cover made hitting the monsters difficult, and in a few minutes, the massive horde of monsters started to fade from view.


    ethan grimaced. ¡°down a lot of mana,¡± he said. ¡°but at least we got rid of them.¡± he glanced at the forest, before turning towards illa. ¡°any chance you have the forces to pursue?¡±


    illa glanced at the [archers] and mages assembled on the wall, and then shook her head. ¡°too many of them left. the monsters have already shown remarkable intelligence. if they resort to ambush tactics, or another monster swarm attacks the town, the results could be catastrophic. i don¡¯t think it¡¯s worth pursuing given how few competent forces i have.¡± illa sighed, and shrugged. ¡°there just aren¡¯t enough people in cyra to support a big army.¡±


    ¡°figures,¡± said ethan, with a sigh. ¡°alice, you¡¯re our system expert. what do you make of the monsters this time? this all happened right after that giant burst of rainbow mana. any connection there?¡±


    ¡°well... probably. my best guess is that when the monsters came into contact with raw, uncontrolled system mana for the first time a few days ago, something happened. the monsters are using perks, which they¡¯ve never done before, and they¡¯re also using tactics, at least on a rudimentary level. normally, a monster swarm wouldn¡¯t flee unless the pack leader died, but this time the monsters fled without being nearly exterminated first.¡± alice shivered. ¡°if that¡¯s the case, i suspect that this isn¡¯t a problem that is localized in cyra, although i dearly hope i¡¯m wrong. if not... we¡¯re going to have yet another problem to add to the pile.¡±


    ethan frowned. ¡°do you think it¡¯s possible to figure out what¡¯s happening if i capture a few spidercrabs for examination and experimentation? or some other species of monster? i can get a few boxed up pretty easily for experimentation, and i think we need to know what¡¯s happening as soon as possible. this might be even more important to figuring out how to keep mana from driving people insane.¡± alice felt some of her fear dissipate as ethan returned her focus to experiments. she had never seen monsters acquire perks before... but they could prove viable experimental subjects for figuring out what was going on. and she could also use them to experiment with alice-brand system mana, whenever she got it working.


    of course, alice first needed to make sure that she didn¡¯t somehow empower the monster species ten orders of magnitude beyond their current level and start the end of the human race. however, since she had just seen a pack of monsters use a bunch of perks and intelligent tactics in a battle, the genie might already be out of the bottle on that one.


    alice twitched.


    as much as this sounded like another catastrophe in the making, at least alice didn¡¯t have to worry about using experimental subjects if she used monsters as test subjects. considering how many spidercrabs had tried to eat her when she first arrived on this planet, she didn¡¯t feel an ounce of sympathy for them ¨C and by every single observation made in the last few hundred years of recorded history, nobody else had ever seen monsters do anything but try to eat people.


    since that was the case, alice was more than happy to murder monsters in her pursuit of a way to fix this whole mess. understanding how monsters interacted with complex forms of mana and how monsters could change and evolve had suddenly become a topic of utmost importance.


    and alice needed to figure out what was happening with the monsters as quickly as possible. if this problem wasn¡¯t a local one, then on top of people being unable to select perks without help, levelling up potentially driving people made, mages failing to create new magic seeds, and the internal disorder of the church of the system, illvaria needed to deal with intelligent, tactics and perk-using monster swarms.

 Thumb update

    thumb update


    quick updatethe roots of this story extend from novell bi?n origin.


    so, updating ya¡¯ll about the thumb/doctor situation.


    budding scientist readers, since i will probably miss thursday¡¯s writing, expect that this week¡¯s chapter either won¡¯t happen, and then next week¡¯s budding scientist chapter will be longer (assuming by next week i can write, we¡¯ll see what doctor says) or expect that we¡¯ll have a shorter and slightly less edited chapter this week (though, admittedly, that matters less for public readers and will be more immediate for patreon readers).


    i¡¯ll update you again when i know more.

 Final Thumb update (Hopefully).

    final thumb update (hopefully).


    aight, so update on the thumb situation.


    doctor says that what most likely happened is that i strained the tendons in my hands by a lot, essentially bending both of my thumbs back way more than my tendons are meant to handle. and that overusing my tendons has likely kept my hand from healing up quite as well as it normally would have over the month and a half or so that my thumbs have hurt..


    that being said, the probability of permanent damage is very close to zero, and unless something very weird has happened everything should heal up normally.n?00v€l--?1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.


    .


    the way i usually write a market¡¯s and multiverses chapter is by writing the first draft a day in advance, and then editing the previous day¡¯s draft before posting it. this gives me a bit of time away from the chapter to think about whether there are better ways to set up for the next plot point, any details i meant to include but forgot, any details i don¡¯t think belong in the draft and should maybe be part of a future chapter, etc, and also gives my beta reader time to look at the chapter. having the first draft of a chapter done the day before i post the chapter is pretty important to my writing process.


    and i¡¯ma be 100% honest, yesterday, when i should have written friday¡¯s rough draft chapter, i was kind of an anxiety wreck. i was worried about permanent thumb damage, and flipping back and forth mood-wise, and i didn¡¯t really get much done for the mam draft that day. i believe i got like six sentences down? which is not a completed first draft. it¡¯s, like, a paragraph. when i posted about this week¡¯s prospective schedule on monday, i seem to have somehow overlooked the effect my state of mind would have on chapter production by just a bit. so no friday mam update. but by next week, things should be back to normal as far as posting schedule goes, and within a week or two of wearing my annoying brace and taking the anti-inflammation medication, everything should hopefully be healed up. if it isn¡¯t, i¡¯ll need to go back to the doctor and ask what¡¯s up, but hopefully this is the end of this.

 Chapter 145

    chapter 145


    with that unnerving realization, the incident with the monster swarm at the walls came to an end.


    however, even though the two monster swarms had withdrawn, they didn¡¯t leave alice¡¯s mind.


    monsters had worked with each other. monsters had used some sort of facsimile perks during a fight. monsters were potentially using some sort of knockoff system now.


    alice wasn¡¯t sure which of those pieces of information was more terrifying, but combined, they spoke of an entirely new threat to humanity. this was on top of everything else that had recently gone wrong.


    alice was starting to feel more than a little exhausted and frustrated.


    after the trio returned to illa¡¯s manor, she threw herself onto the bed illa had provided, flopped over, and laid down as waves of emotions started pounding at her head.


    for two weeks, she had been running off of stress and a vague sense of responsibility. she had at least some ability to interact with the crisis, and she didn¡¯t want to be the kind of person that stood by and watched as people suffered and died. alice wanted to stay safe and take care of herself first, but when push came to shove, she was happy to help other people, as long as it didn¡¯t greatly inconvenience her.


    but everything was just starting to feel like it was too much for her.


    every single time she started working on a solution to one problem, another problem appeared. every single step alice took, it felt like she was still five steps behind the unfolding crisis. every single solution needed days or weeks of planning to execute, while new crises appeared one after another, like the many heads of a hydra. alice kept searching and hoping for some sort of magic-bullet that would cure the whole situation, but unless alice found a way to restore the system tomorrow, she had no idea how to fix everything.


    for a few moments, alice simply laid on her bed and stared at the ceiling, trying to put the intrusive thoughts of how frustrating everything felt aside. she also tried to push aside the nagging voice in the back of her mind, reminding her of just how much failure would cost her ¨C and how much the collapse of the system needed to be resolved somehow.


    and for the first time, alice curled up and cried in her bed. the number of different problems, issues, and catastrophes in the making just felt overwhelming, and she needed a few hours to just... not think for a while.


    after several minutes of losing control, alice slowly pulled herself back together. she took a quick look at her eyes and cheeks, to make sure her eyes weren¡¯t too messy.


    even if alice was starting to feel overwhelmed, she knew what ethan would say if she walked around looking like she had just spent several minutes crying. she was a potential immortal, and one of the key researchers in figuring out how to combat the collapse of the system. if it looked like alice was losing hope, it would definitely lead to a huge morale problem among the [guards] and cecilia¡¯s mages. she needed to look like she had everything under control, even if it definitely didn¡¯t feel that way to her right now.


    she took a few minutes to collect herself, and ate some snacks that she had stuck in her storage perk. alice had stored a few rations and miscellaneous supplies in her storage perk for if she needed some food quickly, and she had also bought a few treats using some of the money ethan had paid her.


    she took a cake out of her storage, used her kinetic mana to carve out a slice of it, and took the time to eat a slice before she felt herself start to relax a bit.


    then, feeling slightly more collected, alice left her room and went to find ethan. a few minutes later, she found his room and knocked on the door.


    ¡°alice. come in,¡± said ethan, his voice flat and controlled as usual.


    alice opened the door, and saw ethan sitting on the other side. he looked far more composed than alice ¨C he had several pieces of paper in front of him, which, alice realized with some surprise, seemed to list the combat classes and perks of several people in cyra.


    this certainly caught alice off-guard. people usually guarded their combat information very closely. people didn¡¯t tend to know about other people¡¯s combat abilities unless they were either close to each other, or had been spying on the other party.


    yet, right in front of ethan, the combat information of thirty of the [guards] in illvaria was neatly listed out. some of them had scouting related perks. some of them had direct combat related perks. some of them had antimagic perks. however, all of the perks the [guards] of cyra had were listed in front of ethan, with detailed explanations of the perk¡¯s text and all of the uses each [guard] had found for their skillset.


    ¡°combat information?¡± asked alice. ¡°from [spies]?¡±


    ¡°no, from the [soldiers] themselves,¡± said ethan.


    alice blinked in surprise. ¡°really? i mean, if people were advertising noncombat abilities, that would make sense, since that¡¯s normal, but... they gave you information about their combat abilities?¡± alice still didn¡¯t quite believe it.


    as milo spoke, the two arrived at the church of the system. alice took a look at the church, since it had been months since she was last here. the walls of the church seemed a bit less vividly painted than they had been when she was last in cyra, but the depictions of various immortals using impressive perks were still as clear as before.


    now that alice had met three of illvaria¡¯s six immortals, she was pretty sure she could at least vaguely recognize a few of the paintings. the immortal drawn on the outer wall of the church using magic tendrils to heal someone looked kind of like ethan, and another of the paintings of a woman singing looked like allira. of course, there were still several paintings on the walls of the church of the system that didn¡¯t seem to correspond to any illvarian immortal.


    alice took a deep breath, and then stepped into the church with milo.


    there weren¡¯t any other people in the church besides the other person alice wanted to see. inside of the church was a [priest of the system] alice knew well.


    ¡°father friedheim,¡± said alice.


    ¡°lady alice! it has been... quite a few months now. i heard that you were doing quite well in the capital. apprentice of an immortal?¡± father friedheim gave alice a warm smile. ¡°i¡¯m glad to see that life in the capital agrees with you.¡± then, he turned towards milo. ¡°and sir milo. it is good to see you. are you here to see the book of the system again?¡±


    milo gave father friedheim a friendly nod.


    father friedheim turned back towards alice. ¡°you should tell me more about how you¡¯ve been doing in the capital! i¡¯d love to hear about how you became the apprentice of an immortal firsthand. i¡¯m sure it must be quite the story.¡±


    alice nodded, and gave father friedheim a slightly strained grin. ¡°it was a bit... stressful. it involved a society attack and a few near scrapes with death, but i¡¯m glad honored immortal ethan opted to take me under his wing. i just find myself quite short on time these days.¡±


    father friedheim laughed. ¡°being short on time is the curse of those searching for divinity by following the path of the system. the system demands much from us, in exchange for the blessings it gives. it is the way forward. one cannot get anything without first putting in hard work and effort, as well as overcoming the trials in front of them.¡± his eyes shone. ¡°in recent times, i hear that you have been overcoming the trials of our current times exceptionally well. and you¡¯ve even made some progress on shining a path towards the system¡¯s trial?¡±


    ¡°system¡¯s... trial?¡± asked alice. she glanced at milo, who seemed to be suppressing the urge to shrug.


    father friedheim nodded eagerly. ¡°the system¡¯s trial. the fact that currently, our status screens display gibberish when we try to pick a new perk, and that mages are in danger if they form a new seed, and monsters have grown stronger. all of them must be trials of the system,¡± father friedheim said.


    alice felt a little bit surprised by father friedheim¡¯s interpretation. he seemed to approve of alice¡¯s work and progress towards reaching immortality. at the same time, he also didn¡¯t seem to take the current crisis very seriously, and didn¡¯t seem to think much of alice¡¯s research. his stance was rather... odd.


    ¡°so... how do you feel about my... studies?¡± asked alice, more curious than afraid.


    ¡°i¡¯ve heard from several reliable sources that the system itself has approved of your research,¡± said father friedheim, giving alice an amused look. ¡°it gave you an achievement for it, no? if even the system itself approves of your actions, who am i to question it? though i do think you¡¯re misunderstanding the current situation. the system is surely giving people more room to grow without its benevolence. i fail to understand whether this is a trial given to the world by the system, so that we may grow stronger because of it, or whether this is a warning to us, if we have taken actions that displease the system, perhaps by being overly lazy. but it would make no sense for the system to give you achievements if it disapproved of your actions. i fail to see why some of the other [priests] of the system don¡¯t understand this. ignoring the signs and words of the system is, perhaps, the true reason the system has seen fit to give us this trial.¡± father friedheim sighed. ¡°it is a shame, but i¡¯m sure we can all pass it and things will return to normal once the system feels it¡¯s time. either way, i¡¯m glad to see you again. you have grown much from your original days here in cyra, and it¡¯s always nice to see an acquaintance doing well. come, tell me about your time in metsel. i will make some tea.¡± he turned toward milo. ¡°would you like some too? if lady alice is going to have a cup of tea and chat for a while, you¡¯re free to grab a cup of tea as well and join us.¡±


    at father¡¯ friedheims¡¯ words, alice felt herself relax a bit. she had never been particularly religious ¨C on earth, she had been an atheist, and that hadn¡¯t really changed since coming to luliv. alice felt the existence of mana and the system was basically indisputable, but she didn¡¯t really feel that either were gods.


    but even though alice wasn¡¯t religious, father friedheim had still given her a fair amount of emotional support during her first few weeks in cyra. she was surprised to learn how relieved she felt that the [priest] didn¡¯t hate her for her research.


    milo gave father friedheim a nod, and alice and milo quickly seated themselves at a table in one of the side rooms, obviously meant for entertaining guests.


    the three settled down over a few cups of tea, and alice started telling father friedheim and milo about her studies in her magic academy, her run-ins with the society of starry eyes, and her time learning under immortal ethan. father friedheim seemed fascinated by alice¡¯s tales about her run-ins with the society of starry eyes, her attempts to make mana baptisms safer, and alice¡¯s stories about mundane life in a magic academy. milo instead seemed to be caught up in old memories when alice talked about the magic academy. at the end of alice¡¯s story about rescuing samantha from the society, milo gave her a gentle grin.


    ¡°you did a pretty good job, kid. it takes a lot of guts to put yourself in danger to help someone you care about.¡± he gave her an approving nod.


    eventually, alice ran out of stories to tell about her time in the capital, so milo and father friedheim began telling alice about what she had missed in cyra. there hadn¡¯t been any major events that alice had missed, but there had been plenty of steady growth and minor events.


    eventually, alice pulled a board game out of her storage perk, and the three played a round of the settlers before it started to get dark.


    as alice walked back towards illa¡¯s manor, she reflected that it hadn¡¯t been a very productive day, but she felt much less tense and strained afterwards.


    all in all, it had been good to take a break.

 Chapter 146

    chapter 146


    after spending the rest of the day with milo and father, alice felt refreshed. after a good night¡¯s sleep, she felt ready to think again. her thoughts, which had started to feel muddled and choked, felt clear again.


    ethan had one of the servants give her an update on the letters and information he had received from nearby towns. through letters and reports gathered using his faster [messengers], he had confirmed that the monsters near other towns also showed signs of becoming much stronger and more intelligent than before. two other towns had also been attacked by intelligent, organized monster swarms. one of the two had successfully driven off the newly upgraded monsters. the other town was still fighting them off. things were looking good for the humans in that town overall, but the fact that a newly assembled monster swarm was able to force a town to spend hours fighting it off sent alarm bells ringing inside of alice¡¯s brain.


    the second thing that one of the messengers had reported was far more unusual, though.


    alice had been expecting monsters to gain all sorts of problematic abilities after they started using some sort of knockoff version of the system. monsters gaining intelligence, forming alliances, and getting new perks seemed entirely reasonable now. alice wouldn¡¯t have even been surprised if a monster kingdom appeared overnight, or something equally ridiculous. however, what had happened in a nearby town was of a very different nature than that.


    one of the [scouts] from a nearby town had noticed a small horde of monsters in the woods staring at the tree, as if they were studying it.


    the [scout] had felt that the behavior of the monsters was unusual, so he had sat around to watch.


    however, as the monsters watched the tree... the tree slowly started to decay and warp. not as if it were dying, or as if it were being influenced by magic somehow. instead, according to the [scout] report, it was more like the tree had been shrinking or fizzling out of existence. the [scout] hadn¡¯t been able to detect the monsters using any sort of magic on the trees, despite having a perk specialized in detecting creatures using magic nearby.


    afterwards, with a fizzling sound, the tree had sort of... popped. almost like it had turned into a grenade, but without any of the intentional construction that went into a grenade.


    this tree explosion had sent wood shrapnel flying into the nearby monsters, injuring a few of them and startling the horde away. the horde had then started avoiding other nearby trees. these other nearby trees had also started popping and exploding shortly afterwards.


    this just left alice scratching her head.


    was a monster misusing a perk somehow, and accidentally causing the trees to explode like giant wooden grenades? or perhaps the trees had some sort of potential as enchanting materials, and the monsters had somehow caused the trees to blow up?


    if monsters were trying to make enchantments, that would be truly dire news. monsters were dangerous enough without being walking armories ¨C that was usually a strategy humans employed. however, alice wasn¡¯t sure if that was actually what had happened. after all, enchanting materials exploding sounded a lot like a consumable enchantment ¨C but the [scout]¡¯s report didn¡¯t mention any source of energy for a consumable enchantment at all. so alice just wasn¡¯t sure what to make of the report, other than to conclude that things were getting weirder.


    ethan also firmly told her to leave military matters to him, and to only think about what research and information alice could obtain from those events. alice was a researcher ¨C she wasn¡¯t supposed to be managing troop allotment and logistics. which was a statement alice found oddly comforting. she didn¡¯t need to figure out how to be a [general] or maintain the defenses for illvaria¡¯s towns and cities. she just needed to research, and let other people figure out the rest.


    alice did have two major things that she wanted to focus on, now that there were even more ripple effects of the collapse of the system.


    first, she still needed to develop enchantments to prevent humans from getting sick. this was a very important job that couldn¡¯t be delayed ¨C it was already looking like plenty of people would have their personalities overwritten by mana, and every single hour the enchantments to fix that problem were delayed was another hour more people would get sick.


    she decided to hand part of that job to the mages she and cecilia were training. the entire point of training them was to make alice¡¯s job easier, and it was high time she let them start contributing to the current crisis. all five of the mages had been selected because they were good at enchanting, and right now, alice¡¯s biggest problem was designing the enchantment she needed. after all, the harvesting operations for the necessary enchanting materials hadn¡¯t really gotten underway yet.


    the mages she and cecilia were enchanting might not be able to actually use filtration mana yet... but they could do some of the legwork for designing enchantments to use it, even if they couldn¡¯t actually make the product yet.


    thus, the first thing alice did that morning was find cecilia let her know what she needed. cecilia promised she would get her mages on it.


    after that, alice got to work on her own, new task.


    she needed to figure out what made these monsters tick.


    ethan had said that alice didn¡¯t need to worry about anything regarding troop movements, logistics, or military organization. this made sense, because alice really didn¡¯t understand anything about organizing or moving an army around.


    but, alice did want to know how and why the monsters in illvaria had changed. and while she couldn¡¯t simulate system mana yet, alice had a few ideas for ways to test how monsters reacted to system mana, even if she couldn¡¯t reproduce it herself yet. she didn¡¯t know if her ideas would work, and there was a good chance that her experiments would just fail to create any result at all. but even if alice wasn¡¯t sure if her experiments would even generate useful observations, she felt that figuring out how monsters changed could provide critical information for ethan to plan around.


    and if alice could figure out a way to turn the monsters back to normal quickly and efficiently, that would obviously make the ¡®monsters evolving¡¯ problem moot again. alice doubted there was an easy and fast-acting ¡®off switch¡¯ for the changes monsters were now experiencing, but it never hurt to check.


    so alice found illa, and requested a few monstrous test subjects. a few hours later, alice was sitting in a room with eight caged spidercrabs, none of which showed any signs of being unusual in any way.


    alice quickly dragged them into a room which illa had prepared for her. by her side, her [hidden bodyguard] and a few regular [guards] were ready in case the monsters went out of control. she also had a bowl of system-enchantments next to her, most of which were clothes that had very mild enchantments on them, such as +1 strength or +1 dexterity. alice also had a few pieces of clothing that had regular perks attached to them. even though most people didn¡¯t consider these ¡®system enchantments,¡¯ since they didn¡¯t actually provide the wearer with any buffs, alice wasn¡¯t sure if her test subjects would respond to clothes that had perks inside of them. even if a perk that made cloth slightly tougher and more stain-resistant wasn¡¯t very impressive, it might still allow monsters to warp and change, after all.


    then, alice turned towards her eight test subjects, and started thinking.


    there were two things alice wanted to test.


    first, she wanted to see what happened when monsters were exposed to system mana. she just hoped that her substitute forms of ¡®system mana¡¯ would still provide her with useful observations, or alice would simply have to give up on that part of the experiment.


    second, the report about the mysterious exploding trees had gotten alice thinking. she wasn¡¯t entirely sure what to make of the incident, but her first guess was that monsters could try to enchant objects now. she could be wildly incorrect in that assumption, but if alice managed to create more intelligent monsters, she wanted to see if they would try to enchant objects. thus, alice had also gotten a big pile of cheap enchanting materials ready, just in case the monsters tried to enchant them.


    if monsters had enchantments, that seemed like the kind of information illvaria needed to know as soon as possible.


    after alice finished running over her plans, she dragged one of the spidercrabs out of its cage using kinetic magic. the spidercrab wildly thrashed and squirmed, trying to escape its chains and eat alice and the guards. however, the monster was utterly unable to escape, and alice easily reattached its chains to some of the pegs on the wall.


    ethan nodded, acknowledging alice¡¯s good intentions, as well as her apology. then, he turned towards the spidercrabs. ¡°what have you learned so far?¡±


    ¡°i... think that monsters now adopt characteristics from whatever mana they come in contact with,¡± said alice. ¡°i can¡¯t think about why that would be the case, but it seems to be true.¡±


    ¡°is that so?¡± said ethan. ¡°i don¡¯t recall monsters ever displaying this kind of adaptability before.¡±


    alice nodded. ¡°neither do i. it could just be spidercrabs, or a fluke, or... something. ideally, i would test it on a few different monster species, and i would also test it with a lot of different perks, system abilities, and actual system mana to see what changes and narrow things down a bit. but i¡¯m rather short on real system mana these days, and testing supplies and subjects,¡± said alice with a sigh. for a moment, she was reminded of her early days in this world, where she was forced to put together every component of her experiments on her own, and substitute more expensive pieces of equipment with perks.


    ¡°what do you have left to test with the spidercrabs?¡±


    ¡°just system enchantments,¡± she said.


    ethan eyed the small pile of minor rings alice had assembled in the corner of the room, before he nodded.


    alice threw a ring of +1 strength at another spidercrab.


    the spidercrab didn¡¯t react to the enchanted ring at first. it was as if it couldn¡¯t see the system mana at all. it simply continued to thrash and try to escape.


    very curious.


    alice recalled that, during the fight where illa and allira had led a large group of people to fight against the vinebears all those months ago, after the expedition, the vinebears had, at one point, tried to eat allira¡¯s illusion of a town. however, in day to day life, monsters acted as if they didn¡¯t see the system at all. after the attack on cyra two days ago, alice had assumed that monsters were now able to see the system¡¯s mana 24/7. the previous spidercrab test subject had eaten the water and stainproof skirt easily enough. however, the spidercrab was now acting as if it couldn¡¯t see the system mana in the ring front of it.


    alice didn¡¯t understand why monster behavior seemed so inconsistent right now. there must be some kind of rule that alice wasn¡¯t understanding, but she wasn¡¯t sure what it was yet.


    she shook her head, and focused on watching the spidercrab. it continued to ignore the system enchanted ring in front of it.


    alice frowned. then, she picked up the ring using kinetic magic, and rammed it down the spidercrab¡¯s throat.


    the creature shrieked in agony as alice accidentally shoved the ring a bit too hard into its throat, and ripped a few muscles. luckily, she didn¡¯t accidentally kill the creature. the spidercrab tried to screech at her, but with its throat messed up, the spidercrab sounded more like it was gargling than screeching.


    alice didn¡¯t give up, and continued trying to shove the ring down the creature¡¯s throat.


    after a few minutes of wrangling with the spidercrab, alice finally managed to get the ring into the creature¡¯s digestive tract.


    the monster continued lunging towards alice for a few moments, before it stopped. then, it sat down, almost as if it needed to think for a while.


    inside of the creature¡¯s body, alice could see mana start to squirm and change. the mana inside of the monster¡¯s body started to warp, almost as if it were trying to replicate the mana of the ring alice had just stuffed inside of its body.


    alice brightened up, expecting that she would soon see a monster with slightly higher physical strength than normal.


    however, the mana inside of the creature¡¯s body seemed slightly off. it started twitching and squirming, and the joints and muscles in its spidery limbs started to swell. the creature started thrashing and screeching at alice for several more moments, before it collapsed to the floor.


    alice watched the spidercrab with great curiosity. the creature didn¡¯t seem to be ¡®improving¡¯ quite as directly as alice had assumed it would. after seeing the monster swarm that had attacked cyra, alice had somewhat expected the monster to just... improve instantly, without any sort of problems or consequences. as much as alice found that idea strange, since she knew just have intricate and precise the upgrades the system gave to humans needed to be, it was also abundantly clear that monsters were playing off of a different set of rules than before.


    however, even though monsters were clearly changing based on what types of mana they countered, it didn¡¯t seem quite as direct as ¡®instantly upgrade based on new mana types,¡¯ which was something of a relief.


    however, alice while alice was glad to see that the spidercrab¡¯s ¡®limb upgrade¡¯ didn¡¯t go smoothly, she was also very confused.


    what had caused this change in monsters?


    why did some monster upgrades seem to work while some failed? the spidercrab that had eaten a stain resistant skirt was now resistant to being dyed different colors. why did the spidercrab alice fed a strength ring instead have its limbs swollen and contorted by her experiment?


    while on the walls of cyra, alice had originally assumed that perhaps the system had mistakenly let monsters start using the same interface as humans did, but that obviously wasn¡¯t the case. if it were true, alice would have instead expected some of the monsters to slowly upgrade themselves as she used them as test subjects. however, the only time monsters had changed during her experiments was when she fed them strange mana constructs.


    however, two days ago monsters did not have any known ability to upgrade themselves by eating strange mana constructs.


    alice sighed, and rubbed her temples. she tried tossing the pile of enchanted materials at the spidercrabs, to see if they did anything with them, and a few of her surviving test subjects walked over to them and started trying to gnaw at them. however, after a few seconds of trying and failing to eat metal bars that remembered thermal mana instructions, the spidercrabs lost interest and went back to trying to eat her. nothing else happened.


    alice sighed.


    she felt like she had learned something, at least, but she was also left even more confused about what had changed with monsters, and why.

 Chapter 147

    chapter 147


    after alice¡¯s experiment was over, she left the room in order to handle her system notifications. alice hadn¡¯t discovered anything revolutionary, beyond the fact that monsters reacted to some kinds of system mana and totally ignored others, but she hoped ethan could still get something useful out of her test results. at the very least, the fact that monsters seemed to ¡®copy¡¯ perks that they consumed was useful information, although alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure how and when monsters could find and absorb perks from the system. the monsters that had attacked cyra had mostly been normal monsters, but a few of the monsters had access to knockoff perks, so there was obviously some way for monsters to find system mana in the wild. but alice wasn¡¯t sure whether the monsters that had attacked cyra had stolen them from travelers they had eaten, or from the burst of rainbow mana that had covered the world a few days ago, or some other source entirely. but that was the best information she had right now.


    now it was time for alice to focus on the rewards for her experiments. during her experiments on the monsters, she had gained a few system notifications that she was eager to look at. before investigating exactly what she had gotten, she used her filtration magic seed to purify all of the clogged up mana stuck inside of her class seeds. once she finished turning all of the mana she had collected into the right types of mana, alice started looking through her various rewards.


    you have leveled up!


    scientist: 62 -> 65, scholar 60 -> 62, survivor 59 -> 60


    and there was one more notification that alice was very pleased to see.


    scientific discoveries (rarity: n/a) iv -> v


    an achievement created by the ¡®for science!¡¯ perk. it currently has one successful experiment catalogued. upon reaching five experiments, this achievement will receive a beneficial upgrade.


    +20% class experience for all research related classes, +5% bonus to mental attribute growth (per tier of the achievement)


    when alice saw the second system notification, she grinned.


    a long time ago, alice had picked up a rather interesting perk.


    for science!


    requirements: scientist level 45 or greater


    whenever you successfully complete an experiment related to science or magic which you do not already know the results of (with reasonable certainty), you gain a permanent increase in levelling speed of 20% for all research related classes. you will also gain a permanent +5% bonus to the attribute growth of all mental stats. (this will be added to your status screen as an achievement named {scientific discoveries rarity: n/a}. upon reaching five completed experiments, an additional beneficial effect will be added to the achievement.


    when alice had taken the perk, she had wondered what the beneficial effect of the ¡®upgrade¡¯ for the perk would be. she had not expected that it would take very long to reach rank v, considering how often she did experiments, but the perk¡¯s definition of an ¡®experiment¡¯ had proved hard to nail down. but after several months of slow and steady hard work, alice was finally ready to see the upgraded version of the perk.


    a few moments later, alice saw a new system notification pop up.


    upgrade requirements met. {scientific discoveries} achievement reconstruction in progress.


    alice was more than a little surprised to see that this system message didn¡¯t have any of the broken grammar or glitch signs she was starting to get used to. this particular system message looked exactly like the old system messages ¨C complete, concise, and translated directly into english for her. perhaps the system notification for this upgrade had been created a long time ago, and then stored for whenever alice had finally unlocked the next tier of the perk? since alice didn¡¯t see any odd streams of system mana in her surroundings, that was her best guess for why the perk wasn¡¯t part gibberish.n??v€l--?1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.


    a few moments later, a new system notification appeared.


    upgrade complete.


    in pursuit of science


    an achievement created by the ¡®for science!¡¯ perk. it has reached max tier, and cannot improve any further.


    +100% class experience for all research related classes, +25% bonus to mental attribute growth.


    as a final benefit to this perk, you may choose one of the perks for any research or science related class, and upgrade it.


    (perk must be a tier 1 or tier 2, and be below level 75).


    alice blinked at her new notification, and then grinned.


    the ability to ¡®upgrade¡¯ a perk was quite rare. alice had only gotten one other opportunity to upgrade a perk so far. getting another chance was very exciting.


    alice started thinking about which perk she wanted to upgrade, and immediately thought of one perk in particular. a perk that alice currently needed to use over and over again, but simply had too long of a cooldown, especially considering how useful it was in helping to resolve the current crisis.


    naturally, alice was thinking about upgrading {seeds of ambition}, the perk that let her create two new magic seeds a month. right now, alice needed an absolutely insane amount of magic seeds if she wanted to replicate the system. currently, she still needed a magic seed for math mana, so that she could finally add it to her version of system mana. she also needed a magic seed for ¡®meaning¡¯ mana, or something of the sort, because it helped her system notifications work the way they were supposed to. she also had a few magic seeds that she had lost access to while she was combining perks and had simply never had the time to regain access to, and a few other, smaller components of system mana that she knew less about, but were likely important in their own ways. she still needed more time to heighten her understanding of all the mana types she was missing, but alice desperately needed more magic seeds as fast as she could unlock them.


    alice hoped that upgrading {seeds of ambition} would solve this problem.


    she double checked the new menu in her status screen that had been created after her achievement finished upgrading, and started scrolling through a long list of perks she could improve. alice double checked that she wasn¡¯t missing some other amazing upgrade, before she zeroed in on {seeds of ambition}. and then alice frowned.


    she wasn¡¯t entirely sure what to make of the way the upgrade would change the perk. she had been hoping it would let her create more magic seeds per month, or perhaps reduce its cooldown time. alice had gotten a similar result when she had upgraded {broken seed} in the past. the upgrade for {seeds of ambition} didn¡¯t do either of those things.


    instead, upgrading the perk would give alice a new, separate ability that she could use once a month, alongside her regular ability to create two new magic seeds.


    alice hesitated for a moment, before she sighed, and upgraded the perk. even if it didn¡¯t let her create more magic seeds per month, the perk gave her something else that alice hadn¡¯t even realized she wanted until now, but would certainly go a long way towards solving more of the problems alice had encountered while creating a new system seed.


    it took a few moments for her perk to rebuild itself.


    seeds of ambition (upgraded)


    alice grinned.


    she was now very curious to see if this worked for other things. specifically, alice wanted to see if her new magic seed would automatically translate other types of system message. during her experimentation with her new mana type, a few wisps of [scientist] mana had drifted over. alice tried filtering it.


    you have leveled up!


    scientist: 65 -> 65


    alice tried opening her perks list... and blinked in surprise.


    alice saw the usual system screen for levelling up appear... and along with it, alice saw her perk selection screen open as usual.


    however, even when alice stopped using her compound mana 1, the perks that she had unlocked didn¡¯t suddenly turn into gibberish. instead, all of the perks and perk combination options that alice had unlocked after levelling up remained exactly the same, even when alice didn¡¯t actively try to translate it.


    in other words, unlike before, the perks that were unlocked through alice¡¯s mana usage now stayed translated.


    alice grinned.


    this was definitely a step on the right path towards copying the system. alice didn¡¯t pay too much attention to her new perks yet, because she was distracted by yet another surge of [explorer of magic] mana. this one was much bigger than the previous one. after alice finished filtering it, she was happy to see that she had gained another level in [explorer of magic].


    you have leveled up!


    explorer of magic: 78 -> 79


    getting levels in her primary class still felt glacially slow, compared to the breakneck levelling speed alice was used to. but it was obvious that the perks she was building up, such as {system teacher}, as well as the little bits of experience points she collected while searching for a way to fix the system, were still adding up. it was slow going, but alice was getting closer and closer to fixing the system ¨C and to reaching immortality.


    she still needed to figure out how to prevent her new magic seed from spamming her with incorrect system notifications, of course. but she was at least another step closer to copying the system.


    alice smiled to herself, and started paying closer attention to the rest of her upgrades. now that she had gotten the most exciting improvement out of the way, she still had two more perks to deal with. she was more than slightly surprised by the fact that [survivor] had levelled up, considering the fact that alice had done basically nothing related to survival. however, since alice had at least some insight into how classes worked behind the scenes, and how they seemed to be related to people¡¯s beliefs, alice eventually came up with a theory for why she had gotten a level in [survivor].


    experimenting with monsters was probably perceived as dangerous by most people, even if those monsters were just spidercrabs. and after the events of the past few days, alice suspected that people were much more afraid of monsters than before ¨C possibly including even spidercrabs. since most people felt that spidercrabs were dangerous right now, spending time near them probably felt like ¡®surviving¡¯ something dangerous?


    at least, that was alice¡¯s best guess for how it all worked out. the fact that classes and how people levelled up was so fundamentally tied to how people believed those classes to work still threw alice for a loop sometimes.


    alice frowned.


    beliefs and people¡¯s understanding. monsters. inconsistency.


    something about all of those ideas started pulling at alice¡¯s brain, and she started thinking.


    according to the church of the system, monsters were supposed to be the expressions of humanity¡¯s laziness, the greatest human sin.


    alice hadn¡¯t found any concrete ideas about what this actually meant, and nobody else seemed to, either. so alice had always just taken it as church nonsense and ignored it. but most people in illvaria were followers of the church of the system.


    but the system, and the way magic worked in this world, had shown signs of reacting to people¡¯s expectations before.


    a long time ago, when alice and ethan had rescued samantha from a base of the society of starry eyes, she had gotten an achievement for it. from that achievement, as well as several other discoveries, alice had mostly confirmed that classes relied on people¡¯s understanding of them, and achievements probably had at least some similarities to classes. after all, the description for {immortal¡¯s disciple at the battle against the society} described alice as a combat mage, despite that being wholly inaccurate. in other words, classes and achievements reacted to people¡¯s understanding of them.


    alice started wondering if other things also reacted to people¡¯s beliefs in this world. such as monsters. what if monsters were also somewhat defined by people¡¯s expectations?


    what if the system somehow stopped things from reacting to people¡¯s expectations, and enforced some kind of rigid, underlying reality? such as keeping people¡¯s beliefs from actually turning monsters into incarnations of humanity¡¯s sin of laziness?


    and with the system gone, the monsters were suddenly able to break free of this behavior somewhat?


    or perhaps the system had limited monsters in some other way before it had collapsed. since the system only ever worked to benefit humans, alice was pretty sure the system was pretty explicitly pro-human. it wouldn¡¯t seem out of place for the system to explicitly adapt to screw over the monsters on this planet and give humans every single possible advantage it could. preventing monsters from suddenly mutating and getting new abilities left and right based on people¡¯s understanding of them definitely seemed like a useful action to keep humans safe.


    in that case, perhaps the ability for monsters to consume different mana structures and improve themselves wasn¡¯t a ¡®new¡¯ ability.


    perhaps it was one that monsters had all along, and that the system somehow messed up by relying on people¡¯s perception of monsters to keep them locked in place. or maybe it was an ability somehow created by people¡¯s belief that monsters were incarnations of humanity¡¯s laziness. alice wasn¡¯t quite sure how that tied in to monsters copying system abilities, but there were probably a few ways the ideas could be linked together.


    alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure how that worked... but since she had already seen a few different aspects of mana explicitly changing based on people¡¯s beliefs, now that she had thought of the idea, she was loath to completely dismiss it. at the very least, it required more testing. she had never seen mana so directly warp the physical world around it, but it was possible that the system somehow worked to keep that from happening. alice wasn¡¯t sure.


    alice sighed.


    she had a lot more tests to run involving monsters if she wanted to figure out what was going on behind the scenes.


    then, she turned back towards her system notifications.


    she still had two perks to choose, and she had even more questions and ideas than before to think about.

 Chapter 148

    chapter 148


    now that alice had tested out magic seed combination, and made a few theories about the origin of the recent monster mutations, she had two perks left to pick.


    first, alice looked at her new [survivor] perk choices. [survivor] was the closest class she had to a combat class, and alice needed to find a way to defend herself against society attacks and monster attacks. especially with the recent increase in the strength and intelligence of monsters, alice wanted to boost her combat abilities a little bit. she checked the newly unlocked perks, but didn¡¯t see anything particularly appealing. so she turned her attention back to perk combination.


    she had a rather hard choice to make.


    alice had three relatively good perks from her [survivor] class that she was thinking about combining. the rest of her perks were either extremely situational, such as {extremophile}, which let her survive in much hotter or colder weather, or were so vital to alice¡¯s continued survival that she was afraid of messing with them, such as {microbe resistance}. combining {microbe resistance} with anything seemed like a monumentally bad idea when alice¡¯s immune system was built for a different planet and its ecosystem.


    however, alice still had 3 perks that were useful and had good synergy when combined.


    moderate tissue regeneration


    requirements: survivor level 40 or higher, endurance 100 or greater


    once per day, you may regenerate a great deal of damaged tissue and internal organ matter, healing you from even potentially fatal wounds or missing parts of limbs (hand size or smaller). may only be used once per day.


    increases the effect of the [endurance] stat by 10%.


    (note: if you lose an entire arm, this perk will help you eventually recover the lost limb, but it will take several days.)


    (note: regenerating large amounts of organic matter also requires proper nutrients. each time you use this perk, you will need to eat a great deal more afterward.)


    (note: it is impossible to recover from destruction of the brain, regardless of method used. if your brain is damaged enough, recovery is impossible.)


    {moderate tissue regeneration} was one of the perks that alice used to guarantee her life, if anything bad happened to her. most of the time, alice used the perk to make sure that she didn¡¯t accidentally kill herself after using herself as a test subject, but alice had always been aware of the fact that the perk had combat uses, even though alice didn¡¯t get into combat situations that often. and these days, alice didn¡¯t use herself as a test subject as often as she used to, either.


    this perk was much easier to use than organic mana, and alice wasn¡¯t exactly sure how much mental leeway she would have if she were hurt and in a lot of pain. alice¡¯s organic mana was improving, but she definitely didn¡¯t think she had reached the point where she could heal serious injuries without problems yet. so the perk was still useful enough to keep around.


    but it was also worth noting that alice¡¯s organic magic would eventually replace {moderate tissue regeneration} in use. and when alice looked at the perk¡¯s combination with the other two perks, both combined perks were likely to keep some self-regeneration abilities. while the perk was still useful, since alice also had {adrenaline rush} and {enhanced senses}, the perk was starting to feel less important than before.


    the next perk alice was thinking about combining with something was {adrenaline rush}.


    adrenaline rush


    requirements: survivor level 45 or higher, 2 or more perks related to perceiving the world around you have already been taken within the [survivor] class at an earlier level, perception 125 or higher, magic 100 or higher


    at any point in time, if you are highly likely to die or potentially die within the next five seconds, your perception of time will speed up significantly for five seconds. your dexterity, endurance, magic, and perception stats will have their effectiveness increased by 100% for these five seconds. this skill may only be used once per week.


    note: this perk consumes a fair amount of calories to activate. it is advised to eat a large meal whenever it is used.


    {adrenaline rush} was alice¡¯s best combat perk. it gave alice advanced warning when something was about to seriously hurt her, and it also synergized so well with the combat style of [kinetic mages] that alice felt nearly invincible whenever she used {adrenaline rush}. of course, the perk also had the downside of only being active for five seconds, and then needing a full week to cool off. normally, alice wouldn¡¯t have considered combining the perk with anything at all, unless the result would be spectacular, because the perk was just so powerful. but both of the combination perks that involved {adrenaline rush} seemed to keep a lot of the perk¡¯s original properties, while solving some of the problems of the perk, such as cooldown time.


    extended organics


    requirements: survivor level 50 or higher, endurance 100 or higher, magic 125 or higher


    alice was quite fond of her newfound ability to combine different kinds of mana seed together, so she decided not to mess with {for science}. the perk was simply giving her too much now. instead, she started looking at her other perks from [scientist].


    {precise mana measurement} was just an inferior version of {advanced mana measurement}, so alice would be happy to toss it for something more useful. {sample collection} was alice¡¯s only storage perk, and alice was extremely fond of being able to cart around a few weeks of food and water, as well as a rather large library and several different kinds of enchanting materials around with her. having things readily available was very convenient. {shared memory} was increasingly useful these days as a teaching tool and a way to share information and exchange opinions with cecilia and ethan, and alice was reluctant to part with it. which left alice somewhat at a loss for whether she wanted to even combine any of her perks.


    finally, alice sighed, and started looking more closely at her new perks.


    although the new perks weren¡¯t as interesting-looking as what she usually got from perk combination, she saw two perk options that were still rather interesting.


    the first perk she saw was one she probably would have killed for a few months ago, and was now far, far less useful.


    mana testing


    requirements: scientist level 65 or higher, intelligence 100 or higher, at least 3 achievements rarity 5 or above that are related to testing or experimenting with mana.


    gain _ ability to take a chunk of mana. trap it in storage perk. use as experimental fodder, and using other perks to understanding mana easier use on mana.


    alice resisted the urge to throw something.


    now that the system mana alice was so eager to study was no longer easily accessible in the air around her, she got a perk that would make breaking it down and understanding it thousands of times easier?


    alice sighed. she might still pick it. after all, there were system enchantments available everywhere. even if the system mana in a class seed or system enchantment was a bit different from the formations of system mana alice actually wanted to study, it was still something to run off of. this perk could give alice more insight into what kinds of mana were used to construct system mana, and might give alice a few bits of insight into what those system mana components were for.


    there were three other options for perk choices, but alice only found one other perk that interested her. the other two options she had been given just weren¡¯t useful enough.


    science¡¯s mana


    requirements: scientist level 65 or higher, intelligence 150 or higher, enchanter class at level 25 or higher, create at least three enchantments of your own design.


    make system enchantment for item. must be related to a perk you already have from the research classes, or attributes_thought association with science. (intelligence, willpower, perception).


    alice hesitated when she saw the second option, and thought about her choices. one had the potential to let her break down system mana, at least in some form. alice knew that system mana was a compound mana combined of a huge number of different forms of mana. alice was pretty sure that the optimal path forward for her was to keep creating and fusing different components of system mana together, until she was able to replicate the system. this would be an astounding achievement that would hopefully propel alice into immortality, and also hopefully resolve the current crisis.


    but alice still had yet to identify every aspect of system mana. she was discovering more and more types of constituent mana as she experimented with creating her own system mana, but there were still plenty of components of system mana alice hadn¡¯t identified yet.


    alice wasn¡¯t sure how important it was to identify everything immediately, though. currently, she still had way more types of system mana discovered than she actually had the time and seed slots to form. knowing more of them would just add to the list of magic seeds she needed to create but hadn¡¯t gotten around to yet. alice could still only create two magic seeds a month, after all.


    by contrast, the ability to form system enchantments was a bit more interesting. alice rather liked the idea of being able to create system enchantments. after all, system enchantments had two major types of enchantment: the first type was a generic attribute buff, and the second type was an item that could temporarily grant the wearer a perk from another class. usually these perks were pretty low level, so the attribute boosts were more popular and tended to sell better.


    but if alice could use perks from any of her research based classes as system enchantments, there were a lot of things that she wouldn¡¯t mind sharing. {broken seed}, for example, was practically custom-made to handle one of the problems created by the collapse of the system, and {shared memory] from [scientist] would make it much easier to spread around information and teaching quickly and effectively. and making system enchantments would also help alice level up her enchanter class, which would help her get even more perks that she might need to continue her attempts to fix everyone¡¯s class seeds.


    alice hesitated, and then decided to go for {science¡¯s mana}. alice was already discovering new components of system mana on her own as she experimented and improved, so she didn¡¯t feel that she urgently needed ways to discover more components of system mana. the other thing the perk gave her was the ability to store mana inside of her storage perk, but alice wasn¡¯t sure what she would actually do with that. it was interesting, but seemed useless. meanwhile {science¡¯s mana} offered alice an immediate perk to start controlling parts of the crisis and improving the situation, and also offered her some system-enchanting abilities, which alice had already wanted for a long time. she had originally expected that she would need to wait until she got above level 50 in [careful enchanter] to start making system enchantments, but she wasn¡¯t sure how long that would take since she had a lower xp buff for her enchanting classes.


    then, alice smiled as she watched her new perks take shape inside of her.


    it was time to experiment a bit with system enchanting.

 Chapter 149

    chapter 149


    alice had someone get her a few old iron rings to start her first experiment with system enchanting. most system enchantments were on rings or articles of clothing, and while alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure why that was the case, it didn¡¯t hurt to follow suit until she knew more.


    it only took a [servant] twenty minutes to get her a small crate of cheap, worn-out iron rings. alice pulled out her first iron ring, and started thinking about what she wanted to do.


    she had never created a system enchantment before, and she hadn¡¯t had any opportunities to observe other people create system enchantments. alice had devoted most of her time to studying the system itself, and had focused on learning her traditional and consumable enchantments when she had extra time. which was unfortunate, because alice was now realizing just how useful system enchantments would be in her current situation.


    ever since the system had collapsed, alice had a problem. she wanted examples of system fractals to study, and she had memorized several of them using her memory perks and her mana-construct analyzing perks. however, it was still very useful to observe new kinds of system fractal where possible, and to have active chunks of system mana to study. after all, alice¡¯s memory was now perfect, but she could only remember things she had observed in the first place. as her [perception] stat got higher and she gained more perks to analyze and observe mana, she also needed new samples of system mana to investigate.


    the system was gone, so alice naturally couldn¡¯t observe the system itself except during those weird surges of system mana that seemed to flood the planet every so often. but they were unpredictable, and the last surge of rainbow mana had also been followed by monsters growing stronger, which clearly wasn¡¯t part of the system¡¯s regular programming. alice wasn¡¯t even sure how much use there was in observing the strange floods of rainbow mana.


    which left system enchantments and class seeds as the best sources of new observations. alice had already put a great deal of effort into studying how class seeds worked, so there was much more value in tapping into new ground. alice wanted to create a system enchantment using her perk, and analyze them as if they were constructs created by the system. it wouldn¡¯t be perfect, since system enchantments didn¡¯t have anywhere near the range of abilities the actual system did. but it was still a way to keep her investigation going.


    for her first system enchantment, alice decided to try enchanting a ring of +1 intelligence. it was one of the simplest enchantments alice could possibly add to an item, and before alice did anything more complicated, she figured it was reasonable to make sure she could at least get the perk working and had a rough idea how the process worked.


    she started out by trying to visualize what she wanted the ring to do, and trying to feed mana into her newly created perk. alice wasn¡¯t quite sure how to make a system enchantment, but she was hoping that the perk would just automate the whole process if she fed it some mana.


    this did not work. it only took alice a few seconds to realize why. system enchantments were primarily used by people who weren¡¯t magically gifted. in other words, system enchantments should be created without the use of her magic seeds at all. trying to use magic to create a system enchantment was totally wrong from the beginning.


    alice frowned. she was so used to using her mana to create enchantments that she hadn¡¯t ever thought about how to create enchantments without her magic seeds. she tried just activating the perk while holding the ring, just to see what happened. once again, her perk failed to accomplish anything.


    alice started feeling rather silly.


    she held the ring closer to her face, and squinted at the band of metal. she concentrated on what she wanted the ring to do.


    she wanted the ring to make the wearer more intelligent.


    she wanted whoever was wearing the ring to have a faster and more nimble mind, and a better understanding of the world around them.


    alice concentrated on her vision of what she wanted, hoping that somehow, the perk would just make everything fall into place... and once again, nothing happened. alice didn¡¯t even feel her perk try to activate ¨C it felt like nothing was happening at all.


    alice sighed, wondering what she was doing wrong. a few moments later, she realized that she didn¡¯t have to puzzle this out on her own. there were plenty of other people that had access to system enchanting perks, and cyra should have a lot of people who could help her. after all, system enchantments were offered to most crafting classes beyond level 50, and they were popular enough that people often picked them.


    alice exited her room, and looked for a [servant] to help her find a [tailor] or [blacksmith] who could help her out. instead of a [servant], the first person alice ran into this time was illa.


    ¡°lady illa,¡± said alice.


    ¡°lady alice. it is a pleasure to see you again. i hear that you have conducted a few experiments on some spidercrabs. did you get anything useful out of the experiments?¡± asked illa.


    alice nodded. ¡°i have a few notes about how monsters seem to have adapted to the circumstances we find ourselves in. i¡¯ve already passed everything i found to immortal ethan, so he¡¯ll probably give you an in-depth report soon. i wanted to ask about something else. could you get someone with a system-enchanting perk to come help me? i have a system-enchanting perk that i really need to tinker with, but i¡¯m not sure how to operate it. and the perk¡¯s description doesn¡¯t give me any hints about how to get started.¡±


    illa paused, and then nodded. ¡°i¡¯ll get someone to bring over one of the town [tailors]. there is a level 60 [tailor] named tallie who should be more than willing to help you for a decent price. will that suffice?¡±


    ¡°yes. thank you, lady illa,¡± said alice.


    ¡°i¡¯ll have her sent to the room you used for spidercrab testing, then,¡± said illa.


    alice nodded, and returned to the room she had used to experiment on the spidercrabs.


    she noticed that the corpses of the spidercrabs hadn¡¯t all been cleaned up yet, and reached out a kinetic mana tendril to toss the corpses into one of the rubbish bins. and then, as alice sank one of her mana tendrils into the spidercrab, she blinked in surprise as she felt her mana tendril sink into the spidercrab shell far more easily than it usually did. it was as if the shell was more willing to accept mana than usual.


    alice watched as tallie frowned in concentration, before she started tailoring the bolts of cloth to fit the figure of an imaginary person. tallie was creating a dress.


    a few moments later, tallie took out a mirror and set it in front of the dress, before setting up another mirror to view the dress from a different angle. she worked on stitching parts of the skirt together, while at the same time occasionally pausing to admire the skirt, or layer in a different set of colors to create decorations.


    at the same time, alice saw little bits of rainbow colored mana slowly take shape around the dress as tallie¡¯s class seeds furiously worked to keep everything functioning. alice quickly located and ignored the more normal looking perks, which were probably making tallie¡¯s work faster and easier, and focused on the system enchantment that was being shaped inside of the dress.


    alice was used to system working like a filter for mana that already existed, but in this case, alice was instead reminded of steeping tea leaves in hot water. rather than filtering what was already there, it seemed more like the system fractals tallie had created were slowly infusing rainbow mana into the dress itself.


    after about two hours, tallie wiped the sweat away from her forehead, before grinning at alice.


    ¡°done, lady mage. this is a dress that gives the wearer six points of charisma,¡± she said, grinning.


    ¡°thank you for the help, [tailor] tallie. your assistance was much appreciated,¡± said alice.


    tallie nodded, and after the two traded a few more words, tallie left.


    once tallie left, alice looked at all the iron rings she had just gathered for experimental purposes, and sighed.


    after a few moments of thought, alice discarded the iron rings, and instead asked for somebody to get her a few sets of glass goggles. on earth, chemists often wore eye protection gear to keep dangerous substances from getting into their eyes.


    of course, on earth those were usually made of plastic, but alice figured that as long as it looked close enough it was probably fine.


    then, alice started quietly reading a book while wearing her glass eye protection gear. at the same time, she started thinking about the nature of intelligence, and tried to push that idea into her goggles entirely through her perk.


    it wasn¡¯t entirely successful, but alice could at least some traces of rainbow mana exit her body and flow into the glass goggles, even if they were few and far between.


    alice was encouraged by her partial success, and kept going for a few hours. however, alice became increasingly aware that something wasn¡¯t quite right about her method of adding a system enchantment to the glass goggles.


    perhaps reading a book was more ¡®scholarly¡¯ than scientific?


    alice tried again. this time, she got a piece of paper out, and started writing out a copy of the paper she had written and submitted to her magic academy a few months ago. science had a lot to do with testing, verifying, and sharing the results of experiments and ideas, so alice hoped that writing a paper for peer review would get the perk working.


    this time proved quite a bit more successful, and after she finished copying her scientific paper, alice saw system mana start to flow out of her body and towards her goggles. it was rather interesting to see ¨C rather than mana being filtered and shoved into an item, the way alice had expected a system enchantment to work, it looked more like a newly created system fractal inside of her body had floated over to the points where her skin was touching the object she wanted to enchant. then, the system fractal started filtering mana from inside of her body and fusing it into the pair of glass goggles, rapidly constructing an entirely new system fractal inside of the goggles. a few moments later, the system fractals inside of her body returned to normal, and the goggles now had a newly created system enchantment.


    at the same time, alice started to feel very tired. it was as if she had just run a marathon. alice winced.


    it seemed that her new perk took a lot out of her every time she activated it.


    however, while it hadn¡¯t been a perfect trial run, alice had still gotten her new system enchantment online, and had observed the process of system fractals slowly flowing out of her body and fusing with the glass goggles. it was another step in the right direction.


    then, alice yawned. the new perk had taken a lot out of her. she glanced at the spidercrab corpses again. they had seemed rather more conductive of mana than usual. perhaps the changes to the monsters had also created some sort of other change in their corpses? it seemed worth testing later.


    she walked outside of the room and found a [servant].


    ¡°keep the spidercrab corpses preserved for me, and make sure everyone else knows not to mess with them,¡± said alice. the [servant] nodded, and then alice finished walking to her room, before she went to sleep.


    testing the results of the spidercrab corpses and tinkering more with system enchanting could wait until tomorrow.


    you have leveled up!


    careful enchanter: 30 -> 32

 Chapter 150

    chapter 150


    while alice was asleep, she found herself within her dream library, as usual. originally, this made alice grin ¨C she had just been thinking about how she wanted to test out the spidercrab shells she had spotted, and now, a golden opportunity had appeared.


    then, she realized that she had actually forgotten to grab the spidercrab corpses and stuff them into her storage perk. her dream library had a lot of functions, now that multiple perks were feeding into it. however, it still needed a physical testing material to be in her storage perk before she could start testing enchantments. in other words, she had no way to test her new research materials during her sleep, and she also couldn¡¯t use the ¡®unlimited¡¯ mana from her dreams to test things right now.


    perhaps she had been more tired than she had thought she was. making such an obvious mistake frustrated alice, but now that she was asleep, she didn¡¯t have any way to wake herself back up. her perk didn¡¯t come with any sort of easy way to wake up, and alice had always been a bit of a heavy sleeper. unless someone triggered one of her danger-sensing perks, she didn¡¯t have a good way to fix her mistake until morning came.


    after realizing this, alice sighed, and took it as a sign that she really had been overwhelmed by the stress of the crisis. after some hesitation, she spent the night reading adventure stories and trying to work some of the stress out of her mind and body. it wasn¡¯t what she would consider the most productive night, but it was sorely needed right now. as much as alice tried to be efficient and solve every single problem related to the system¡¯s collapse, she was still a human. she needed to take breaks and relax occasionally, or she would collapse from stress and pressure, no matter how many perks she had to increase her work efficiency.


    and so, a night of light reading passed.


    the next day, after a quick breakfast, alice rushed to the testing room. she had already spent eight hours relaxing during her sleep, and she felt refreshed in both mind and body. it was time to get moving. the spidercrab corpses had been left untouched in the corner of the room, as alice had requested, so she stepped towards them and prepared for yet another round of experiments.


    alice gave the spidercrab corpses one last check using her perks and the experience she had gained from spending months working as an [enchanter]. once she was satisfied that nothing was about to explode or go catastrophically wrong, she poked at the spidercrab corpses with her mana. she wasn¡¯t terribly concerned with adding a specific enchantment to the spidercrab corpses, she just wanted to answer a fundamental, critical question.


    had the properties of spidercrab shells changed after the spidercrabs created knockoff system perks?


    alice held her breath as she started feeding a set of enchantment ¡®instructions¡¯ to the spidercrab shells. the instruction itself didn¡¯t matter, so alice just tried to feed it an instruction to ¡®show someone a basic system message¡¯ whenever they touched the shell. it was a sloppy enchantment instruction, and it would probably leak more mana than a broken faucet, but alice just wanted to see if the instruction would take at all. spidercrab shells were normally completely useless as enchanting materials, so if she could imprint an enchanting instruction onto a spidercrab¡¯s shell, it would mean something very important had changed.


    she focused on making the enchantment feed off of the spidercrab monster core that was still buried inside of the creature¡¯s corpse, and then waited to see if anything happened.


    alice¡¯s eyes widened as she felt her mana sink into the spidercrab shell, patterning itself off of the enchantment that she had been trying to create. she stepped closer to the spidercrab shell, and touched it with her hand.


    she saw mana surge out of the spidercrab core, and a moment later, a ¡®system¡¯ message appeared in front of her.


    through testing, you have created a system message!


    test


    alice started cackling like a maniac. alice¡¯s witchlike cackle started to spread throughout illa¡¯s manor. if alice had more self-awareness, she might have felt bad about scaring the [servants], but alice was too excited to pay attention to that. alice spent several seconds regaining control of herself, before she stared at the spidercrab shell and grinned.


    alice hadn¡¯t been sure whether or not the tree bark ethan had secured a supply of would accept her new, compound mana. it would have been a good thing to test while she was asleep, but alice hadn¡¯t thought about it until now. but now, alice didn¡¯t even need to test the tree bark ¨C the spidercrab shells had directly solved the problem of finding an enchanting material that could use her new, compound mana. which meant alice could start creating some emergency supplies to help the areas worst hit by the collapse of the system. alice had no way at all to keep up with the demand of all of illvaria, of course ¨C there was simply way she could create enough enchantments to keep an entire country healthy on her own. alice could only create a few dozen enchantments a day, and that was if she worked like a machine. illvaria probably needed thousands or tens of thousands of class-fixing enchantments to stave off the crisis. but at the very least, alice could finally get started on production. the sooner she got started on production, the faster people could level up and pick perks, which would let them adapt to the crisis and get the rest of the country working again.


    the spidercrab shells didn¡¯t just let alice start getting the snowball rolling, either. one of the two biggest bottlenecks in the production of emergency relief enchantments was solved if spidercrabs could be used as an enchanting material. feeding a spidercrab an item enhanced by a perk wasn¡¯t that hard, and spidercrabs were almost literally everywhere. it was hard to find a part of the world where spidercrabs weren¡¯t present. while it would still be hard to get enough [enchanters] to meet demand, cecilia was already working on solving that problem. if things went well, the crisis might be back under control within a few months with minimal damage.


    then, alice frowned. since she had a compound mana type now, she hadn¡¯t actually tested whether the spidercrab shells would accept ¡®normal¡¯ kinds of mana, such as filtration mana. she had only tested whether it would accept alice¡¯s specific type of compound mana. alice tried focusing on her new, bizarre magic seed and extracting only filtration mana. alice felt filtration mana slowly drain out of her compound magic seed, unaccompanied by the display mana she had connected it to.


    after alice verified this with a few more rounds of testing, she went back to experimenting on ¡®enhanced¡¯ spidercrabs. since most of the spidercrabs in the area seemed to still be normal, alice manually stuffed new test subjects with perk -influenced articles of clothing, much like the first batch of spidercrabs. after they absorbed the system mana and started creating their own copies, alice immediately killed them and started testing their corpses.


    just like the first batch of test subjects, some of the new spidercrabs had their shells drastically modified after creating their own knockoff versions of the system. a small number of the system-modified spidercrab corpses accepted compound mana, while the other spidercrabs didn¡¯t accept system mana at all. this was despite the fact that all of the spidercrabs had successfully copied a system perk when exposed to the same conditions.


    alice went back to the same [maid] and told her to wake alice up in an hour. the [maid] gave alice a very strange look, but acknowledged alice¡¯s request. alice went back to sleep again, and used her dream library to test the next few batches spidercrab shells.


    the spidercrab shells accepted compound magic, pure mana, and organic mana, but did not accept no_magic. alice was starting to strongly suspect that the spidercrab shells only accepted components of system mana ¨C in other words, the closer a type of mana was to system mana, the more easily the spidercrab corpses would accept them as sources of enchantment instructions. but alice still had no idea why some spidercrabs turned into usable enchanting materials and others just turned into waste product. after testing each spidercrab shell she had stuck into her storage perk, alice confirmed that the spidercrabs had around a 30% chance of turning into a useful enchanting material. alice could not figure out what distinguished whether a spidercrab turned into a useful enchanting material or not ¨C as far as she could tell, it seemed to be entirely random.


    but even though she wasn¡¯t entirely sure how everything worked together, after five rounds of testing, alice was at least sure that spidercrabs sometimes turned into enchanting materials. illvaria desperately needed enchanting materials right now.


    alice had found a way to solve the materials shortage. it wasn¡¯t perfect, since the enchantments created afterwards would be leaky and inefficient, and they would also wear out more quickly than usual. but any solution was better than no solution. when alice was woken up by the [maid] again, she dashed out of her room, found ethan, and dragged him into her testing room, before showing off what she had found.


    ethan simply sat there as alice ran through her presentation of her new discovery, sometimes nodding approvingly, and sometimes giving the spidercrab corpses curious looks. finally, ethan grinned.


    ¡°well done!¡± said ethan. ¡°this is... incredibly useful. i was originally thinking that the monsters growing more intelligent and getting access to knockoff perks was another catastrophe piled on top of the others, and i was getting my subordinates to prepare for possibly being besieged by monsters. combined with all of the other problems, i was honestly thinking that things were turning into a real mess. i didn¡¯t realize that the strange adaption of monsters also represented an opportunity to fix one of our other problems.¡± ethan¡¯s grin grew wider. ¡°i don¡¯t think this solution will fix everything... but it¡¯ll definitely go a long way towards fixing the aftermath of the collapse of the system. i believe i already told you about monster farms, and how they were used to farm monster cores, right?¡±


    alice frowned, and scoured her memory. a few moments later, alice recalled ethan mentioning people using ranches to grow monsters, similar to the same way people on earth grew cattle and pigs. they weren¡¯t common, because monsters were inherently dangerous, but people were trying it out and meeting some success with it. most people still preferred to raise regular animals, but monster ranches still provided a small amount of enchanting materials to the illvarian economy. ethan had also mentioned that he thought the idea might take off within the next few centuries.


    ¡°i remember you mentioning it,¡± said alice, after a few moments.


    ¡°well, i¡¯ll have a few of my subordinates go to some of the nearby ranches and have the ranchers there start producing batches of these spidercrab shell. i probably won¡¯t even need to incentivize the ranchers much ¨C i¡¯ll just offer them a larger than average payment for every useful spidercrab shell, and tell them about what you¡¯ve found with your experiment. they¡¯ll do the rest on their own. money motivates people, and if the ranchers get a tidy sum of profit every time they produce a monster shell that¡¯s useful, i imagine they¡¯ll be even more motivated than you to figure out how to produce batches of useful shells more consistently and reliably,¡± said ethan, chuckling. ¡°i also wouldn¡¯t be surprised if they have an easier time figuring out why some shells are useful and some aren¡¯t, even though you¡¯re more focused on research than them. after all, your entire build is centered around manipulating and perceiving mana ¨C but you haven¡¯t learned much about monster biology beyond the basics in your magic academy class. while it¡¯s a good start, it naturally won¡¯t compare to someone whose entire class is built around analyzing and making use of monsters.¡±


    alice thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. she definitely didn¡¯t feel the need to waste a perk on learning how to examine weird components of monster biology in the future, so this was probably just going to be something she needed to delegate to other people in the future. for now, she decided to just be happy she had solved the material shortage.


    ethan patted her on the shoulder. ¡°well done. i¡¯ll get that started. how long do you think it¡¯ll be until the mages you and cecilia are training are ready to start producing enchantments?¡±


    ¡°the mages we¡¯re training are getting better at understanding what they need, but it still takes a while to get one person fitted with the magic seed that they need to be useful,¡± said alice. ¡°the failure rate for producing magic seeds without the help of the system is a lot higher than expected, since i¡¯m helping them learn all of the things they need to succeed in building a magic seed without system aid. but so far, it has taken multiple tries for the first and second mage to build a successful magic seed, and those are the most promising students. so the problem is that it¡¯s taking too much time, and my perk takes too long before it can be activated again. as for the class-fixing enchantment... i¡¯m not sure yet,¡± said alice. ¡°i will need to check in with the mages and see if they managed to produce anything. but with any luck, we¡¯ll be able to start producing class-fixers soon. i want to start out by creating some enchantments that help people fix the ¡®enchanter¡¯ class, so that they can hopefully help boost production further.¡±


    ethan nodded. ¡°that makes sense.¡± then, he grinned. ¡°if this goes well, you should hopefully get a pretty good achievement for getting this whole production line started.¡±


    alice also nodded. she still hadn¡¯t quite figured out what the deal with achievements was, or how to fix them yet, but even if achievements only gave half their benefits right now, it was something to look forward to. alice was willing to bet that playing a large role in fixing a natural disaster for an entire country would have incredible benefits, if she managed to get it working.


    after that, ethan left, and alice went to check on cecilia¡¯s mages.


    with any luck, they would have been able to use their own perks to create a blueprint for alice to work with when creating enchantments. if that happened, perhaps they could finally take the biggest step towards solving this crisis yet.

 Chapter 151

    chapter 151


    as alice walked out of the experiment room, she took a moment to purify her mana, and then scanned over her system notifications.


    she nodded to herself.


    you have leveled up!


    careful enchanter : 32 -> 34, scientist 65 -> 66


    with the levels she had gained from the experiments, alice was only one level away from her next perk in [careful enchanter].


    there were no other interesting notifications, so alice tossed her system notifications to the back of her mind, and a moment later, found cecilia and asked her to bring the [enchanter] who had successfully formed a seed over.


    about ten minutes later, the man joined alice.


    ¡°have you made any progress in creating the enchantments we need?¡± asked alice, cutting straight to the point.


    ¡°we¡¯ve made some decent progress,¡± said the man. ¡°we have three different ideas for potential enchantments. they all do slightly different things, and so i tried to build them to suit people with different magic seeds, or combinations of magic seeds. and i also tried to model them off of the materials we already know we¡¯ll have available ¨C that is, the tree bark and the more recently discovered spidercrab shells. i think they still need a little more field testing to work out any inefficiencies in their design, and they probably waste a lot of mana, but all of us have used various perks to at least confirm these enchantments can work. we can always update the blueprints once we have a better idea how everything works together.¡±n??v€l-b1n was the first platform to present this chapter.


    alice grinned even more broadly.


    the [enchanters] that she and cecilia had been training had come through. alice wanted to give cecilia and her [enchanters] a huge hug. she had been feeling stretched in ten different ways at once recently, and only after she started delegating some tasks to others had she felt even some of the weight on her shoulders start to alleviate. however, this time, alice wanted to dance with joy.


    without needing to handle everything herself, a working model of the enchantments she needed to get into mass production had been delivered right to her, and examined using several perks that she herself didn¡¯t have access to.


    the [enchanter] handed alice three different stacks of paper, each of which contained a detailed list of perks that went into each enchantment, what each perk did, diagrams of how to build the non-perk components of each enchantment, and a step by step process for how to work around some perks that might not have easy replacements.


    of course, alice also noted that the enchantments for fixing class seeds would only work with the [enchanter] class. unfortunately, cecilia¡¯s [enchanters] hadn¡¯t figured out a way to generalize the class-seed fixing enchantment for all classes. but even so, having a working blueprint for any solution to the current crisis was progress. and alice knew that the next few steps for resolving the crisis were dependent on [enchanters], so any way to help the [enchanters] of illvaria would be very helpful down the line. now that alice had found a solution to the material crisis and a working blueprint was ready, illvaria just needed way to mass-produce [enchanters] with the correct magic seeds.


    alice gave the three proposed enchantments closer looks, and saw that the first diagram was an all-in-one enchantment to fix both class seeds and the system messages that got messed up after the system collapsed. it used both display and filtration mana, and also used pure mana to find the system fractal it was supposed to straighten up.


    the second proposed enchantment was actually just a ring that contained an enchantment fix one¡¯s system notifications. it seemed to be built to resolve the problem most people had after the system collapsed, of being unable to see what their perk options did. it used only display mana, and as a result, it was much simpler and easier to produce. it also didn¡¯t have the same class restriction that the first proposed ring did. it was also rather well-optimized to use the tree bark alice and the others had originally come to cyra for. it had the least useful effects, since it still left people vulnerable to having their mind and will subverted by their unfiltered class mana. but it was still incredibly useful to let people choose perks again, and it was also much easier to manufacture than the other two blueprints.


    the third and final proposed enchantment only used filtration and pure mana. it was an enchantment that would straighten out the system mana related to the [enchanter] class, much like the first ring. unlike the first ring, it wouldn¡¯t let people view their status screen properly afterwards. this didn¡¯t actually reduce the difficulty of producing the enchantment much ¨C but alice suspected the first ring was more designed to test the limits of her compound mana. the second and third enchantments were much more practical solutions to the current crisis, while the first, all-in-one enchantment was practically tailored to the details about her own magic seeds she had given to the [enchanters] when discussing how the enchantments should work and what various mana types felt like.


    basically, the first enchantment diagram was an all-in-one solution enchantment that only alice had a practical reason to make, while the second and third enchantment were real, viable solutions to the crisis.


    but alice also noticed that the first and third enchantments also had a few enchantment components that she had never seen before. alice had only had time to dip her toes into enchantments in the past, since she had so many other priorities, but she still had passing familiar with a lot of the mana constructs used in enchanting. now, in the diagrams, she saw several that were blatantly unfamiliar to her. alice squinted at the unfamiliar enchanting components, frowning.


    ¡°what are these?¡± she asked, pointing them out in the diagram.


    ¡°this mana construct is an enchantment instruction that lets an enchantment detect things. it¡¯s usually added via one of a number of perks that are offered to [enchanters] who have a pure mana seed. the most common variants of the perk let you detect when another mage uses magic of some sort, before activating the other enchantments ¨C basically, it¡¯s a perk used to created enchanted traps for other mages. we¡¯re pretty sure we reconfigured it a bit, to make it detect class seeds instead. but some field testing is needed.


    ¡°we tried very hard to think of a way to detect these ¡®class seeds¡¯ more easily, without relying on reconfiguring the instruction created by a perk, but we kept running into problems when we were trying to make it all work together. for now, i recommend getting more [enchanters] who have the correct perks, and we¡¯ll see if we can create a different version of this enchantment in the future for more mass-production,¡± said the [enchanter]. alice sighed, but nodded.


    unfortunately, alice did not have the perk the [enchanter] had mentioned. this made alice feel quite annoyed, although she supposed she might be able to rush the last level in her enchanting class with a few days of hard work and some luck.


    she turned back towards the [enchanter]. ¡°do you think it¡¯s likely you can put the second model of enchantment into production on your own?¡± she asked, glancing back towards the display mana enchantment that used tree bark as its primary material.


    alice sighed, but had taken the perk. after all, it wasn¡¯t like she was likely to figure out the incredibly complex and convoluted mana construct on her own without several more days of trial and error, and she only had a few more weeks before people started to lose their mind as a result of mana poisoning, according to her estimations.


    cecilia¡¯s [enchanter] also took the day to familiarize himself with the tree-bark enchantment, and one of cecilia¡¯s other mages successfully formed a filtration mana seed, causing the group to celebrate the second person to successfully form a magic seed.


    the day after that, alice got much further in her enchanting attempts. with the help of her new perk, she had already understood most of the enchantment ¨C it was just the class seed detection that had been tripping her up. once she had the perk in place, she thought it wouldn¡¯t be too hard to proceed ¨C only to run into yet another problem.


    the mana detection instruction took up an entire instruction slot, and spidercrab shells only had one instruction slot to being with. to compensate, alice had needed to add in a different material... which had required the help of another [enchanter] who had a perk that let two enchanting materials talk to each other and work together. with the aid of the [enchanter], alice was able to start cobbling together enchantments that would fix the class seed for any [enchanter] who touched it.


    right after she completed the enchantment, alice looked at her work, and frowned. she was a bit hesitant to actually test the enchantment after that, since it could be dangerous. {safety analysis} claimed that touching it wouldn¡¯t pose a problem, but alice just felt very nervous about the enchantment.


    before alice could say anything, the [enchanter] who had helped her put together the enchantment volunteered as a test subject. when he touched the spidercrab shell, contrary to alice¡¯s fears, nothing bad happened to him. his mana was purified properly, and his class seed absorbed it without any issues.


    the enchantment was successful. at the very least, alice was able to create the class-fixing enchantments without any issue.


    all in all, it was at least good enough that it could start addressing illvaria¡¯s critical needs.


    alice started making as many of them as she could, before handing them over to ethan. she managed to make six of the enchantments that day ¨C which wasn¡¯t as many as she had hoped for, but perhaps it was the most realistic outcome, given alice¡¯s total unfamiliarity with the enchantment she was trying to make and the fact that she needed the help of another [enchanter] to put together each copy of the enchantment.


    unfortunately, since the ranches hadn¡¯t gotten their first shipments back to cyra yet, alice ran out of enchanting materials after that and was forced to twiddle her thumbs for the rest of the day.


    on the third day since alice had gotten the enchanting blueprints, the first shipments of tree bark finally came in. a few more scattered spidercrab shells were also shipped into illvaria, although the number was depressingly low.


    alice, cecilia¡¯s mages, and ethan assembled in one spot, to test the implementation of the new enchantments.


    alice had already tested the first enchantment model, and had gotten it working properly. now they just needed to test the simplified enchantments and see if they could start mass-producing them.


    after a few failed attempts at making the bark rings, the [enchanter] with the display magic seed successfully created the second enchantment. furthermore, the mage with the filtration magic seed finally got a chance to test whether the class purification enchantment worked as intended.


    much like the enchantments alice had made the previous day, they were produced successfully after a few failed attempts.


    so long as someone touched the spidercrab shell, it would search through someone¡¯s body to find their [enchanter] class seed. then, it would detect the exact version of [enchanter] that someone had, take any mana clogged up around the magic seed, and then convert it all into a copy of the same mana type.


    and so long as someone touched the little slab of enchanted tree bark, one would be able to see all of the perk options they had for their next level up, and would be able to choose a fitting perk for their future.


    both enchantments had been successfully created.


    as if to celebrate the group¡¯s success, after a few moments, alice got a new achievement.


    you have ___ achievement!


    first_steps (i) (rarity: 6)


    you have taken the first steps towards _ solve catastrophe, and created foundation to succeed where succeeding is important.


    +50% growth speed enchanter classes, +20% growth speed all classes, +50% growth speed healing classes.


    with 1_month time, var: enchanting material instructions can be increased by one (just hold item in storage perk to activate). can only work on five items at a time, takes one month to finish.

 Chapter 152

    Chapter 152


    So were leaving Cyra soon? asked Alice.


    Ethan nodded. With the supply lines for enchanting materials established, everything in Cyra seems to be moving in the right direction. I think its time to go.


    Alice nodded. To be honest, she felt a bit of relief at the idea of leaving Cyra and returning to Metsel soon. The idea that large numbers of monsters were now active in the world and were moving around in large, organized hordes set her nerves on edge. Alice was pretty sure she would be safe, even if an organized monster horde attacked Cyra, since Ethan would protect her.


    But that definitely wasnt guaranteed. The battle she and Ethan had taken part in when they had attacked the Society base all those months ago, as well the Societys attack on Ethans manor, had served to remind Alice of a very important fact. No matter how impressive Immortals might be, they werent invincible. They were very powerful, and fighting them was incredibly difficult. But they werent omnipotent, and even if Alice was under the protection of Ethan, she could still die. Especially if an army of sapient, Perk-wielding monsters lay siege to their group while travelling back to Metsel, or if a horde of monsters broke into Cyra.


    She would rather be back in Metsel before things got even more dangerous. The capital had much sturdier defenses than Cyra, and Alice intended to hide in the capital for as long as possible before leaving again. Things were just getting too dangerous for her comfort right now.


    How long until we leave? she asked.


    A few days, probably, said Ethan. I would like to spend another day or two making sure the next few groups of [Adventurers] safely harvest the tree bark and then return, and I would like to wait around until the ranches that are cooperating with us are confirmed to have their [Guards] set up. I believe the [Guards] I helped the ranch owners get in contact with should be enough to keep things under control, but Id like to spend a few more days making sure that the ranches can fend off weaker monster invasions, at least. It would also be good to see what the first batch of test products from the ranches look like, if we can afford to stick around that long. After that, I think we should return, said Ethan. Why? Eager to get back to Metsel?Witness the debut of this chapter, unveiled through N?o?v€l--B1n.


    It just seems safer.


    Ethan chuckled. I suppose thats true. I dont think well get unlucky enough to run into a second intelligent monster horde, since the majority of monsters seem unchanged so far. But we dont know much about the situation yet, and theres no need to take chances.


    Then, Ethans gaze turned a bit more serious.


    But make sure to pay attention when we move back to Metsel. We dont know enough about the monsters to know if they hold grudges. If they do, the group that attached Cyra and escaped last week might track us down and attack us. The Society could also make another move. They havent done anything recently, and Im starting to get a bit nervous about them. Be ready for something to go wrong during the journey back to Metsel.


    Alice nodded.


    Well then, lets let Illa know when well be leaving soon. Say goodbye to anyone youll miss in Cyra, and be ready to leave in a few days.


    * * *


    Murim, Illvarias sixth Immortal, stared at the land in front of him and scratched his respectable beard in thought.


    The land was wrong. It wasnt just a little bit messed up, the way the greater monsters sometimes created shattered, broken landmasses as they fought each other in the deep wilderness of the south. Instead, the land was wrong as if the very world itself had broken somehow. Fragments of land floated in the air like bits of water spilled from a giants cup, caught in the middle of falling to the earth. Patches of water flowed upriver instead of downstream, as if gravity had decided to turn itself off in the area. The land itself occasionally flickered and distorted, tangling and untangling itself like a ball of yarn being played with by a cat. Anytime Murim wasnt looking at a particular patch of land, he would sometimes notice that the world had shifted when he wasnt looking at it. That, more than anything else, set Murims teeth on edge. As an [Explorer], nothing made him more nervous than losing track of the area he was exploring.


    The mana in the area was also far, far denser than Murim had ever seen before, even this far south. The mana wastes were normally quite rich in mana however, over the past week, the mana in the area had grown more and more dense, until now, it was perhaps four times more dense than it had been in the past. And the mana density was just increasing every day. Murim didnt know if the mana density would stop growing eventually, but the mana was already dense enough to instantly start a mana baptism for a non-Mage without any Perks to protect them. The monsters hadnt quite caught up to the new levels of mana yet, but Murim knew it was just a matter of time before this area became hundreds of times more dangerous than before.


    Murim frowned. He was confident in his survival skills. As one of the highest level [Explorers] in the entire southern continent, he could escape or fight off most monsters. Of course, Murim had never dared to explore the western continent he was interested in exploring, but he wasnt suicidal. But he was confident that nobody had a better grasp of the mana wastes of the southern continent than him. He thrived in places where no other human had set foot before.


    But the messed up, jumbled land and ridiculous mana density was different. Murim had never seen anything like this before.


    Murim looked at the shifting landmasses and floating bits of rock, before shuddering.


    The first batch of materials from the monster ranchers had also come in, along with a few theories about what, precisely, made some spidercrabs into useful enchanting materials while others were effectively worthless. Apparently, the age of the spidercrab seemed to influence the spidercrab shell after its death. Younger spidercrabs would turn into useful enchanting materials for Alices purposes, while older ones did not. The spidercrab ranchers hadnt pinned down an exact age range yet, but three of the four monster ranches seemed to have similar results so far. Which at least let Alice put one question to rest, although it also reminded Alice of how human children interacted with the System. It was not a comforting reminder.


    After completing all of the paperwork, Alice also noticed that a completely new kind of mana had built up inside of her body. It was a very, very minor amount, and Alice had originally intended to simply convert it into another classs kind of mana until she found that she couldnt.


    It took Alice several minutes of careful probing before she realized that the new mana type seemed to be [Bureaucrat] mana, or perhaps [Administrator] mana. There were a lot of kinds of mana jumbled together, but all of them sounded fairly related to paperwork and government forms.


    This revelation made Alice frown.


    So far, she had found that she could convert similar kinds of mana into each other [Kinetic Brawler] and [Kinetic Mage] mana could generally be converted into [Kinetic Manabinder] mana, and similarly, mana types for research-based classes could usually be converted into [Scientist], [Scholar], or [Explorer of Magic] mana without any issues. However, this was the first time Alice had confirmed that if a mana type was too different, it couldnt be converted into another type of mana.


    And regrettably, Alice didnt have any Classes related to paperwork or bureaucracy. The closest Classes she had were [Courtier] and [Scholar], but [Courtier] was mostly related to the concept of comporting oneself as a [Noble] at parties and social events. Alice had checked through the Classs known Perks, and most of them helped with things like dancing, etiquette, and conversations there wasnt much of a relationship with paperwork and forms. Similarly, [Scholar] was related to research, and was too far removed from government forms for Alice to convert the [Bureaucrat] mana into [Scholar] mana.


    In short, Alice needed to avoid doing things that were too different from her Classes until she found a way to fix class seed creation or boosted her ability to convert one form of mana into another.


    The amount of mana that had built up inside of her body was tiny, so it wouldnt have much of an effect on her. But it definitely sounded an alarm bell in Alices mind, letting her know that she needed to be careful in the future, and to make sure other people also knew what to avoid. She told Ethan about her discovery later so that he could handle disseminating the information, and Ethan had promised not to make her do paperwork until the System was fixed or class seeds had been repaired.


    On their final day in Cyra, Illa hosted a small banquet to celebrate everyones accomplishments during their time in Cyra. Alice was also pretty sure Illa wanted to cement the fact that she was on speaking terms with an Immortal, and make sure that everyone in town knew it. But since Illas reputation was now also a critical part of the supply chain for resources Alice and Illvaria as a whole needed, Alice simply accepted it as a useful step forward.


    Alice saw a few of the Mages who she had previously met during the expedition to the broken mana zone expedition show up to the banquet. She hadnt seen most of them in months, ever since she had left from Cyra, and she also hadnt thought about them very much. Her relationship with most of the Mages who attended the banquet could be described as work colleagues, at absolute best. She didnt know them very well. Apart from that, Milo and Father Friedheim were also in attendance, who Alice intended to spend most of the banquet with.


    Alices {Etiquette} skill got a bit of a workout during the first half of the banquet, as she greeted and interacted with the Mages she was more familiar with and got to know a few of the newer faces in town. However, most of the Mages seemed more focused on Ethan than Alice herself which suited Alice just fine. Most of the Mages present still made an effort to introduce themselves to her, but after that, they flocked towards Ethan, letting Alice hang out with Milo and Father Friedheim instead of trying to talk to people she barely knew.


    By the end of the meeting, Alice had still leveled [Courtier] and {Etiquette}, much to her own surprise. She had expected [Courtier] to sit at level 1 for a very, very long time, considering how much she disliked parties and socializing with [Nobles].


    You have leveled up!


    Courtier: 1 -> 2


    Through training, you have increased a skill!


    Etiquette: 21 -> 22


    Afterwards, the group departed from Cyra in the same boat they had come in.


    The boat sailed unimpeded up the river for two days, while Alice and Cecilia got to work teaching the [Enchanters] as much as they could about the System-related magic seeds they wanted to popularize. Another Mage successfully formed a Display mana seed, meaning that it would be easier to start mass-producing the Status-Screen viewing rings once they arrived back in Metsel. The Mages were having a harder time grasping filtration mana, but Alice felt optimistic about one of the next few Mages being able to form a filtration magic seed. As long as even one of the [Enchanters] had a filtration magic seed, it would make her workload considerably easier in the future.


    On the third day of the journey back towards Metsel, however, the boat slowed to a halt, because Ethan had spotted something that made the usually confident Immortal freeze.


    Alice, he said. Things are urgent. I think the Society, or the Sigmusi Colonia, has sent multiple near-Immortals to kidnap or kill you. Theyre close to the boat.

 Chapter 153

    Chapter 153


    When Alice heard that Immortals or near-Immortals from the Society had possibly come for her, she felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water on her.


    The Society had already attacked her last month, when they had thrown several agents at Ethans manor. However, Alice had hoped that the Society would back off after that. They had stolen several notes from various researchers in Illvaria, and if they acted again, it would only make it easier for the Illvarian government to track the Society down and purge them from the country. Taking overt action would only increase the risks for the Society as a whole.


    However, the Society clearly disagreed with Alices hopes for a more peaceful time. It only took Alice a few seconds to figure out why.


    Alices actions in the last month had been very eye-catching. She had found a way to control the collapse of the System through enchantments, identified several of the root problems people were facing after the collapse of the System, had used the Church of the System to spread that information, and with the help of the church, had even set up willpower training programs to help people stave off the effects of the collapse of the System.


    None of these actions had been private, so tracing everything back to Alice wouldnt be very difficult. There simply wasnt enough time to fully disguise her actions, with every second potentially costing peoples lives or sanity. The Society had obviously figured out that Alice knew a lot more about the current crisis than they did.


    But she hadnt expected the Society to throw caution to the wind and launch an attack of this magnitude against her. Even if it was increasingly obvious to the world that Alices research was very important, Alice was also protected by an Immortal, and thanks to the training Ethan insisted she undergo, Alice wasnt a slouch in combat either, even if she wasnt spectacular.


    Instead, the Society had invested near-Immortals into this attack.


    Her heart thudded in her chest like it wanted to leap out of her body, and her palms felt cold and sweaty.


    How many people do you think have come? Are there only Immortals and near-Immortals coming for me, or are there regular people too? asked Alice, hoping that Ethan could dispel some of her mounting nerves.


    Thirty people or so, said Ethan. Two near Immortals, I think. At this range, my perception Perks are a little bit iffy, but I think there are two. I dont think either of them are full Immortals theyre probably right on the cusp of Immortality, but they havent taken that final step yet, said Ethan.


    Alices heart started beating even more furiously. Two near-Immortal level enemies.


    Can you fight them? asked Alice.


    I should be able to, at least in theory, said Ethan, although he sounded less certain than usual. If they dont have a build specialized in countering mine, I can definitely fight off two near-Immortals as long as I have some time. But the other people that came with them will definitely be pressuring the [Guards] during that time and if they have specialized builds, it might be much harder. Its hard to say with certainty what might happen on a battlefield, said Ethan.


    Alice gritted her teeth, scanning over every single Perk she could find in her status screen that might be useful in a fight.


    {Adrenaline Rush}. {Enhanced Senses}. {Extended Tissues}. {Combat Seed}, which Alice hadnt needed to make use of outside of training sessions for a while. {No Mana}. {Reflection}. And various sight and senses-related Perks from [Kinetic Manabinder] that let her track objects moving near her, and {Enchanters Armory} to enhance her enchanted items.


    It seemed like a lot of Perks. Alice had accumulated a wide variety of useful abilities since coming to this world, and had also acquired quite a few levels in [Survivor] and [Kinetic Manabinder] to make sure she could defend herself in exactly this kind of situation.


    However, it also seemed pitifully inadequate when potentially facing a near-immortal.


    When fighting alongside Ethan, Alice had seen Ethan use forty magic tendrils comfortably. With a few of his temporary buff abilities, he could increase that number by one hundred mana tendrils, for a total of one hundred and forty.


    Alice had a measly seven mana tendrils. While under the effects of {Adrenaline Rush}, she could make those seven mana tendrils as good as a few dozen from a normal mage- but there was a very, very obvious upper limit to what she could do. Ethan had rather easily crushed her in every single training session the two of them had had. If a near-immortal was only half as strong as Ethan, Alice would still be utterly dominated during a fight, and would find it hard to keep herself safe. And in higher level combat, Alice was still very dependent on Perks like {Adrenaline Rush} to level the playing field and those Perks wore off rather quickly.


    How many soldiers are with us? she asked.


    About 50 [Guards], including your [Hidden Guard]. Cecilias five Mages, although theyre more geared towards enchanting than actual fighting, and if they die it would be a huge loss to Illvaria right now. We might still need them to join us, though, said Ethan, wincing. We need every bit of help we can get. There are also twenty combat Mages on our side. Ethan frowned. At least in theory, we might have a slight advantage in strength. I dont know if they have some sort of trump card to even the fight though, and our advantage isnt that spectacular.


    How long do we have until they reach us?


    Ethan laughed bitterly. Maybe ten minutes? Not that long.


    Alice resisted the urge to curse. She started digging her enchanted items out of her storage Perk, making sure they were as easy to use as humanly possible. Opening her storage Perk and pulling things out usually wasnt very hard, but in a dangerous and difficult fight even that might be the difference between surviving and dying here today.


    She hadnt felt this scared in a long time. The attack on Ethans manor had felt frightening, but at the same time, Alice had known that Ethan would probably be able to control the situation if enough time passed. The attack on the Society base hadnt felt very dangerous to Alice at all although she knew that it was a dangerous conflict, Ethan had been there to keep her from dying the whole time.


    If not all of them are Mages, they might have hired mercenaries, said Ethan, as he strode onto the deck of the ship with the other [Guards] he had assembled. Then, Ethan stared more closely at the Society Mages that had come for her.


    The non-mages who came with the Society have a certain level of organization that I would expect from the military. They dont look like [Mercenaries]. I wonder who is helping the Society out Ethan trailed off as his frown grew deeper. Its probably the Sigmusi. I cant think of anyone else who would willingly work with the Society, except for a country that has equally disgusting practices.


    Ethan turned towards the [Guards] who had been assembled on the deck of the ship, as well as the Mages who were now assembling themselves behind the [Guards].


    All right, I want the [Kinetic Mages] to start spacing themselves out between the [Guards] to act as walls against missiles. We need to handle a few barrages of missiles. I plan to clear out the trees theyre using for cover, to make things a bit easier. Also ah, theyre attacking, said Ethan.


    All forty of his mana tendrils suddenly sprang out of his body, before a large number of small rocks appeared in front of him.


    Every single one of the rocks was enchanted. Alice blinked in surprise as she realized that every single enchantment had five enchantment instructions layered into them. For a consumable missile to have five enchantments in it was a completely absurd display of wealth five-instruction enchanting materials were already in the upper grade of enchanting materials. To use them as consumables was just extravagant.


    Ethan didnt seem to care at all. He launched the first wave of rocks towards the Society and the Sigmusi, ripping apart trees and shattering several missiles that had been heading towards the Illvarian troops.


    Dont engage yet, unless you have good Perks for long-range attacks, said Ethan, his previously concerned tone starting to evaporate. Instead of concern, his voice started to take on a different quality.


    Icy determination.


    Alice saw that Ethan hadnt cleared out every missile that was heading towards the Illvarians. She spotted a few arrows, filled with rainbow mana as they flew towards the boat. The Illvarian [Kinetic Mages] responded when the missiles grew close enough, and blocked the wave of arrows with their mana tendrils but a few of the arrows suddenly slipped out of the way, before continuing onwards. Two Illlvarian [Guards] died as arrows sank into their brains.


    Ethan grimaced, but Alice also noticed a lot of the trees that the Society had been using for cover had been destroyed by Ethans rocks.


    Shots are much clearer now. Shoot, said Ethan.


    Then, the Illvarian [Guards] who had bows and useful Perks immediately started releasing arrows at the enemy. Many of them were deflected by the Societys magic tendrils but Alice heard a distant scream, and one of the distant blobs of rainbow mana fizzled out of existence.


    Then, some of the distant patches of rainbow mana flickered, and Alice saw four different patches of dimensional mana start to fizzle into existence on the boat.


    Alice and the other Illvarian mages started hurriedly purifying the dimensional broken mana, and at the same time, Alice used her own dimensional seed to desperately try to plug up the portals that had just been opened. She had never tried closing a portal before but luckily, it seemed to work.


    At least, until she ran out of mana, only a few seconds later. Her dimensional seed just wasnt efficient enough or big enough to handle closing down four portals at once and then keeping them closed.


    A few knives and arrows shot out of the portals, but Alice had bought the Illvarians enough time to respond. Several [Archers] shot right back at the Society Mages who were attacking through the portals, and Alice joined in by spraying several of her consumable bracelet beads into the portals. She wasnt sure how successful her attack was, but a few moments later, the Society Mages closed the portals they had opened.


    Meanwhile, on the other side of the boat, the waves of missiles and arrows continued to fly back and forth between the Illvarians and the Society. Ethan and the two Immortals seemed locked into a desperate game of pong, except that there were hundreds of balls flying around every second, and every failure meant a soldier or Mage died.


    Meanwhile, the Society attackers started to creep closer to the Illvarian boat, using the few remaining trees for cover. Alice distinctly noticed that the [Archers] and non-Mages of the Society were actually covered by their [Kinetic Mages] this time. Clearly, the Society attack wasnt an uncoordinated mess, unlike the time they had attacked a Society base.


    A few moments later, Alice identified two people who had incredibly dense mana in their body step forward. One of them had a kinetic and a dimensional magic seed, while the other was a pure [Organic Mage]. Alice frowned.


    The two people attacking them werent Immortals, but they were very close. Alice could only see a little bit of non-mana flesh left on their body. It wouldnt be surprising if they became fully fledged Immortals in a decade or two, even if they didnt work particularly hard.


    The first near-Immortal was already locked into a projectile battle with Ethan, and was just barely managing to hold off the Illvarian Immortals storm of dangerous missiles and enchanted objects. Meanwhile, the Society [Organic Mage] seemed far more reluctant to engage, and was instead looking for an opportunity.


    Alice aimed another bracelet of enchanted beads, and prepared to start peppering the Society lines with her own missiles, when she froze.


    Just out of sight, Alice could see a new person appear. And unlike the two near-Immortals that were attacking the boat already, this person looked just like Ethan. They were a walking cloud of solidified mana. They werent a Mage, but that didnt console Alice very much at this point.


    The Society hadnt just brought two near-immortals to attack her.


    They had brought two near-Immortals and an actual Immortal.

 Chapter 154

    Chapter 154


    Ethan, hissed Alice, as her heart hammered against her ribs. She had already been nervous when two near-Immortals had come: now that she knew there was an actual Immortal creeping around the battlefield, she felt like she was suffocating from fear. There is an actual Immortal among the Society attackers. There are two near-Immortals and an actual Immortal.


    Ethan scanned the area and frowned. Are you sure? he asked, as he deflected another wave of missiles from the first near-Immortal.


    I can see the rainbow mana contained inside their body, even though I cant actually see them, said Alice. They have some sort of stealth-related Perk, although it only blocks my physical vision of them and doesnt cause me to overlook them. But with the amount of rainbow mana in their body, they must be an Immortal.


    Ethans frown grew deeper. A stealth based Immortal. I only recall the Society having one Immortal, and that one definitely isnt focused on Stealth. Either the Society recently had another person ascend to Immortality, one that I know absolutely nothing about, or Ethan trailed off, before he snorted. It should be Emilia, if my earlier assumption was correct and the Sigmusi are helping with this attack. Emilia is one of the Sigmusi Colonias eight Immortals. Shes an [Assassin] and [Blade Dancer] who used to be part of the Sigmusi Colonias internal slave hunting team. She also has rather strange Perks, from what I know they arent necessarily optimized for her role as an [Assassin], and her Perks are instead optimized to counter all of my fathers known Perks. Ethan grimaced. This is going to be difficult. Alice felt her heart beating even faster. If even Ethan was starting to feel the strain of keeping Alice safe, the situation must be truly dire.


    So you can track Emilia? asked Ethan, after a split second of silence.


    Alice nodded.


    Keep an eye on her, and let me know when she gets within about thirty meters of the boat. Shes mostly a melee fighter, so I dont have to worry about throwing weapons or magic. But keeping her off of me will be important, said Ethan. Have you noticed anything else odd about the battlefield with your vision-related Perks and boosts?


    Alice examined the battlefield, trying to look out for any oddities and to get an idea about the general battle situation. Of the original 50 Illvarian [Guards] and 20 combat Mages, along with Cecilia and her five [Enchanters], perhaps 45 [Guards], all of the [Enchanters], and 17 Mages were still alive and in good condition. Cecilia and her five [Enchanters] were huddled near the back of the battle to keep them safe, although they were still hurling enchanted items into the battlefield from the back lines.


    Of the 30 regular attackers, perhaps 10 had died already. Ethan was keeping the two near-Immortals distracted, just as he had said he would be able to, and at least for now, the situation seemed to favor Illvaria, despite their lack of bows. But once Emilia attacked, the entire situation could collapse in an instant. Ethan keeping the two enemy near-Immortals busy was the only reason this battle was going well, and the Illvarian side suffered from a major deficit in high-level combatants right now.


    Alice didnt see any other hidden Immortals or other problems. The Immortal sneaking around clearly had some kind of enchanted equipment on, but that was to be expected of an Immortal ambushing another Immortal.


    I dont see any other abnormalities, said Alice. Emilia seems to be wearing armor and daggers with System enchantments attached to them, but I dont know what they do.


    Thats probably her standard armor set. Mostly stat boosts for her Dexterity and Strength, as well as a few stealth-boosting Perks. With an Immortal and two near Immortals, they must have felt that this setup would be enough to beat me and kidnap or kill you, so they might not have prepared any special trump cards beyond that. Keep an eye out and let me know if you spot anything unusual. Your vision and perception related Perks are better than mine, so what you can contribute to this battle is your insight and your eyes. But help out where you can the portals are easier to manage with your help.


    Alice nodded.


    Another portal ripped its way open in the middle of the boat a few moments later, and Alice immediately clamped down on it and started trying to dissolve the portal with her dimensional mana, while simultaneously cleaning up all of the broken mana that it spewed out. Before she could finish closing it, an arrow ripped through the portal and cut into a [Guards] brain. The [Guard] fell over, dead on the spot.


    Alice fell silent in shock as the [Guards] blood sprayed onto her face. She simply stared at the [Guard], hoping that the passive healing effect of {Extended Tissues} would somehow keep the [Guard] alive, but Alice could tell that nothing was happening.


    There was nothing left to heal anymore.


    Some part of Alices brain numbly processed the portal that had opened in front of her finally snapping shut, but the warm blood on her face was too distracting for her to focus entirely on the battlefield around her.


    Ethan cursed again, even as his mana tendrils continued to desperately deflect waves of arrows and missiles. Alice, try to take out the dimensional Mages. There are too many things to keep track of at once. We need to lower the number of variables on their side. I have an idea that might get us out of this, but the dimensional Mages could mess it up. Portals could prove to be troublesome, and I need to get rid of at least one of the three powerful combatants before they finish positioning themselves. There was a determined light in Ethans eyes, and he looked grim and focused in a way Alice had never seen before.


    Alice felt a moment of hesitation. Was she really able to take down an unknown number of [Dimensional Mages] hidden among the attackers?


    Then, Alice looked at the corpse of the dead [Guard] again.


    She didnt want to die like that. Now wasnt the time to hesitate. She needed to get things done, or she and the people she cared about would face miserable ends. She had seen death before. She hadnt died in all of her time in this world.


    She wasnt going to die this time, either.


    Ill handle it, said Alice, surprised by the determination and confidence in her own voice when she said that.


    She started scanning the attackers, looking for the telltale hint of purple mana unique to [Dimensional Mages]. It was still hard to pick out, but as the enemy grew closer, Alice was able to see things more and more clearly, despite the darkness and the constant movement of people on the battlefield.


    Another portal on the boat opened near one of the other Illvarian Mages. This time, Alice did her best to ignore it. She needed to trust that the other Mages and [Guards] could handle some problems on their own, even though she had just seen a [Guard] die.


    Instead, she focused her vision on the night, hoping to catch a glimpse of the broken dimensional mana that would leak out of both ends of a portal after it was established.


    She caught a small flicker of purple out of the corner of her eye. It was only there for an instant before it disappeared, but it was enough. She whirled towards the source of the purple mana.


    There, she saw a mage with a purple magic seed in his mage core hiding behind a tree. Standing right next to him was a pair of people who Alice assumed were [Archers]. They were all hidden behind cover, making it hard for the Illvarian [Guards] and Mages to counterattack them.


    She had found her first target. After a few moments, Alice smiled grimly.


    She probably wouldnt have normally thought of the idea, but since the Society Mages were already doing it perhaps she could take some inspiration from them.


    Alice had only used dimensional mana to open a portal once before, and only in very controlled lab conditions. But since the Society Mages were tossing projectiles through portals, Alice could do the same.


    She reached for her dimensional mana, and then quietly popped open a portal right next to the Society Mage.


    The Mage and the two [Archers] froze in shock.


    Alice immediately layered a small amount of No_Magic mana onto all of the beads in her bracelets and fired the beads through the portal.


    Every single bracelet took one mana tendril to activate, and had 20 beads on it. Alice had 7 tendrils. Each bead on the bracelet had three enchantments stacked on them: they would fly on their own with little input from Alice, they would actively resist other people trying to manipulate them using magic, and they would create wounds that were hard to heal once they hit their victim. The No_Magic mana Alice had layered onto the beads would make it even harder for them to be manipulated by external mana sources, and {Enchanters Armory} would boost the effects of Alices enchantments even further.


    Alice nodded and dashed towards Cecilia, trying to make it before the Immortal attacker did.


    The blob of hidden rainbow mana continued making its way towards the back of the boat, looking as if it were speeding up.


    Alice looked at Emilia with fear. No matter what she had prepared, no matter how much she had trained, Alice knew she wasnt ready to fight an Immortal yet. And there werent enough [Guards] on the boat to exhaust an Immortal to death in a fight. Immortals might not be invincible on larger battlefields, since they only had so many Perk uses and Mana before they got exhausted but in a small scale battle like this, Immortals controlled most of the outcome of a fight. She just had to hope that Ethan fought off the Society Mages fast enough to handle Emilia.


    Cecilia, come with me to the front! said Alice as she got closer to Cecilia. Bring the [Enchanters] with you.


    The [Enchanters], as well as Cecilia, looked a bit baffled as they heard Alice, but grudgingly nodded and started moving closer to Ethan.


    There might be a few hidden enemies at the back of the boat, whispered Alice to Cecilia. Ethan wants you close by, just in case.


    Got it, said Cecilia, looking slightly less confused now. Within moments, the group had reached Ethans side, where things would hopefully be safer. Alice took another moment to look at the battlefield again.


    The [Organic Mage] still wasnt dead, somehow. Ethan had managed to embed three different consumable enchantments into the mans skull, and Alice could see rainbow mana coursing through the enchantments as they tried to rip the man apart. Somehow, his own Perks were keeping him alive, but he didnt look like he would last much longer. Even if Ethan did nothing, Alice wasnt sure if the man would live anymore.


    The [Kinetic Mage] was still desperately trying to keep his companion safe, and he and Ethan had both clearly used some sort of temporary Perk to boost their combat ability. Ethan was wielding 140 different magic tendrils and firing a storm of items at the enemy, and the opposing [Kinetic Mage] had created a wall of crackling rainbow mana that was deflecting objects that Ethan threw, almost like a magic wall. Alice wondered what Perk the man was using. She wanted it for herself.


    Alice took in the spectacle of an Immortal and two near-Immortals fighting for a moment, before she saw a bolt of lightning rip through the darkness and towards her.


    She blinked in surprise, and tried to deflect it using one of her magic tendrils only to discover that lightning was not a physical object, and her magic tendrils could not interact with it at all. The magic-based lightning didnt even seem to have kinetic energy inside of it.


    She started to feel shock and panic worm its way into her heart, and she felt {Adrenaline Rush} on the verge of activating. But before the Perk could turn itself on, Ethan flung a rod of enchanted metal right in front of the lightning bolt. The lightning bolt was completely absorbed by the enchanted metal rod, before it started glowing a mixture of rainbow mana and regular bright light.


    Ethan caught the metal rod with another magic tendril, before he flung it right at the rainbow wall. The metal rod exploded like a bomb a moment later, unleashing metal fragments and electricity into its surroundings. The rainbow wall didnt even budge as the explosion crashed into it, and Alice and Cecilia ducked below the ships railing as metal fragments zipped through the air. Alice caught a few of the ones that flew over her head before they could kill nearby [Guards] and mages.


    Fuck, muttered Ethan. I was hoping that would take out the second one.


    Alice turned around to check on Emilia, and saw that the rainbow-colored patch of mana was getting closer and closer to the boat.


    Emilia is about to board the boat, said Alice, after a few moments.


    Ethan gave the injured near-Immortal look of frustration and disgust, before he whipped another round of consumable enchantments out of his storage Perk and fired them at the man.


    The [Kinetic Mage] tried to lift up his friend and pull him away from the line of fire, apparently having given up on deflecting everything with his wall, but the enchanted items started tracking the [Organic Mage], almost like heat-seeking missiles.


    The [Kinetic Mage] near-Immortal seemed terrified as he created another shimmering wall of rainbow mana, and all of Ethans consumable enchantments were deflected by it.


    That Perk is such a huge pain, said Ethan, as he grimaced.


    Alice, seeing an opportunity, empowered a round of beads with anti-magic again, and then fired them towards the shimmering rainbow wall.


    The rainbow wall cracked a little under Alices attack, and then parts of it collapsed. It didnt completely shatter, the way the portal earlier had but it looked kind of like several vats of acid had been poured onto the rainbow wall. It now resembled Swiss cheese instead of a proper wall.


    Damaged it, said Alice, as she let loose with another spray of enchanted items. She was almost out of bracelets, so she hoped Ethan closed out the fight soon.


    Before Alice could even get her hopes up, the Near-Immortals wall repaired itself.


    Nevermind, I accomplished nothing, said Alice, feeling more than slightly frustrated as she watched the Perk-created wall rebuild itself in real time. The wall of pure magic was starting to feel incredibly frustrating to fight against.


    I dont have time for this, said Ethan. He whirled back towards the injured Society [Organic Mage] one last time, and then for a moment, Alice felt a crackle of energy stir in her surroundings.


    Rainbow mana exploded out of Ethans body like a thick fog, reaching towards absolutely everything in their surroundings. Trees, pieces of metal for a moment, Alice felt like every physical object within a hundred meters was under Ethans control.


    Then, like an enraged nest of hornets, almost every physical object in Ethans surroundings flung itself towards the injured [Organic Mage] and his [Kinetic Mage] protector. A storm of wood, bones, and metal closed in on the man from a massive variety of angles.


    The Society [Kinetic Mage] desperately tried to fend off the wave of items with another rainbow wall, but Ethans attack just came from too many directions at once. The [Kinetic Mage]s shield missed nearly a third of the projectiles.


    A second shield of rainbow mana sprung up around the [Kinetic Mage], keeping him safe.


    The [Organic Mage], however, was not protected well enough anymore. His brain, heart, and most of his limbs suddenly turned into mush as dozens of items ripped through him, finally killing the resilient Mage once and for all.


    And in the time Alice and Ethan were distracted finishing off the [Organic Mage], Emilia leapt over the railing of the boat. Alice still couldnt see the womans face, since her stealth-perk was still on but she and Ethan had spent a few seconds too long handling the [Organic Mage] while trying to conserve Perks.


    Alices heart clenched.


    One of the three major threats the Society had sent their way was finally dead.


    And the most dangerous threat was now on the boat.

 Chapter 155

    Chapter 155


    Alice felt her heartbeat accelerate again as she stared at the rainbow colored blob of mana that stood upon the ship.


    Emilia.


    The woman who had come to kidnap or kill her, and hurt the people she cared about.


    Alice felt the knot in her stomach tighten as she thought of the fact an Immortal had come for her.


    And not just an Immortal.


    She glanced at the rest of the battlefield again, hoping against hope that the near-Immortal had somehow dropped dead, just like his companion that Ethan had turned into mush.


    To Alices despair, the [Kinetic Mage] was still fine. He was in shock, and his friend was dead, but he was nowhere near removed from the fight.


    Perhaps half of the ordinary attackers had dropped, while most of the Illvarian [Guards] were still alive. But an Immortal and near Immortal were still prepared to fight against Ethan, Alice, and the remaining Illvarian [Guards]. And those were terrible odds.


    As Alice felt the anxiety grip her thoughts more and more tightly, the rainbow colored mana was on the other side of the boat started to move again. With the crushing inevitability of a meteor falling to the earth, the rainbow-colored blob of mana rushed towards Alice at a speed that beggared the imagination.


    Emilia wasnt prioritizing stealth anymore.


    Alice felt her heart leap into her throat but at the same time, a flash of steely determination settled into her heart.


    If she wanted to keep her freedom, and keep her friends safe, she needed to do something. Ethan still couldnt see Emilia and that problem fundamentally negated a lot of his advantages in this fight. Ethans greatest strength was his magic, but if he couldnt see the target, fighting would be hard.


    Alices mind spun with anxiety as she searched for a solution. After a moment, a desperate idea emerged from her thoughts.


    Alice pushed her magic tendrils towards Emilia, and felt her magic tendrils strain as they exited the area immediately around her body. There were probably thirty meters left between her and the hostile Immortal, and Alices magic tendrils could only reach five feet away from her if she strained herself.


    Alices eyes widened in a moment of realization, and she opened up a small portal right in front of her. The portal was only the size of her arm it didnt need to be big for her purposes. The other end of the portal opened up a few meters in front of Emilia. Alice hoped that her idea work.


    Alice focused on {Extended Organics}, the Perk that let her treat any nearby air as part of her body for the purpose of forming magic tendrils or resisting external magic.


    And then, she focused on other side of the portal, and hoped that still counted as nearby for the Perk.


    She felt one of her magic tendrils easily form on the other side of the portal, and grinned.


    It worked. Alice could extend the range of her magic tendrils in basically any direction if she had enough mana.


    She could feel the portal she had opened straining a bit, as it tried to make sense of what Alice was doing. But even though the portal was straining and eating far more mana than usual, it was still hundreds of times more efficient than just extending a magic tendril dozens of meters away.


    Alice only realized it now, but dimensional mana opened up a whole new layer of efficiency in combat. A dimension of combat abilities that she had never explored until now, because she had never had a reason to think about it until now. Most Mages could only influence objects directly next to them in a fight, and interacting with objects too far away was impossible without a highly specialized build. Portals and {Extended Organics} could totally change that dynamic, if she got creative with it.


    And right now, Alice desperately needed to get creative with her magic.


    Alice immediately formed a magic tendril a mere millimeter away from the rainbow blob of mana, and stuck a bracelet at the end of it. If she could send a wave of magic beads through Emilias brain, she could end the fight before it started.


    Alice activated the bracelet. The beads tore through the air, whistling towards Emilias brain.


    And Emilia easily dodged out of the way, so fluidly that Alice wondered if she had somehow mistaken where Emilia was standing. She had missed, and Emilia knew Alice could track her now.


    Emilia continued sprinting towards Alice, although the woman started dodging and weaving as she approached, making hitting her even harder.


    Alice watched the distance between the two of them shrink rapidly.


    Alices snapped her portal shut, and immediately opened another one, right in front of Emilia. The other end of the portal was right in the middle of the woods, well away from the boat. If Alice could teleport Emilia away, she and Ethan would have more time to finish tidying up the rest of the battlefield. With Emilia this close, Alice was starting to panic, and she wanted the threat gone.


    Emilia barreled right through the portal. For a brief moment, Emilia slowed down, almost as if she had run into a lake of quicksand. And then, the portal collapsed like a house of cards, and Emilia continued on, nearly unhindered by Alices desperate attempt to remove Emilia from the boat.


    Ethan! yelled Alice, hoping that Ethan would figure out where Emilia was and help her. She also started desperately tossing out the beads from her other bracelet, quickly emptying most of her storage Perk as she threw absolutely everything she had at Emilia.


    Ethan still seemed confused about Emilias exact location, but since Alice kept firing objects at a certain area, Ethan seemed to realize Emilia was somewhere in the mess. However, even though Ethan joined Alices attacks, he somehow seemed to keep missing the patch of air Emilia was in it was almost like he couldnt perceive it.


    Alice finally realized what was wrong with Ethans perception. While Alice didnt know exactly how Emilias Perk worked, it seemed almost like it was targeting Ethans vision and messing with his eyesight. Perhaps the invisibility was just a minor effect, and its ability to screw with a targets perception was its main focus.


    Alice needed to get Emilias Perk deactivated somehow.


    In a burst of creativity, Alice opened another portal, right on top of Emilia, and then immediately materialized a small mana tendril right in front of the woman.


    Then, Alice dumped a huge amount of No_Mana into the region. She kept some in reserve, but she spent over half of it all in one big burst.


    The moment Emilia stepped into the area, it was as if Ethan finally noticed the spot Alice kept trying to attack. In a flash, dozens of enchanted items flew towards the area, cutting of almost any path of retreat Emilia could take. Ethan had also realized Emilia was messing with his eyesight, and he was determined to kill her before Alices last strands of No_Magic mana ran out.


    Arrows made of crystal and enchanted with things Alice didnt understand flew through the air, along with other, stranger things. Glass vials filled with orange liquid. Giant crystals. Monster cores. The collection of things Ethan had thrown at Emilia looked bizarre, to say the least. Almost like giant pile of debris, all enchanted heavily enough to bankrupt a barony.


    The womans eyes widened in surprise, right as a storm of fire and electricity ripped into her body.


    And then, the dagger flashed rainbow, and the woman appeared right where the dagger had been. Her skin smelled slightly burnt, and some of her armor had been turned into charcoal. But the woman was very much alive and well.


    Somehow, she had swapped places with her dagger.


    Annoying bitch, arent you? she said, glaring at Alice.


    Ethan snorted. He didnt say a word as organic mana started to course through his body. A moment later, Ethan started moving nearly as fast as the woman. He flung himself towards her, his body blurring as his muscles reached even further into the superhuman realm. Emilia smiled at Ethan, and her body flickered with rainbow mana again .She took one perfect step, like a dancer in a ballroom, and somehow, she was right in front of Alice, while Ethan missed the woman completely.


    Emilia smiled at Alice, and swung her fist directly towards Alices eyes.


    Alice felt {Enhanced Senses} activate on top of {Adrenaline Rush}, and all of the people who had been moving in fast forward finally slowed down enough for her to see her own impending death or serious injury. Emilias fist approached her face.


    Alice desperately tried to figure out a way out of this mess, as her thinking tore through every single avenue of escape or fighting she could think of.


    She couldnt move her body anywhere near fast enough to escape.


    She couldnt fling herself away using her kinetic magic.


    None of her Perks would let her dodge Emilia. The woman was so much faster than Alice that it would be like trying to outrun a plane.


    She didnt have enough dimensional mana left to teleport herself away.


    As Alice started to despair, a portal ripped itself open in midair, and Ethan sprung up right in front of Alice again. Emilias eyes widened and then she grinned. Her body flickered again, and suddenly there were a pair of daggers in Ethans chest.


    And then her grin turned into an expression of shock, as Ethan completely ignored the daggers in his chest and gave Emilia a bone-crushing hug. Organic Mana swarmed towards the two daggers planted into his intestines, and Alice could see that the organic mana there was fighting with something. It was almost like Emilias daggers has some sort of incredibly virulent magic poison inside of them but Ethans organic mana was more than capable of fighting it off.


    Ethan started to squeeze, and Emilia desperately whipped another dagger out of her storage and tried to stab Ethan with it. But she didnt have very good leverage anymore, and Emilia was struggling to find a good angle to stab Ethan.


    Then, Alice became aware a great deal of motion in her surroundings. She looked back at Society Mages who had been creeping towards the boat, and saw a virtual tempest of items soaring through the air towards her and Ethan.


    The near-Immortal [Kinetic Mage] was finally back on the battlefield, and was buying time for Emilia to free herself. Alice felt the urge to scream, either in fear or frustration, well up in her mind.


    Right as it looked like things were turning in their favor, the society Mage had finally rejoined the fight. She looked at Ethan and Emilia, who were still struggling to get rid of the other, and then gritted her teeth as she turned towards the storm of items flying towards them.


    She needed to buy Ethan some time again.


    Right as {Adrenaline Rush} was about to end, she saw an opportunity.


    A pair of vials that were packed to the brim with enchantments flew towards the fight.


    Alice still had two more uses left of {Reflect}, and the vials liked kind of similar to the acid Ethan had thrown into the fight earlier.


    Alice hit both of the heavily enchanted vials of liquid with {Reflect} and then immediately activated {Combat Seed}, to ensure the daggers would shred other mana they came in contact with. It wasnt quite as effective as No_Magic mana, but it would have to be good enough. Alice just hoped that whatever enchantments were attached to the daggers, they were potent enough to work.


    Then, Alice used {Extended Organics} and used the last dribbles of {Adrenaline Rush} and {Enhanced Senses} to fend off as much of the wave of attacks from the near-Immortal as she could manage. She didnt manage to block anywhere near all of the attacks but she did manage to deflect a lot of them. A moment later, the vials were caught by the near-Immortal and sent right back towards them but Alice had at least fended them off for a while.


    And that bought just enough time.


    Alice heard a wet cracking sound as Emilias spine broke like a twig. A moment later, rainbow mana surged through the area, and Emilias nearly decimated body spun unnaturally in midair, like a ballerina animated by a puppeteer. In a way Alices brain somehow failed to comprehend at all, she slipped out of Ethans grasp and reached the railing of the ship.


    She shot Alice a glare that contained absolutely hatred, as another round of rainbow mana surged through her body and in moments, her shattered spine rebuilt itself. Then, the woman vanished from Alices view, leaving behind only a rainbow-colored patch of air.


    The woman turned around and leapt off the railing. Ethan tried to hit her with several more rounds of projectiles as the woman fled towards the Society Mage that had attacked with her, but Ethan seemed to have a hard time pinpointing the womans exact location again.


    Ethan continued to throw enchanted missiles at Emilia, but he failed to hit her as she fled. The Near-Immortal Society mage, seeming to realize that the plan had failed, started fleeing as well. Ethan turned his attention towards the [Kinetic Mage], but there was just too much distance for Ethan to kill him using only projectiles before the man got away and Ethan seemed reluctant to leave Alices side.


    A few moments later, the two Immortals escaped the battlefield.


    Ethan coughed wetly a few times, before, to Alices shock, he took the Sun Knights old sword back out of his storage Perk, and then behead himself. His old body, no longer supplied with Ethans conscious control of his organic mana, started to succumb to whatever poison had been in Emilias daggers.


    In about four seconds, the poison started to the turn the body of an immortal into a green and black pus-filled abomination, before the body started to break down.


    Meanwhile, a new body sprouted from Ethans head, taking only a few moments to reconstruct itself. Ethan grimaced.


    That was very dangerous, he said. I managed to force her to use her second life, but I was also on my last legs. I had to burn through a lot of my better Perks. And if I hadnt had my second life from my Immortality Achievement active, I dont know if my temporary Perks could have fought off the poison and kept me alive. That stuff was something.


    Is there any chance we can pursue them? asked Alice.


    Ethan sighed, and seemed to think about it for a moment. Normally, I might have tried. But both Emilia and I were forced to use our second lives, and Im honestly not sure who would kill who if I chased them down. Its not worth the risk right now. She fled because shes unwilling to risk her life on this endeavor and similarly, Im not willing to truly risk my life and your safety to hunt her down. Ethan grinned, although it turned into a grimace as he looked at his own body. I wish I had a few more levels on her, so that I could have killed her, along with the near-Immortal from the Society.


    Alice sighed, but nodded. Letting Emilia go after she had nearly kidnapped or killed her felt bad. But Alice wasnt nave enough to think that Ethan was invincible. This fight had been incredibly dangerous. Ethan had barely squeaked out a narrow victory with her help. She had no idea if they could do it again while pursuing Emilia and the other Near Immortal into the woods, especially if they were fleeing towards any allies of the two. It was best to take this victory for what it was Alice was still alive and un-kidnapped, Ethan was safe, and Cecilia was also still alive.


    They had won.

 Chapter 156

    Chapter 156


    After the battle finished, Alice took one look at the people who were still alive on the boat, and grimaced to herself.


    Less people had survived than she had thought.


    Maybe a third of the [Guards] and Mages who were combat oriented had died, and as well as one of Cecilias [Enchanters]. Luckily, it wasnt one of the ones that had gained a new magic seed, but it was still a painful loss.


    Alice felt very guilty about it, but she was glad that the person who had died wasnt Cecilia. That isnt to say that she didnt mourn the man who had died. But she was also glad that it was someone whose name she barely knew, rather than Cecilia, her best friend in this world. Alice wasnt sure if feeling glad about that fact made her a bad person or not.


    After that, Alice decided to do what little healing she could with her organic mana. She wasnt an experienced enough healer to heal large wounds, but with a mix of the passive healing aura from {Extended Tissues} and Alices ability to repair simple wounds, she was able to help stabilize some of the wounded [Guards] and keep any more people from dying at least until other, more experienced Mages, such as Ethan, got around to healing them.


    Once the injured were taken care of, Alice took one look at the mana built up around her Class seeds, looked at all of the various System notifications she had gotten during the battle, and firmly decided that it could all wait until tomorrow.


    With that, Alice returned to her quarters and passed out. Even {Sleep Reading} didnt manage to rouse her mind as she slept.


    * * *


    The next day, Alice was in a much better mental state, so after purifying all of the mana stuck to her class seeds, Alice finally got around to looking at her System notifications.


    And there were a lot of them.


    The first, and most prominent notification, was an Achievement that Alice felt had very high potential. It was one of the highest tier Achievements Alice had seen so far, nearly rivalling the rarity of {Outworlder}.


    Achievement Acquired!


    Battle with an Immortal (Rarity: 9)


    You have fought against an Immortal and successfully weakened them ___#@$___ dying.


    +50% growth speed Combat_Classes, +20% Effect of Magic, Dexterity, and Endurance Stats


    +200% boost to [Survivor] Class level speed.


    The next time you get a Perk from the [Survivor] Class, you may choose an EXTRA Perk, equal to a level 50 Survivor Perk.


    Alice studied the text of her newest Achievement, and grinned to herself.


    The fight with Emilia and the Society near-Immortals had been terrifying. She had been sure that she would die, or get dragged away, multiple times.


    But at the very least, the Achievement she had gotten after the fight was excellent for helping Alice defend herself against future attacks. The Achievement not only boosted the levelling speed of Alices only combat Class, [Survivor] by 250% total, but it also gave her an extra Perk from the [Survivor] Class.


    Alice definitely wasnt going to complain about getting an extra [Survivor] Perk from her Acheivement. It definitely felt like the Class would be vital to her in the future, if she wanted to be able to fend off future attacks like this one. Alice had seen Ethan get hurt for the first time during the battle, and that sight had convinced Alice that there was never enough preparation. Even Immortals could get hurt or die if they werent prepared.


    Emilia had nearly been killed by Ethan, and only the revival ability most Immortals shared had kept her from actually dying after Ethan had snapped her spine. Similarly, while Alice had thought that Ethan was containing Emilias poison fairly well, Ethan clearly hadnt felt the same way. He had beheaded himself just to get rid of whatever poison enchantment was in Emilias daggers which was an incredibly extreme method of poison removal. Both Emilia and Ethan had been forced to use their extra lives to get out of the fight alive and while Ethan had said that the extra life of most Immortals was often useless, right now Alice was still thinking about just how close the fight had been for both parties.


    If Alice didnt want to get assassinated after she became an Immortal, she would need to be aware of potential dangers that could still threaten her, even after she became an Immortal. Because last night had, once again, shown her that Immortals were far from invincible. Since [Survivor] was her only real combat-ish class, Alice needed to lean into the Class as much as she could and make sure she was prepared for fights like last night in the future.


    Alice checked her Level increases next, since she had just done some pretty major fighting. She was sure that [Survivor] had probably levelled a lot, and she had also gained levels in several other Classes.


    You have leveled up!


    Survivor: 60 -> 68


    Alice blinked in shock when she saw her first level up notification.


    She had gone straight from level 60 to level 68 in ONE FIGHT. Things had seemed pretty desperate in a lot of ways Ethan had gotten badly hurt, Alice had been desperately trying to run interference against someone who wanted to really hurt or kill her, and their side had been pretty badly outmatched in a lot of ways. Ethan had basically relied on his seniority as an Immortal and his hand-me-down sword from the Sun Knight to turn things around, and he had still been forced to use his Immortal regeneration just to escape the aftereffects of the battle.


    But, much like with the Achievement, the rewards for surviving were excellent.


    Alice grinned to herself, before she moved on to her next System notification.


    You have leveled up!


    Explorer of Magic: 79 -> 81


    Alice was a little disappointed that she had only gained 2 levels in [Explorer of Magic] after the ridiculous amount of levels she had gotten in [Survivor]. Still, two levels finally let her take her first post-level 75 Perk which meant two things.


    Most importantly, Alice found it easier than ever to use {Extended Organics} through a portal. Whereas before, Alice would still struggle to balance the mana cost of manipulating items more then twenty or thirty meters away, even with her portals, now she could probably manage sixty or seventy meters. It was a very substantial range increase, as long as Alice learned how to properly make use of it in battle.


    After that, Alice looked at her level 65 [Survivor] Perk.


    She originally thought that she was going to be picking a new Perk after all, she couldnt figure out how to combine any of her Perks into something usable. However, just to be safe, Alice scanned her new Perks, and then also looked at all of the Perk combinations she could make and found something rather surprisingly useful.


    A very long time ago, Alice had taken the Perk {Camouflaged} as a way to try to stave off monster attacks. It had actually proven itself rather useful when Alice had fled the woods and found Cyra. However, after that, the Perk had fallen off in terms of usefulness. Alice simply didnt get much value out of a very minor camouflaging effect that only activated when she stood still, at least not anymore.


    Camouflaged


    Requirements: Survivor level 20 or higher


    While staying still, dramatically increases your ability to blend into the environment, making creatures around you much less likely to notice you. This can be turned off.


    But apparently, the result of combining it with her newest Perk had a rather interesting result.


    Alice only hesitated for a few more moments, before she combined {Camouflaged} and {Dimensional ____ Survival}.


    Dimensional Camouflage


    Perkkkkkkk Co$t: Camouflaged + Dimensional ___ Survivor sacrificed to create this Perk.


    Your ability to use magic tendrils through Portals and command over portals is enhanced drastically. For a small price of mana, you may make portals only work ONE WAY and for an extra mana cost, you may drastically reduce broken mana leakage through the portal.


    Alice grinned to herself after she read the Perk.


    One of the biggest weaknesses the Society Mages who used portals in combat was the potential for return fire. She had seen plenty of Society Mages get killed by an [Archer] firing an arrow into a portal they opened up. Alice had been aware that this might be a problem if she started using Portals in her combat style.


    Now, her Perk had provided her with a way to solve that problem. She had lost the 20% boost to her Dimensional magic seed, dropping it back from 60% to 40% mere moments after she had increased the mana conversion ratio, which stung a bit. But Alice felt that the new Perk was worth the loss. It solved one of the biggest weaknesses of dimensional manipulation very quickly and efficiently.


    Finally finished with her [Survivor] Perks, Alice turned towards her [Kinetic Manabinder] Perks.


    This one wasnt too hard to figure out. Alice wanted to improve her combat abilities, and the best way to do that was to get access to more mana tendrils. One of the Perk options did exactly that, while the others looked more crafting oriented. Alice just wanted raw combat efficiency right now.


    Kinetic Combatant


    Requirements: Kinetic Manabinder level 45 or higher, Magic 100 or greater


    Increase the number _____ Tendrils you can control by 2.


    She almost immediately selected this Perk. With this upgrade, Alices controlled magic tendrils increased from 7 to 9. It wasnt a crazy increase, but it was still a useful improvement in her combat abilities.


    Alices final Perk choice was a fair bit more interesting, because there were two Perk options worth considering.


    Tendri____ of Kinetic.Mage


    Requirements: Kinetic Manabinder level 50 or higher, Kinetic Seed at 120% or more.


    You get 4 more magic tendrils, BUT these tendrils can ONLY be used to control kinetic mana. They may not be used for other types of mana at all.


    Alice found this to be a pretty desirable Perk. Getting 4 more tendrils would increase her magic tendril count from 9 to 13. It wouldnt be a world-shattering increase, but it would certainly be worth a lot in a fight. Ethan had a natural tendril count of 40. If Alice could get to 13, she would essentially be at 1/3rd of Ethans combat prowess before he used limited-use Perks.


    Of course, it looked like Ethan had sunk a LOT of his Perks into limited use Perks. Alice still vividly remembered the massive implosion of light and heat he had used to try to melt Emilia, as well as the Perk that gave him an extra 100 magic tendrils, and the other crazy abilities he had used on the battlefield. But 40 magic tendrils seemed like a huge number to Alice, and if she could get even a third of that, she would feel much safer in a fight.


    The other perk option was similarly useful, but in a different way.


    Burst of Kinetic


    Requirements: Kinetic Manabinder level 50 or higher, Have more than 5 magic tendrils, Magic 150 or greater.


    Once per day, you get a temporary 7 magic tendrils. They last 5 minutes.


    The Perk was simple and to the point, but it was a Perk that Alice would get a lot of use out of in fights. She had 9 magic tendrils right now, and nearly doubling that number for 5 minutes would usually be enough time for a potential fight with an [Assassin] which was exactly what Alice was most afraid of right now.


    Alice thought about the two perks for a few moments, before she opted to take {Tendri___ of Kinetic.Mage}. She felt that she still needed to improve her baseline combat abilities more, before she worried about limited-use Perks. And the restriction of her new magic tendrils only being able to use kinetic mana didnt feel like much of a restriction: Alice could still channel other kinds of mana through her other tendrils, so she just needed to pay attention to which tendril she pumped mana through.


    Then, once she finished selecting her new Perks, she went to go find Ethan and Cecilia. She wanted to talk with Ethan about her first post-75 Perk, and maybe get some advice. And she wanted to check up on Cecilia and see how she was doing after the fight.

 Chapter 157

    Chapter 157


    Alice found Cecilia first. Checking up on her friend came before a potentially long, in-depth discussion of her Perks and future choices. Alice wanted to make sure that Cecilia was all right.


    When she entered Cecilias cabin, Alice had honestly expected that Cecilia would look rattled, afraid, or concerned. Instead, the girl seemed surprisingly fine. Alice couldnt help but remember just how rattled she had been during her first fight during Illas expedition to the broken mana zone, and how she had felt physically ill afterwards.


    Alice was surprised by how much less affected Cecilia seemed.


    Cecilia? asked Alice.


    Cecilia took in Alices appearance, before she smiled at her.


    Alice! Come in! said Cecilia, as she strode over to Alice and gave Alice a very brief hug, before closing the door.


    Sorry I didnt come earlier I was busy handling some of my level notifications, and I also had a bit of post-battle collapsing into my bed and sleeping to do, said Alice ruefully. After making sure you werent bleeding out, I needed to sleep.


    Cecilia chuckled. Dont worry about it. I absolutely get it. After the battle, I think I slept for a solid twelve hours before waking up. And one of the Perks I took from [Merchant] reduces my need for sleep. Im surprised that I slept for so long despite all that. Cecilia looked pensive for a moment.


    Alice nodded, and absently checked Cecilias Class seeds. She noticed a fair amount of mana stuck to Cecilias various class seeds, much like they had been for Alice. Cecilias [Enchanter] Class seed had no clogging issues, likely due to the fact that she was wearing one of the enchanted rings that Alice and Cecilias [Enchanters] had made. [Enchanter] looked like it had even levelled up once or twice during the fight but the rest of her class seeds were, predictably, not levelling up very well without the Systems mana filtration. Cecilia also had a few new types of mana involved including, problematically, a few that Cecilia didnt have proper Class seeds for.


    If Alice wasnt mistaken, Cecilia had probably picked up about 4 levels worth of some sort of [Warmage] equivalent Class and didnt have any Class seeds similar enough for her to filter the mana into. [Kinetic Mage] was almost close enough for Alice to convert the [Warmage] mana into, but it seemed just far enough away that Alice couldnt convert it. And Cecilia had no other similar seeds for Alice to use to remove the [Warmage] mana. Alice frowned.


    That was not good. Alice desperately needed to figure out a way to replace the remaining System functions that werent working, as soon as possible. Alice wasnt sure how she could do that there were still so many System functions that were broken, such as Achievements only granting partial benefits, and new Class Seeds not being formed.


    But ultimately, all of those problems needed to be resolved if Alice couldnt figure out how to just restore the System. Alice sighed, and decided not to think about it for now. Cecilia should be able to fend off the mental corrosion from four levels of [Warmage] without too much difficulty. She just needed to make sure she could get rid of the problem before it grew.


    Of course, Alice could handle the rest of Cecilias unfiltered class mana.


    Hold still for a sec, said Alice. Let me help filter your Class mana. Cecilia nodded and sat very still on her bed, while Alice got to work. Then she made a mental note to do that for the rest of the [Guards] and [Enchanters] on the boat, once she finished consulting with Ethan. The men on the boat had put their lives in danger to keep Alice safe. The least she could do was help solve their class-mana related issues. Alices new combined Class seed let her generate a lot more filtration mana when she needed it, and right now, she definitely felt like she needed a lot of it.


    Alice finished filtering Cecilias Class seeds with a sigh, before double checking that there wasnt any mana left over. She nodded to herself, satisfied with her work.


    Thanks. I got a couple more levels, said Cecilia. Even if I cant quite see the Class seeds, I appreciate you helping out.


    Dont sweat it. Thats not why I came here, but Im happy to extend a little help to you when I can, said Alice, before checking Cecilias expression again.


    This time, Alice picked up a few signs that she had missed the first time. There were subtle hints of tension in her hands, where she had probably balled her hands into fists sometime during the night as she slept, and there was an uneasiness in Cecilias eyes that Alice hadnt originally noticed.


    Now that Alice thought about it, there was also a much more obvious sign that Cecilia had been rattled. Cecilia had hugged Alice.


    Alice didnt really like hugs very much. She occasionally hugged her friends and family, but it wasnt something she did often. Perhaps once every few weeks, or when someone she cared about was having a particularly bad day, she would give them a hug, but it wasnt something Alice really enjoyed. Cecilia seemed to have picked up on this long ago, and never really took the initiative to hug Alice. But the first thing Cecilia had done when Alice walked into her room was give her a hug and then shut the door.


    Alice was glad that she had decided to check up on Cecilias emotional wellbeing. She had originally been surprised that Cecilia seemed so normal, but perhaps Cecilia was just better at hiding her emotional state than Alice was.


    Are you all right? asked Alice. She wasnt what most people would consider in tune with her emotions, but she could still do her best to be a good friend when the people she cared about needed her.


    Im Cecilia shuddered for a few moments, and sucked in a deeper breath. Im fine. Mostly. But last night, there was so much chaos, and one of the [Enchanters] I was training died. He was I mean Cecilia took another shaky breath.


    Was it really a good idea to get a combat Perk over a research or magic-seed oriented Perk?


    As if seeing Alices hesitation, Ethan continued speaking.


    I think that your build should ultimately be decided by you but you should think carefully about whether you want to invest your Perk into improving your combat ability, or improving your research ability. On my end, Im going to see if one of the other Immortals is willing to help keep you safe if the Society is sending actual Immortals after you, possibly in tandem with help from the Sigmusi Colonia, then I might not be able to keep you safe on my own. Last night was almost a disaster, and I intend to make sure it doesnt happen again. Ethan grimaced. Well see what comes of that, though. My father and my mother are probably still stuck in the northern forts keeping the [Nomads] away, but I might be able to convince one of them to come back on a more permanent basis. Doll is worthless in a fight, although shes very good at making golems and traps, so maybe I can commission something from her. And you already know Allira Im not actually sure what shes up to right now. As for Illvarias sixth Immortal, hes usually not present in the country. But no matter what, I intend to make sure that the protection around you is far superior to what it was last night. And the difference one Perk will make in future fights against Immortals is probably limited, but the amount of difference a research oriented Perk could make towards solving the collapse of the System could be considerably higher. Ethan shrugged. But again, you should also pick the Perks you want to. Its your build and your life.


    Alice thought about Ethans advice, and then nodded. She still wanted Ethans assessment of what she was missing as a combatant, but Ethan also made a good point. Dealing with the collapse of the System was still her first priority, and Alice just needed to trust that doubling her number of magic tendrils from her previous Perk choices, and Ethans attempts to keep her safe, would work out. Being protected in fights that would decide her life and death sucked, but watching the rest of the world die as the aftereffects of the Systems collapse progressed would suck even more.


    Besides, the faster she solved System-collapse related problems, the faster she would level up. And that, in turn, would improve Alices self-defense abilities, as long as she tossed a few more Perks into her combat strength later down the road.


    Alice still wanted advice on what she could improve on, so she asked Ethan to give her a few less Perk-oriented tips. Ethan went through a few finer details of the way Alice had fought the previous night, discussing various problems that Alice had during the fight the way that Alice had tried to essentially short-circuit Emilias Perks using mana had barely worked because she had misjudged how much mana it would take to shut down an Immortals Perks, for example. While it had bought Ethan a bit of time to really hammer her with attacks, Alice had also been taken off guard by how quickly Emilia had shrugged it off, which Ethan noted was due to Alices lack of experience using her Perks in real combat.


    A lot of Alices issues came down to lack of practice, which wasnt really something she could fix overnight, but Ethan still gave her some advise on what she could work on in the future. After the conversation, she returned to her own cabin and started sorting through her Perks.


    The first thing Alice noticed was that the interface for Tier 2 Perk combinations was overwhelming. There were far, far more options than there had been for Tier 1 Perk combinations.


    Now that Alice was past level 75, she could combine Perks from outside of [Explorer of Magic] with her [Explorer of Magic] Perks, and so the number of potential outcomes was, honestly, dizzying.


    Furthermore, the collapse of the System seemed to have completely short-circuited the ability for the System to predict the results of combining two Tier-2 Perks from different classes. Alice was pretty used to the System at least giving her a few hints about what a combination would do, but while the System had been able to help with those predictions between level 55 and 75, the limited version of the System Alice was using now just didnt seem to have the ability to predict things past this point. In other words, Alice was going off of her intuition and the months she had spent studying how the System worked.


    After sorting through several different lists and thinking about how Perks would probably interact with each other, Alice came up with three different Perk combinations.


    {Adrenaline Rush} and {Combat Seed} would probably make for a potent combination of Perks if Alice decided to try to make a combat Perk after all. Alice distinctly remembered how useless she had felt in the fight once {Adrenaline Rush} had ended yesterday, and Ethan had noted that making {Adrenaline Rush} a Perk she could activate more often would help Alice a lot in higher level combat. In fights between Immortals, one side would usually win if they outsped the other by a significant enough Margin which was why [Dexterity] was one of the stats Immortals tended to emphasize training, especially if they were worried about assassination attempts or if they got into lots of fights. Improving {Adrenaline Rush} would allow Alice to handle this. She wasnt quite sure what {Combat Seed} would do for the Perk combination but it was the only Perk Alice thought would reasonably combine with {Adrenaline Rush} and still give her something combat-related. Perhaps it would help Alice shut down other peoples magic use or perk use while {Adrenaline Rush} was in effect?


    On the other hand, Alice was more drawn to a few combinations of Perks that were research-focused.


    Specifically, the first thing that Alice thought of was combining something with {Seeds of Ambition}. Right now, Alice was severely held back by the limited number of magic seeds she had access to. She still hadnt been able to build a Math or meaning magic seed. To get everything integrated into a magic seed and get more magic seeds, Alice obviously needed to feed {Seeds of Ambition} another sacrificial Perk. This was probably one of Alices most immediate ways to address problems induced by the collapse of the System and more than that, if Alice combined her kinetic seed with a different magic seed, it might also boost her combat strength a little bit.


    Finally, Alice could combine something with {Expanding Comprehension}, to boost her actual understanding of the System and its mana. She wasnt quite sure what it would do for her immediately, but the Perk could very well give her some crucial insight that would speed up her attempts to resolve the situation or otherwise fix everything. It was a bit more of a gamble, because Alice wasnt sure if {Expanding Comprehension} could give her any more useful insight on the situation, and she also wasnt sure if combining it with another Perk would somehow break everything but it could potentially provide her with a way to fix things far more effectively and easily. It would probably combine with {Intuitive Magic Modelling} pretty well.


    So Alice had three major paths forward, in her opinion. The pure research route of combining {Expanding Comprehension} and {Intuitive Mana Modelling}, which would give her the most information, but provide the least actual solutions to her current problems. The accelerated System seed route, which involved combining {Seeds of Ambition} with {Sciences Mana} or a different Perk, in order to boost her magic seed production rate. Alice also thought that combining her new System-enchanting Perk with the Perk that she hoped would eventually create a System magic seed would create something amazing. And finally, if Alice wanted to focus purely on combat potential, She could slam {Adrenaline Rush} and {Combat Seed} together and hope for the best.


    Those were her best options, at least in her mind.


    Alice spent several minutes thinking over her options, before she first discarded the combat route. Ethans reasoning made sense to Alice, and Alice also knew that she wasnt really that good at combat compared to other people her level. She could bully people who were lower level than her in a fight, but at the end of the day, Alices ability to contribute to a higher level fight was limited. Even if she sank this incredibly valuable Perk opportunity into improving her combat ability, that wouldnt change the fact that she was unprepared for higher level combat. Alice would eventually need to focus on her combat abilities, to close the gap between her and experienced Immortals but that would take a lot of time, and the collapse of the System just didnt give her the time to slowly develop right now. For the foreseeable future, Alice was going to be reliant on Ethan and Illvarias Immortals if she wanted to stay alive and unhurt. No action she could take would change that right now. It hurt her to admit that, because it was a deeply unsettling idea but Alice finally put aside the idea of buffing her combat abilities even further.


    This meant it was between creating more magic seeds, to try to create a System seed faster and combining her {Expanding Comprehension} and {Intuitive Mana Modelling} Perks to hope it sped up her research more. And that really gave Alice pause, because a huge part of her was screaming to take the research Perk. Alice was pretty sure that whichever combination she didnt take would be the next pick for her but which order she did it in mattered a lot. It could be the difference between solving the System crisis after everyone in Illvaria died, or solving the crisis just in time.


    If she improved {Expanding Comprehension}, perhaps it would help her locate the physical location of the System at least, that was an idea. Or it might help Alice understand the way the System was constructed better.


    But if she didnt have the magic seeds to take advantage of that understanding, everyone suffering after the collapse of the System would still be screwed. Alice couldnt rely on understanding alone she needed to synthesize several magic seeds and create enchantments based on those seeds to solve the current crisis. All of the understanding in the world wouldnt help her if she didnt have a way to turn that understanding into solutions. And most of the System magic seeds just werent picked by other people they were esoteric and largely useless on their own. If Alice wanted to create a System seed and start creating real solutions to this crisis, getting magic seeds faster would probably be vital and she needed to get that process started as soon as possible.


    And so, with a sigh, Alice put aside the research route she had dreamed up, and resolved to take it at level 85 if she didnt have a better plan by then. And instead, she combined {Seeds of Ambition} and {Sciences Mana}.


    Mana started to swirl around her, far more than Alice had been anticipating, and the mana in Alices body started to go wild.

 Chapter 158

    Chapter 158


    For a moment, Alice wondered if she had made a horrible mistake. Perhaps the System breaking down had caused Perks above level 75 to malfunction? Was her brain about to melt down or something? Alice spent a few seconds mentally kicking herself for rushing her Perk choice. She had assumed it was safe because every other Perk so far had been safe, but with the System down, she should have double checked whether this would cause any problems.


    Before she had more time to worry, she felt something inside of her twist.


    For a brief moment, Alice was overcome with a variety of bizarre sensations.


    She could taste what it felt like to conduct an experiment. She could smell what it felt like to conduct an experiment with mana. She could hear curiosity. Every single sense blended together in a chaotic mixture of concepts, smells, sights, sounds, touches, and tastes.


    And every single one of those sensations was associated with either the concept of being a [Scientist] or being an [Explorer of Magic].


    Alice managed to wrestle open her eyes, unaware of when she had closed them, and tried to figure out what was happening with the mana inside of her body. The strange barrage of sensations continued, nearly overwhelming her ability to think, but after a few moments, Alice managed to get used to the overwhelming rush of sensations and get things back under control.


    The first thing she did was look inside of herself, using her various mana senses and {Organic Vision}, and watched in surprise as she saw two of her class fractals orbiting each other, like a fast-forwarded version of the Moon orbiting the Earth. Rainbow mana flowed between the two of them, carrying concepts with them as both magic seeds expanded like miniature nebulas.


    Much like the first time Alice had learned about the true nature of Classes, when she had felt the concept of an [Explorer of Magic] start to overtake her very sense of self, Alice could feel the concept of being a [Scientist] and being an [Explorer of Magic] start to rise up and flood through her body. However, the sensation was considerably muted compared to the time Alice had tried to form a Class seed as if it were a magic seed. It was equivalent to the mental pressure of around ten levels of unfiltered mana in each class, compared to the overwhelming barrage of concepts that had nearly instantly overwhelmed Alices personality in one fell swoop when she had tried to mess with class seeds.


    A small amount of her mind focused on fighting off the new deluge of ideas, but most of Alices attention remained on the two class fractals and the way they were interacting with each other. Meanwhile, her body started sucking in mana like a black hole, draining all of the mana in half of her tiny cabin dry in seconds.


    And then, Alice watched as both class fractals started to connect to each other in a way Alice hadnt seen before. The class fractals that were located inside of her brain started to stretch into each other, and all of the neurons between those two class fractals started to glow with mana. And then, the System mana inside of those class fractals did something.


    A moment later, Alice felt more complete than before.


    It was the strangest sensation she had ever felt, but Alice felt more like herself than ever before. The dull, thrumming sensation of mana pushing against her mind and body started to disappear, and Alice saw, with some surprise, that a very small part of her body had its regular biology replaced with something completely new.


    It was a type of mana Alice had never seen before, and Alice was sorely tempted to call it Alice-mana. It was a mana that constituted the most fundamental aspect of who Alice was.


    No, thought Alice, as she started frowning.


    It wasnt mana built off of who she was.


    It was mana that was built entirely off of what other people thought of her. Who they thought she was. What they thought she liked and disliked. What they thought brought her joy and sorrow.


    It was as if every single person who had ever heard of her had a very small image of who she was, living inside of their mind, and the small, new strip of mana was trying to press that idea of Alice into her, overriding the real person behind the image.


    Alice felt a spike of fear in her mind, before she realized something else.


    Other Immortals didnt have this type of mana in their body. Ethan didnt have Ethan-mana inside of him. Allira didnt have Allira-mana inside of her, either. Their bodies were mostly made of mana, and that mana was constantly transforming back into their body but Alice didnt think that the mana-based bodies most Immortals had altered their mind in any way. Instead, Immortals were constantly transforming into themselves not some stereotyped or perceived version of who they were, but just themselves. Whoever they had come to be as the years and centuries passed.


    She frowned even more deeply.


    What was the difference here?


    The most obvious assumption was that this was some kind of inherent problem that was solved by the System at higher levels.


    When Alice had tried to form a class seed in a magic seed slot, what she had found strongly suggested that Classes were built off of peoples assumptions. What people felt an [Explorer of Magic] should be like influenced what people with the class could do in order to level up and, similarly, Alice also suspected it influenced what Perks the class could obtain.


    In other words, peoples beliefs and assumptions somehow strongly influenced, or perhaps even created, Classes.


    In that case, it seemed likely that peoples beliefs somehow interacted with mana and the System on a fundamental level. Peoples beliefs about things could legitimately impact how reality worked behind the scenes.


    What did that mean?


    Alice put aside the press of ideas brought about by the new Alice-mana for a moment, and instead focused on what her new discovery meant.


    The clues had been there for a long time now. Peoples beliefs obviously interacted with the System. But the strip of Alice-mana in her body had still been created, even while the System was down. And Alice distinctly remembered that, at one point in the past, the System had given her an error message because personality-warping was a core violation of the System. Immortals didnt seem to be constantly changed based on the way people perceived them, but Alice was now experiencing a small amount of personality warping based on other peoples perception of her.


    This was a problem created by the lack of the System. And it also potentially implied that peoples beliefs could alter reality. After all, peoples belief about who Alice was were now trying to override Alice the person, and she was fairly certain the System was trying to prevent that from happening.


    Peoples beliefs could alter reality.


    Now that Alice thought about it, this was pretty consistent with how she had seen several System components work.


    No connection can be found. Searching users memories for a suitable name


    {Sciences Mana} renamed {Scientific System}.


    Proceeding with combination process.


    (Due to increased Assistance/Authority/Recognition from the System and multiple Achievements related to exploring and understanding the System, as well as the desires of the creator, Perk direction is influenced)


    (Perk direction is banned.)


    (System removing upgrade to find a suitable replacement upgrade.)


    (System cannot be accessed. Not enough processing power present in Class Fractals. Error.)


    (No suitable replacement upgrades found. Continuing with original path.)


    Systems Ambition (Tier 3 Perk)


    Perk Cost: Scientific System + Seeds of Ambition sacrificed to create this Perk.


    Once per month, you may create and synthesize four Seeds. If they are added to your S_yst@m seed, then each synthesis will also increase seed mana conversion ratio by a further 10%. If not added to your System seed, these Magic Seeds are instead categorized as inferior seeds, meaning that they cannot be influenced by other Perks or Achievements.


    Seeds will add 30% to mana conversion ratio at maximum.


    Due to influence of other upgrades, magic seeds created by Systems Ambition can be influenced by Perks.


    Due to influence of other upgr@des, magic seeds created by Systems ambition can be influenced by Achievements.


    Alice blinked in surprise as she looked at her new Perk, as well as the slew of System messages that had accompanied its creation.


    There were several things that she wanted to analyze.


    First of all, the name {Sciences Mana} had changed to {Scientific System} during the Perk combination process. Alice had always figured that the name {Sciences Mana} was probably a bug a lot of the names in the System, as well as the spelling and grammar, had gotten slightly messed up since the collapse of the System, and System descriptions had also gotten a lot less descriptive. There was a lot more trial and error involved in figuring out what a new Perk did and what it was useful for. It wasnt a huge deal, but Alice was happy to know that the correct name of the Perk had probably been applied during the Perk combination process. {Scientific System} sounded like a legitimate Perk name, instead of the glitched out nonsense Alice had been seeing recently.


    The second thing Alice noticed was a System message she had never seen before.


    The message about perk combination in progress.


    When Alice had combined {Sciences Mana} and {Seeds of Ambition}, she had felt like she was more than before. As if something about her very nature, her very existence, had changed in some subtle way. She was fairly certain that the speed at which she aged had decreased considerably in the few seconds after she had combined her first post level 75 Perk, and she was also fairly certain that she had taken a very important, very critical step forward even if she wasnt entirely sure what that meant yet.


    The System seemed to reflect that the System message about combining Perks, upgrading them based on her Achievements and her own behavior, and the various checks the System seemed to have gone through reflected the fact that the System seemed to be personalizing upgrades after level 75, at least to some extent. When Alice had checked the Perk list from the book of the Church of the System, the Church of the System hadnt had many Perks listed after level 75. It was now obvious why if each Perk was at least somewhat personalized, any record of what Perk combinations resulted in would be, at best, a loose guideline for what might happen. There wasnt much point in recording it, since there was so much variance in what Perks people might combine at this point, and even if they did the same Perk combination, they might get different results.


    But at least in this one, specific case, the System collapsing worked in Alices favor. The System had tried to prevent Alice from getting a certain Perk upgrade direction for whatever reason, and replace it with a suitable alternate upgrade and then had failed, because the System couldnt connect to the main component of the System.


    It was also the very first time Alice had seen the increased help from the System impact anything at all. Alice had spent about a year wondering what in the world the increased help from the System did by now. It was mentioned in {Outworlder} that she had it, but she had never, at any point in time, figured out what it actually meant.


    Now, for the first time, it actually came up in a System message Alice suspected she hadnt been supposed to see.


    Alice wasnt entirely sure what to make of that, so for now, Alice just noted what she had seen. There would be more time to experiment with the benefits of the {Outworlder} Achievement in the future, and see if it cropped up every time Alice got a post-level 75 Perk. But it was worth thinking about in the future. She finally had some hint about what the weirdest part of her first Achievement did.


    The moment Alice finished scanning her new Perk, she noticed that the Perk was asking her to designate a seed or at least, Alice was pretty sure that was what it wanted her to do. She checked the Perks wording again, and noticed that it would give her extra benefits if she added seeds to her System seed.


    In other words, Alice needed to point at one of her seeds and tell the Perk it was her System seed, or at least it would be in the future. Alice immediately selected her combined Filtration/Display magic seed. She had already been working on turning it into a System magic seed, so it made sense to make it her official System magic seed.


    Then, Alice checked her new Perk, and found that sadly, it was still on cooldown. She got the feeling that she needed to wait about a week to use it again which she was pretty sure was less time than she originally had before {Seeds of Ambition} came off of cooldown, but Alice certainly wasnt going to complain about it.


    Alice sighed as she thought about her new speculations from the day, and then decided to go to sleep.


    She needed some time to think about what had just happened, and figure out a way to defend her mind against the influence of Alice mana. She had developed plenty of other ways to fight back against erosion of her willpower in the past she just needed to cement what she planned to do this time, and how to do so without hurting herself. The Alice mana wasnt what worried her, because Alice was pretty confident she could find a solution.


    Instead, as she went to sleep, she thought about whether tomorrow the laws of physics would implode and turn every molecule on the planet into a nuclear bomb, or something equally absurd and lethal. The collapse of the System had always felt terrifying, but now it felt dozens of times more dangerous than ever before.

 Chapter 159

    Chapter 159


    After some hesitation, Alice decided to ask Ethan what to do about the potentially unstable laws of physics. In some ways, telling anyone was a terrible idea, because it would help destabilize the laws of reality. At least, if her theory was correct.


    But Alice also didnt have the information network she needed to verify her theory. She couldnt do everything on her own, as evidenced by Cecilias [Enchanter] team. She needed information to verify her theory, and she trusted Ethan. If it was possible to verify her theory, he could help her and he would also be able to prevent her theory from unravelling reality.


    But Alice resolved not to tell Cecilia unless Ethan said it was okay. As much as Alice didnt like the idea of keeping information from Cecilia, this was an infohazard that could end the world by accident. She didnt want to end the world by accident.


    So Alice made her way back to Ethans office, and told Ethan about her theory. Part of her was hoping that Ethan could somehow disprove her guess that reality was more stable than Alice gave it credit for being. Instead, Ethan fell into thought after Alice finished speaking.


    After two minutes of silence, Alice couldnt bear it any longer.


    Do you think its correct, or not? asked Alice. I feel like I''m grasping at ideas here, but


    I have no idea, he said. Your theory could be true or it could be wrong. Im going to be honest and say that I just dont have the information I would need to verify it. It seems plausible, but I also dont know if we have enough evidence to verify it yet. I will get my information network to look into interesting occurrences. But the fact that I cant tell them exactly what to look out for makes it harder to get information. And youre a better researcher than I am. Ethan gave Alice a careful look. I will say that a lot of Achievements seem to be based on what other people perceive to be true, but that could also be some quirk of how the System works. Do you think this theory is correct?


    Alice nodded. Its more of a sneaking suspicion on my part but it seems to line up with other things Ive observed. I still need more information, though.


    Lets keep an eye out for other information, and act as if spreading this theory could make the planet implode, said Ethan, frowning. Either way, our priority remains the same either fix the System, or replace it. We just need to keep a closer eye on public opinion than expected. Which is something I can handle on my end.


    Alice felt relieved that controlling public opinion wouldnt fall on her. She had enough on her plate already without trying to figure out how to manage yet another ticking time bomb. She already had enough of those to worry about.


    Is there anything else you need to talk about?


    I also had a rather troubling encounter with a new type of mana, said Alice. She went on to describe the newly discovered Alice mana, and how it might influence her.


    Ethan actually seemed quite worried when Alice mentioned that. Do you have a way to stave off the influence of Alice mana? If you were to lose yourself, that would be very troubling.


    Alice sighed. Im actually pretty confident that Ill find a solution. But when we get back to Metsel, do you mind if I study you a bit more? This is obviously a problem that all Immortals should have to deal with but you dont seem very influenced by other peoples perception of you. After all, most people think youre some sort of amazing master of magic, and yet according to Elder Sujia, you accidentally blew up your training facility when you were first teaching her. It seems to be evidence that your personality remains your own, rather than becoming an amalgamation of other people''s perception.


    Ethans eyebrows rose in surprise. She told you that story?


    Alice nodded. The first time I met her. When we were gathering [Soldiers] to rescue Samantha.


    Ethan actually snorted, before he nodded. Then you think the System solved this problem somehow for other Immortals?


    Alice nodded.


    Then when we get back to Metsel, you can take a look and see if you can figure anything out. Its best to wait until then, though. We have half a week left before we reach Metsel, and were down a lot of [Guards] and combatants on the ship. I dont think that Emilia will make a second attempt, since she was willing to flee from battle. But she is an [Assassin], so theres a chance that shes trying to get our guard down, said Ethan.


    Sounds good, said Alice. While it will eventually become a problem, right now I can stave off the effects of Alice mana pretty easily.


    Just be careful, said Ethan. And let me know the moment you run into a problem whether that problem is Alice-mana related or Emilia-related.


    With that, Alice left Ethans cabin.


    * * *


    The Society and Sigmusi didnt try again before the group returned to Metsel. Alice didnt encounter any issues from the Alice-mana in her brain either. She kept a close eye on their surroundings for the four days it took to reach the capital, and even frequently scanned the surroundings to see if the [Guards] missed something. But Emilia apparently valued her own life too much to try again. While Alice felt sure that the Society would try again, it seemed like they needed more time to put together the next attack.


    As the boat pulled up to the dock in the fishing village near Metsel, Alice breathed a sigh of relief. At the docks, she could see a fresh group of [Guards] ready to replace the old ones. This group had about a hundred people in it ten of whom were level 75. Alice was happy to see the higher level [Guards] after what had happened during the trip. Higher level combatants may be killable with enough numbers on their side, but they were still nightmares to contend with until they ran out of mana and Perks. Having more on her side wouldnt hurt if things went wrong again.


    This particular class variant is only offered to those who have made exceptional contributions to the field of studying and healing the human body, despite their low level.


    Unlocked as a result of: Having the Student of Organic Magic class at level 25, Having the Creative Healer Achievement (or something similar), have the Legendary Healer Achievement (or something similar), have at least 2 Skills related to healing or human biology at level 20 or higher, have the [Basic Medicine] Skill.


    Increases effect of [Magic] attribute by 50%. Classes related to research will get a levelling speed boost based on how often and how effectively you have used those classes for healing, with a maximum of a 50% boost to levelling speed. The Mana Conversion Ratio of all seeds is increased by 5%. All Skills related to healing or biology level up 100% faster. Your innate ability to heal the human body without accidentally causing harm is amplified considerably, making it much harder for you to make mistakes and harm or maim your patients.


    Alice grinned.


    This was more like it.


    The fact that the class had a rarity 7 and rarity 4 Achievement as prerequisites for taking the class upgrade was already rather appealing, and the boost Alice would get for taking the Class was exceptional.


    Alice usually didnt think a lot about smaller Attribute effect boosts but a 50% boost to her Magic Attribute would be huge even if she got no other bonuses. Magic was her most used attribute, and Alice really didnt think that would be changing in the future. A 50% boost would increase the effect of her Magic stat from 142% to 192%, which was a pretty substantial increase. Then, the Class also offered her a boost to skill levelling speed and mana conversion ratio for her magic seeds, and a small levelling speed boost for her research-related Classes if Alice used them for healing.


    Alice was pretty sure that boost would be active most of the time, depending on what the class considered healing. A lot of the things Alice had been doing recently helped stave off the impact of the collapse of the System, and Alice thought that would probably count. Even if that part of the class evolution Achievement was unusually picky, the rest of the benefits were still amazing.


    Alice checked her final Class notification to see if it topped [Legendary Organic Healer.


    Regenerating Lab Rat: An Organic Mage who specializes in using organic magic to heal themselves. Unlike most researchers who delve into forbidden topics of research, rather than using others as test subjects, you have instead opted to use yourself as a test subject. This class will help you survive your own mad experiments, and perhaps undo whatever damage youve done to your body along the way.


    Unlocked as a result of: Having the Student of Organic Magic class at level 25, Having the Creative Healer Achievement (or something similar), frequently use yourself as a test subject for your own experiments


    Increases effect of [Magic] attribute by 30%. Increase effect of [Endurance] attribute by 20%. Your innate instincts when trying to heal even the strangest of magic-related problems is increased moderately, but only when attempting to treat yourself. You gain knowledge and retain it more quickly when using yourself as a test subject.


    Alice squinted at the last class evolution option.


    In a very, very weird way, it was actually a bit tempting, because Alice knew that she would probably be doing even more weird things involving the System in the future, and she was going to be testing those things on herself. The Class would probably offer Perks to help mitigate any associated risks.


    On the other hand, it only helped her heal problems in her own body, and didnt provide anywhere near the bonuses of [Legendary Organic Healer]. [Legendary Organic Healer] probably also had better Perk selections later on, based on how much harder it was to meet the requirements for the class. If Alice didnt have [Legendary Organic Healer], she might have actually chosen [Regenerating Lab Rat], but it just seemed much worse than her other option.


    Alice finished checking through her evolution options, and then selected [Legendary Organic Healer]. The mana in Alices surroundings seemed to swirl around, and at the same time, one of the class seeds near Alices heart burst with rainbow mana but as Alice had expected, due to the fact that there was no rainbow mana in her surroundings, the evolution of her [Student of Organic Magic] Class felt like it was missing something. She watched as the class seed tried to compensate for this, but even though Alice still didnt understand most of the fractals involved in a class seed or evolution, it felt like the resulting class seed was incomplete.


    A few moments later, the seed briefly flashed with rainbow mana, just like every other magic seed Alice had seen that seemed to need some sort of activation to truly start working, but unlike the other, completed Class seeds Alice had seen, every 10 seconds, the class seed flashed with mana again.


    Curious, Alice stuck a magic tendril of display mana into the seed and checked to see if there were any hidden System messages associated with the seed.


    Perk Database not found. Using local, derivative Perk options


    Scanning please wait.


    Perk Database not found. Cannot update. Trying again in 10 seconds


    After about 30 seconds, Alice realized that the same System message was just repeating, again and again.


    Alice sighed, but then shrugged and nodded to herself. That was about what she had expected, honestly. She had already known that her Perk options would be messed up until the System was back online. She was relieved to know that her Class seed was constantly trying to update itself. It indicated that she could fix the class seeds Perk selections whenever she got access to the mainframe of the System again. Or whenever she replaced it.


    After selecting her Class evolution, Alice and Ethan left the Church of the System. At Ethans manor, they found one of Ethans [Messengers] waiting for them.


    Lady Alice, Honored Immortal Ethan, the [King] of Illvaria has requested your presence in three days, said the [Messenger].

 Chapter 160

    Chapter 160


    Alice very nervous when the [Messenger] asked her to appear in front of the [King].


    She had only met one other member of the royal family so far, and she had been an unfavored [Princess] desperate to get political backing. Alice hadnt exactly enjoyed trying to interact with her, since it felt like the [Princess] was so desperate to get Alice to help her. Ethan had told the girl off, which had rescued Alice from the awkward situation, but Alices reticence to interact with royalty had still increased after the event. Alice enjoyed researching more than talking to people she barely knew.


    Alice also felt intimidated by the idea of meeting the [King]. On Earth, she didnt really think much about monarchs the closest thing in America was the president, who was still very limited by the other bodies of government. They had nowhere near the level of power a [King] did over the country.


    Ethan, perhaps seeing Alice freeze up, gave the [Messenger] a quick nod. Thats acceptable. Its important to let the Crown estate know what weve discovered anyway.


    Alice finally unfroze, and gave the [Messenger] a somewhat stiff nod. {Etiquette} helped her force the words out of her lips, despite her nerves.


    I understand.


    The [Messenger] nodded and left.


    Ethan patted Alice on the shoulder.


    Relax. Youll notice that the [Messenger] who contacted us was one of MY [Messengers], not a [Messenger] working directly under the crown. That has some symbolic meaning in Illvaria. It indicates that the [King] is requesting our presence more than demanding it. Were still expected to show up either way, if that makes sense but it has a very different context for what actions will be taken and what kind of meeting it will be. Its always better if the crown contacts you through one of your own [Messengers] or a neutral [Messenger], rather than a [Royal Messenger]. Ethan paused. Well, at least in Illvaria. Some other countries have very different political Systems, unlike Illvarias five estate system, so if you ever leave the country, some social norms might change.


    Alice nodded, and suppressed her nerves. If Ethan felt so relaxed, she would do her best to calm down. She didnt really want to do anything that felt nerve-wracking and anxiety-inducing but on the other hand, when Alice tried to think about it from the [Kings] perspective, she could understand why this meeting was happening.


    The [King] trying to get to the bottom of why his country was imploding was nothing unusual. Alice was one of the people in the country who best understood what was happening, and she and Ethan had made this fact rather public when Alice started rounding up the support of the church. It was only logical for the [King] to ask Alice to come and explain what was going on once he learned about her.


    After she and Ethan finished entering the manor, she quickly returned to her room. And then, for the first time in a while, she examined her full Status Screen.


    Name: Alice Verianna


    Age: 16


    Strength:119 -> 120(122%)


    Perception: 140 -> 145 (165%)


    Dexterity: 120 -> 121 (124% -> 144%)


    Intelligence: 170 -> 172 (128%)


    Endurance: 135 -> 137(121% -> 141%)


    Willpower: 152 -> 153(109%)


    Charisma: 133 (107%)


    Magic: 167 -> 171 (122% -> 167%/192%)


    Primary Classes: 6/6


    Survivor: 59 -> 66


    Explorer of Magic: 78 -> 81


    Scholar: 60 -> 62


    Scientist: 62 -> 66


    Kinetic Manabinder: 44 -> 51


    Careful Enchanter: 30 -> 36


    Evolved Classes: 2


    Student of Kinetic Magic: 25


    (Apprentice) Enchanter: 25


    Secondary Classes: 4


    Fisherwoman: 3


    Student: 9


    Legendary Organic Mage:


    Courtier: 1 -> 2


    Secondary Evolved Classes: 1


    Student of Organic Magic: 25


    Perks:


    Survivor Perks:


    Foraging (Survivor 5)


    Microbe Resistance (Survivor 10)


    Extremophile (Survivor 15)


    Enhanced Training (Survivor 30)


    Adrenaline Rush (Survivor 45)


    Enhanced Senses (Tier 2) (Survivor 55)


    Extended Tissues (Tier 2) (Survivor 60)


    Dimensional Camouflage (Tier 2) (Survivor 65)


    Explorer of Magic Perks:


    Enhanced Regeneration (Explorer of Magic 10)


    Seeds of Magic (Explorer of Magic 25)


    Broken Seed (Upgraded) (Explorer of Magic 35)


    Expanding Comprehension (Tier 2) (Explorer of Magic 55)


    Combat Seed (Tier 2) (Explorer of Magic 60)


    Intuitive Magic Modelling (Tier 2) (Explorer of Magic 65)


    System''s Ambition (Tier 3) (Explorer of Magic 80)


    Scholar Perks:


    Accelerated Thinking (Scholar level 15 (-5))


    Rhetorical Flourish (Scholar level 20)


    Photographic Memory (Scholar level 25)


    Improved Multitasking (Scholar level 30)


    Scholar of Magic (Scholar level 35)


    Lesser Organic Vision (Scholar 40)


    Sleep Reading (Tier 2) (Scholar 55)


    Delve Memories (Tier 2) (Scholar 60)


    Scientist Perks:


    Precise mana Measurement (Scientist level 5)


    Sample Collection (Scientist level 10)


    Safety Analysis (Scientist Level 20)


    Shared Memory (Scientist Level 25)


    Advanced Mana Measurement (Scientist Level 30)


    For Science! (Scientist 45)


    Speed Experimentation (Tier 2) (Scientist 55)


    No_Mana (Tier 2) (Scientist 60)


    Kinetic Mage Perks:


    Electromagnetic Seed (15%) (Deactivated)


    No_Magic (35%/40%) (Created by Perk - does not consume seed Slot)


    Lesser Magic Seeds


    (Base Max 30%, Achievements now apply as usual)


    Compound Seed 1 (Display/Filtration) 57%/61%


    Organic Seed 79%/84% (6% Exp. Comp.)


    Pure Mana Seed 49%/54% (12% Exp. Comp.)


    Dimensional Seed 42/45%


    Achievements:


    Outworlder (Rarity: 10)


    Seeker of Truth (IV) (Rarity: 10)


    Baptized by Broken Mana (Rarity: 6)


    Survivor of Winter (Rarity: 3)


    Monstrous Encounter (Rarity: 1)


    Monster Slayer (III) (Rarity: 2)


    Well Trained (Rarity: 4)


    Murderer (Rarity: 4)


    Bookworm (Rarity: 3)


    Kinetic Manabinder (Rarity N/A)


    Careful Enchanter (Rarity N/A)


    Capable Enchanter (Rarity: 5)


    Seed Creator (Rarity: 8)


    In Pursuit of Science (Rarity N/A)


    Immortal''s Apprentice at the battle against the Society (Rarity: 4)


    Legendary Healer (Rarity: 7)


    Creative Healer (Rarity: 4)


    System_Teacher (Rarity: 7)


    First Steps (I) (Rarity: 6)


    Battle with an Immortal (Rarity: 9)


    The first thing she noticed was that, at some point in time, she had reached 120 [Strength]. The {Outworlder} Achievement was no longer going to provide her with any boosts to attribute training speed. The Achievement had once provided a variety of boosts, but most of them were limited to Classes and Stats below a certain number: Specifically, it boosted the training speed for primary classes below level 50, secondary classes below level 10, and Attributes below 120.


    Alice spent a few moments processing that fact, before she finished scanning her Status Screen.


    She could see several Perks and Skills that would be useful when interacting with the [King] of Illvaria but they didnt ease her nerves completely. She would have preferred to see a much higher level {Etiquette} skill, or perhaps a few Perks from [Courtier].


    She decided it might not be a bad idea to grind {Etiquette} for the next few days.


    But first, Alice had a few things to do.


    Her newest Perk, {Systems Ambition}, had come off of cooldown right as she had set foot in the harbor. Alice didnt hesitate for long before she decided to start using it. She was looking forward to potentially fusing four magic seeds into her growing System seed.


    Alice started out with a round of {Safety Analysis}, just to make sure that she wasnt about to kill herself by accident, and then got to work.


    The first thing that Alice did was start working on a math magic seed. Alice only had three mana types that she was totally sure were part of System mana that she didnt have access to right now, so she figured she might as well start with what would likely be the easiest one to fuse.


    The math magic seed creation went smoothly Alice was more than capable of handling the creation of a simple magic seed without the System, especially one that she understood quite well.


    When Alice fused the math seed into her System seed, she felt something that hadnt been there before.


    There was a certain amount of interaction between the three types of mana present in her magic seed. It was a type of interaction that Alice didnt think she had encountered before.


    The three types of magic in her seed werent just three different types of mana that happened to share a seed slot. There was something that was becoming increasingly obvious about the way her nascent System seed worked. Something fundamental to its very nature.


    Alice frowned at her System seed, and spent several minutes prodding at it, but she couldnt quite figure out a way to actually use math mana. It was now integrated into her System seed, and Alice was very aware that it was important somehow but she wasnt really sure what she was supposed to be doing with it.


    Yet.


    Alice sighed, and ran several ideas through {Safety Analysis} before she started thinking about her next seed integration. Alice was very afraid of blowing herself up in the process, now that a strange interaction between her magic seeds was occurring inside of her body, but {Safety Analysis} would still catch any obvious, major dangers caused by her experiment. Alice had already invested a great deal into creating a System seed unless something was obviously wrong, she would keep moving forward.


    Alice spent a few moments thinking about what other magic seeds she needed to make in order to create a complete System magic seed.


    Alice knew for sure that Organic and Pure mana were also part of System mana, since she had observed it as both a component of System mana and a force manipulated by System mana multiple times. She still wasnt quite sure why that was the case, but it was obviously something she needed to do sooner or later.


    She was also pretty sure that meaning mana, or something like that, was a component of System mana. After all, the System had somehow given her System messages without understanding English, and Alice now believed that was probably the result of somehow breaking down various ideas into their underlying concepts and then sending those directly to her brain. This theory would also explain what was wrong with all of the System messages since the collapse of the System without meaning mana to perfectly translate meanings back into words, the System messages people were seeing might be somehow messed up.


    Alice had also been thinking about other parts of the System recently. Parts that should, logically, be part of the entire framework of System mana. Since System mana was composed of so many different types of smaller mana, all working together, Alice was recently starting to suspect that there was some sort of mana that worked to keep everything else functioning. Alice wasnt quite sure what that mana would be, but it probably existed. Perhaps it was a type of mana that served as a core for how everything worked, or perhaps it just let different kinds of mana communicate. Alice wasnt sure what kind of mana that might be yet, but she suspected it existed, at least.


    As the final piece of System mana that Alice was pretty sure existed, she was pretty sure that there was some sort of mana in play that locked down the laws of physics, or somehow acted as an intermediary between human beliefs and the laws of physics. Alice suspected that this was some kind of mana but she could also be completely off in that belief.


    There might be other kinds of mana integral to the makeup of System mana but Alice was pretty sure she had at least figured out a good chunk of what she needed to create in the future. Alice found herself overwhelmed by choices. It was hard to decide which magic seed to integrate into her System seed next. Mathematics mana had seemed like a good way to start testing the way her new Perk worked, and Alice was pretty sure the new mana type was doing something, but when she thought about how many other mana types she still had to integrate, she found herself overwhelmed by choice.


    Alice sighed. After a few moments, she decided to see Ethan first.


    She wasnt worried about Alice-mana eating away at her personality yet, but the sooner she got that squared away, the easier she would sleep at night. Even if it wasnt a problem right now, Alice didnt want to have her personality overridden by anything in the future even if that thing was other peoples perception of who she was. After all, Alice was more than other peoples beliefs about who she was. She didnt want to lose herself as a result of Alice-mana.


    Ethan seemed to have expected her to show at his office sooner or later. When she appeared, he gave her a curious look.


    Are you ready to do more detailed observations? he asked.


    Alice nodded. I dont think Alice mana is a big problem yet, but its best to deal with it sooner rather than later.


    Ethan simply pointed at a chair near his desk. You can watch while I work. Let me know if you need me to do anything more specific, like sit still, or use magic, or anything like that. If you dont need me to sit still, Ill do some paperwork.


    You can work on your paperwork for now, said Alice. Ill let you know if I change my mind.


    Alice took a seat, and then started slowly examining Ethan.


    True to her suspicions, Ethan didnt seem to have a single speck of Ethan-mana in his body. His body was comprised almost entirely of mana-flesh, and it did, indeed, look kind of like Ethan was a cloud of mana constantly transforming into itself. But Ethan definitely hadnt been overwritten by Ethan-mana he was still fundamentally himself. This was completely different from the people who were suffering the symptoms of being overwritten by their Class when Alice had been working on treating Boris, he had been so filled with [Farmer] mana that Alice had barely known where to look.


    The question was how the System dealt with this problem.


    Would you let me use some Perks to poke around inside of your body? asked Alice.


    I grant you full permission to use any perks that help you perceive the inside of my body, said Ethan, without looking up from the letter he was writing.


    Alice touched Ethans arm, and then used {Lesser Organic Vision} and every single mana-viewing Perk she had available to start investigating Ethans organs.


    What does the System do to manage Ethan-mana? It must do something with it. It isnt a kind of mana that can just be filtered into a class, the way some academic types of mana can be converted into each other. I tried that already. It also shouldnt be possible to just transfer it out of the body. When I broke my [Fisherwoman] class seed and then went fishing, I immediately got all of my [Fisherwoman] mana back. That indicates that once your body believes that its supposed to have a certain quantity of some type of mana, it will automatically restore it whenever you take an action related to that kind of mana. Since Ethan is always being Ethan, any System attempts to make a bubble and lock out Ethan-mana should have failed when the System collapsed. In short, the System doesnt just block Ethan-mana out of Ethan. It handles it in some other way. Hmm


    Alice continued probing Ethans body, trying to figure out how the System managed the Ethan-mana that Ethan should have inevitably built up.


    And after several minutes of careful searching, Alice made a discovery.


    Embedded into the core of Ethans brain was a very, very tiny little gemstone-like object made of mana. It was almost impossible for her to notice, even with Ethan willingly letting her inspect him, and with Alice running through every inch of his body with a fine-tooth comb. It had a variety of smaller facets to it, all of which were made out of mana. These facets werent equal in length: some were small, some were large, and some were medium sized. It was made of System mana, but Alice could see a lot of smaller types of mana attached to it as well. Alice couldnt see it well enough to inspect its composition, and it was too small for {Intuitive Magic Modelling} to analyze in detail.


    It was like trying to inspect a single cell with a poorly focused microscope. She could still see it, but she didnt have the ability to see any of the finer details.


    But one thing Alice could confirm was that there was a great deal of Ethan-mana inside of the little stone.


    Ah. So thats what the System does with Ethan-mana, thought Alice.


    She started inspecting her own brain using her Perks, and now that she knew where to look, she confirmed that she had a very, very tiny little mana-gemstone inside of her own brain as well. It was just much, much smaller even when Alice knew exactly where to look, she still missed it the first two times she looked through the area. And unlike Ethans little mana-gemstone, it didnt have any Alice-mana inside of it.


    What are you? Wondered Alice, as she continued to inspect the gemstone.


    Sadly, her vision just wasnt precise enough to inspect the little gemstone yet. It was hard to investigate, even with Ethans assistance, leaving Alice frustrated before she returned to her room.


    Still, it wasnt entirely a loss.


    At least Alice knew where to look now.


    Alice decided to hold off on using her other three opportunities to make magic seeds until her perk was closer to refreshing, or until she made any new discoveries. But for now, she had a path to keep researching. And she also needed to prepare for a meeting with the [King].

 Chapter 161

    Chapter 161


    Alice spent the next three days verifying a few things.


    Now that she was aware of the small little gem-like clump of mana inside of her and Ethans brain, Alice started to check other people for the same thing. Alice wanted to see what the System had done with those clumps of mana. If she could figure out how and why the System made them, she might be able to figure out how to deal with the Alice mana in her brain.


    For this purpose, Alice first asked Cecilia to let her investigate Cecilias brain, since Alice thought that was a good place to start.


    However, upon scanning Cecilias brain and checking for the tiny, multicolored gem of mana, Alice realized that Cecilia didnt have one. It wasnt present in Cecilias body or at the very least, if it was, Alice couldnt find it. It might be so small that Alice just couldnt observe it without boosting her senses somehow. But either way, Alice had no way to check Cecilias mana gem.


    Upon seeing that Cecilia had no mana gem, Alice started thinking. She had a sneaking suspicion that she knew why she had a gem and Cecilia didnt, but just to make sure, she asked Cecilia what level her highest class was at.


    Cecilia was now at level 63 in [Enchanter], which had overtaken her [Merchant] class. Alice suspected that the mana gem was something only present in people above level 75.


    To gather more data, Alice asked Ethan for help. Ethan had several [Guards], [Soldiers], and other assorted professions come in and let Alice confirm two things.


    First, as far as she could tell, anyone below level 80 did not seem to have a mana gem in their brain at all. It seemed that rather than having the mana gem appear at level 75, level 80 was the important one. Which also explained why Alice had never noticed it before it had probably only shown up after Alice had merged two Perks into her first Tier 3 Perk.


    Second, Alice confirmed that anyone who was at or above level 80 had a small mana gem in their brain, regardless of what they did with their Perks. If they merged two Tier 2 Perks together into a Tier 3 Perk, they had a mana gem. If they had just taken another new Perk at level 80, or made another Tier 2 Perk, they also had a mana gem in their brain although it was much smaller.


    In other words, the way that one handled their Perks made a very significant difference in the size of their mana gem. This made Alice lean towards the theory that people below level 80 still had mana gems, it just wasnt large enough to observe in detail. Alice hoped that whenever she reached level 85 in [Explorer of Magic], she would get a better way to check on smaller mana constructs so that she could confirm this theory, but that would have to wait until later.


    As Alice observed these mana gems, she also confirmed that anyone who had reached level 80 before the collapse of the System had a bunch of person mana stuck in their mana gem. Ollie the [Hairstylist] had a small amount of Ollie mana in his mana gem. Martha the [Commander] had a large amount of Martha mana in her mana gem. And so on.


    This confirmed Alices suspicion from earlier. The System was very much aware of the problems posed by things like Alice mana, and the mana gems were built to deal with those problems. Everyone who had formed their first level 80 Perk before the collapse of the System suffered no problems from their personal type of mana.


    Obviously, whatever the System did hadnt occurred when Alice reached level 80. When Alice asked the Church of the System and Ethan if anyone else had similar problems to her own, both entitites did a little bit of searching. It took some time to find someone else who had reached level 80 after the collapse, but after a day of searching, two were found.


    Similar to her, they had a moderate amount of person mana stuck inside of their brain, and complained about minor amounts of personality corrosion. Nobody else had quite the same amount of personal mana stuck inside of their head, the way Alice did she seemed to have an abnormally large amount of Alice mana to handle. But they all suffered from the same problem.


    Alice wasnt quite sure how to solve it yet, but she was curious to know whether her filtration mana could somehow stuff the Alice mana in her head into her mana gem.


    Unfortunately, this was about where Alices research stalled out. Even though {Safety Analysis} said that it was safe to try, after some experimentation, the experiment went nowhere. Alice mana could not just be randomly stuffed inside of her mana gem.


    Alice wasnt quite sure what she needed to do to handle the Alice mana in her body yet. Luckily, Alices primary class was [Explorer of Magic], and Alice felt that the class was tailor-made to handle the problem. With another Tier 3 Perk, she would hopefully have a better solution for Alice mana.


    Thus, Alice decided to put off her research into mana gems for now. She just didnt have the Perks she needed to observe them in detail yet.Updated from


    Instead, she prepared for her audience with the [King]. With Ethans help, she got her {Etiquette} teacher back, as well as a large quantity of books on {Etiquette}. After three days of cramming, Alices {Etiquette} skill made exceptional strides forward.


    Through training, you have increased a skill!


    Etiquette: 22 -> 28


    After her days of research and cramming, it was time to meet the [King].


    Alice strode through the doors of the palace with Ethan, trying to look confident.


    Alice blushed.


    I would do it either way, but Im definitely happier to work for a reward, she said. Something about the way the [King] spoke to her felt strange. She had expected him to be more formal. Overbearing, maybe. Instead, it almost felt like he was trying to keep her off-balance.


    Before Alice could focus on that thought, the [King] moved to yet another topic.


    I also heard that you were attacked by Emilia about a week ago?


    Alice shuddered. Yes, your majesty. During the boat ride back to Cyra, Immortal Emilia did attack us.


    The [King] frowned. So the Sigmusi really did send an Immortal after a potential Illvarian Immortal. His frown deepened, and for a moment, the [King] seemed to get lost in his thoughts. Alice could see worry appear on his face, as well as frustration.


    The [Princess] touched the [King]s shoulder, and he shook himself out of his thoughts. He turned back towards Alice, and his gaze was a bit more considerate than before.


    It must have been frightening, encountering a hostile Immortal when you are still so far away from Immortality. We hope that you were not terribly injured during the fight?


    It was something else, said Alice. I saw Perks that I dont understand being tossed around on a battlefield I would never have survived on my own. I cannot say it is an experience I am eager to repeat. There were a lot of things that I dont know how I would handle, if I had been alone. Immortals have truly absurd ability sets when they go all-out.


    The [King] nodded, his eyes never leaving Alices for even a moment. Alice had the strange sensation of being stared at by a cold, unwavering block of iron for a moment, before the [Princess] touched the [Kings] shoulder again.


    This time, Alice saw a flicker of rainbow mana pass between the two of them, which Alice assumed was some sort of Perk to relay messages, perhaps? She studied the flicker of rainbow mana with interest, but it disappeared before Alice could get a good look at it. The [King]s words distracted Alice before she could think further about the spark of rainbow mana.


    A moment later, the [King] gave Alice an even more curious look.


    Were curious, Alice. What do you make of this crisis? Its obvious that you know quite a bit about it. What is the root cause of all of this? What are we to make of your claims that the deity most Illvarians worship is malfunctioning?


    Alice swallowed. She felt a certain weight attached to this question that she hadnt felt earlier. She spent a brief moment wondering whether the monarch of Illvaria was religious. A few members of the Church of the System hadnt taken Alices claims about the System very well, although most of them had been willing to put aside religious dogma in the face of a brewing crisis. Alice also hadnt divulged all of her thoughts on the matter, such as her belief that the System was neither sapient nor sentient.


    If the [King] was very religious, this might be a bit more troublesome than she had been expecting.


    Well I would like to point out the decisive evidence that the System is malfunctioning, mostly. There are many recent instances of the System not working properly such as children getting their Status Screens too early, peoples Class mana driving them to act out in ways that run counter to their personality, and Perk selection not having any text Alice started, eyeing the [King] nervously.


    The [King] slowly nodded as Alice went into more detail on each type of incident. Contrary to Alices fears, he didnt lash out or contradict her as she spoke, simply letting her present all of the oddities she had encountered as time passed. Finally, the [King] turned back towards Ethan.


    What do you think of her claims and thoughts, Ethan?


    At least for now, Id say that she has demonstrably figured out a lot of valuable information about the collapse of the System. Not only that, but my apprentice has found ways to counteract some of the problems posed by the collapse of the System. Im sure you are already aware of the supply line established between Metsel and Cyra, and how important the enchanting materials and enchantments involved are.


    The [King] actually grinned at that, although Alice could barely see it.


    Do you think that there is anyone better positioned than Alice in the kingdom to handle all of this?


    I dont. I can confidently say that Alice is the best positioned in Illvaria to handle this crisis, and possibly, the best positioned in the world to handle the aftershocks of the collapse of the System. Ethan was also smiling faintly, although Alice couldnt quite figure out why.


    The [King] eyed Alice thoughtfully again, and this time, Alice could see a slight twinkle in his eyes.


    Then perhaps we should move to the real reason we called you here, Lady Alice.

 Chapter 162

    Chapter 162


    The real reason for this meeting? Alice asked, trying not to show her surprise on her face.


    When she had learned the [King] wanted to see her, she had thought it was related to the collapse of the System. The System breaking had introduced an avalanche of problems to the kingdom. The [King] asking someone who understood the problem to help manage the crisis just seemed reasonable. It made so much sense to her that she hadnt stopped to question it. Alice had been a little surprised that the [King] had noticed her existence, but she was the apprentice of an Immortal. That probably gave her a lot of extra visibility.


    So the idea that the [King] had a different reason for calling her here took her by surprise.


    Indeed, Lady Alice, said the [King]. The twinkle in his eyes grew stronger with each word he spoke. Alice suspected that the man was enjoying catching her by surprise We have some things we wished to request of you, and some boons for your efforts so far.


    All right? I mean, your subject hears your request, said Alice, hoping the [King] wouldnt be upset at her breach of etiquette.


    We wish to preface this meeting with a statement, said the [King], as the twinkle faded from his eyes for a moment. The collapse of the System is extremely dangerous. We estimate that within a three or four months, more and more people are going to start fading. This is something that the crown desires to prevent.New novel chapters are published on


    Alice nodded. She felt that four months might even be an optimistic estimate. The majority of people in the kingdom were probably going to be just like Boris within a month. Given all of Alices efforts to slow down the spread of people losing their minds, maybe they had two months.


    Sure, Cecilias [Enchanters] were now at work creating rings to fix the [Enchanter] class, and Ethan had also started getting other [Enchanters] in the kingdom to make anti-mana rings much like the one Alice had made for Borris. But the production of enchanted rings was nowhere near the supply needed to handle the catastrophe. Illvaria had somewhere between one and two million people living in it, and there was no way the very limited number of [Enchanters] in the kingdom could churn out enough rings for everyone. And it was taking too long to teach new people how to make enchantments like the ring that Cecilias [Enchanters] had made. Alice hadnt figured out a solution to this problem yet.


    The [King], heedless of Alices internal musings, continued speaking.


    This crisis worries us. As much as we hate to admit that the System could struggle, we are not so foolish as to deny the evidence in front of our eyes. The [King] looked at Alice. So we have two things to bestow upon you, and one thing to request.


    First of all, we hereby raise you to the rank of an honorary [Baroness]. It does not carry the benefit of any land, much like all other Mage-[Noble] titles. But you will receive the other benefits befitting your new station. The [King] paused. This is what you deserve for helping the Church of the System establish countermeasures against the current crisis, and finding a source of enchanting materials for the new rings being made. They have already started to circulate through Metsel, and the preliminary results are quite promising. Then, the [King] paused, glancing at Alice. One thing to keep in mind is that Mage-[Noble] titles will not pass on to any children or family members you may have. If you want a hereditary [Noble] title, you will need to work harder.


    Alice just barely managed to resist the urge to shrug. She didnt have any kids. She had never been particularly interested in romance. If that changed in the future, she would figure it out then.


    The second thing we wanted to bestow upon you was a title, of sorts.


    Hadnt the [King] just given her a title?


    This title comes with certain conditions involved, said the [King], heedless of Alices confusion. We believe that the collapse of the System has the potential to inflict great harm upon the people of Illvaria and we need someone who is able to advise us on how to counteract those problems. An advisor, of sorts.


    Alice felt a little bit better. At least her suspicions about the purpose of this meeting hadnt been totally wrong. The [King] had called her here to address the collapse of the System. If the [King] had called upon her for a totally different reason, Alice would have wondered if there was something wrong with the countrys monarch.


    What specifically would this advisor position entail? What would the requirements be? What are the benefits? asked Alice. Even if she did want to help people, she had been doing fine with Ethans help. Working directly for the [King] might actually prove more of a hindrance than a boon for this, depending on what new obligations it saddled her with.


    The [King] smiled slightly.


    Lets talk about compensation first. According to what letters we have exchanged with Ethan, you are already paid a generous amount?


    Yes, your majesty, said Alice. Ethan currently paid her about 30 golden sun a month for her time and effort. It was enough for her to live in luxury and still have plenty of money left over. Not to mention, Ethan also handled most of her expenses she was staying in Ethans manor to have a better buffer against the Society, several [Guards] were usually in charge of keeping her safe, and Ethan had even hired a [Hidden Guard] to keep any Society attacks from hurting her. Ethan also paid for her [Teachers] meaning that Alice had surprisingly few expenses right now.


    In that case, we have three different offers for you. First of all, we could give you proper compensation in the form of money. Say one hundred golden suns a month? This amount of money would be quite reasonable as a reward for someone who has managed to discover so much critical information. Especially given the very limited timeframe and resources you have had available to do all of this.


    Alice paused for a moment. To be honest, if the [King] hadnt mentioned that he had other offers, Alice probably would have just accepted that offer. One hundred golden suns was a ridiculous monthly salary. Alice could buy multiple books a month with that and this was in a world where books were extravagant luxury goods. One hundred golden coins was more than most successful [Merchants] made in a year.


    What are the other offers? asked Alice, after a few moments.


    Well, based on our understanding of your personality, we doubt this one will appeal to you but if youre interested, we can still make it happen, said the [King], with a throw it out and see if it sticks kind of attitude. As a reward for your previous actions, as well as your agreement to our conditions, we could make you a real [Baroness], with land. Your Mage-[Noble] title would be converted into a proper [Noble] title. The crown has several smaller baronies and counties that could be given to you, so if you do wish to own land, we could certainly find something that suits you. The [Kings] expression grew sour a moment later. Some members of the [Noble] estate might object to that, on the grounds that most people who get awarded real, inheritable [Noble] titles have performed much greater services to the crown. But we can force it through, if a real [Noble] title is what you truly desire.


    Alice didnt feel terribly interested in this offer. Being a [Baroness] sounded more like a nightmare than a reward. Alice could just imagine how much time she would waste trying to put out fires in her territory, manage political discussions, meet with other [Nobles], and manage finances. Not to mention how weird it would be to come from Earth, a planet where [Nobles] had basically disappeared, and transition to being a [Noble] in her own right. Alice had accepted that this world hadnt really advanced beyond monarchies, either due to quirks of history or because of how Classes incentivized people to keep doing one thing throughout their lives. Even so, Alice wasnt ready to fully embrace the feudal system. Becoming a [Noble] would just feel weird to her.


    For this purpose, we would require that you meet with us at least once every three days to discuss your findings and proposed solutions. Were willing to implement most solutions we feel are reasonable, and given the unfolding crisis, the estates are a lot more united than they usually are. But that requires people to understand whats actually going on, said the [King].


    Alice thought about it for a moment. That wasnt too bad. Attending a meeting with the [King] to explain what was going on made sense, and afterwards, Alice could just return to solving-


    And there will be other people at the meeting as well that we think will be able to help handle problems. A few of our [Advisors], as well as other people such as the [Minister of Finance], will be critical to forming policies for Illvaria as a whole. We would need you to be able to present information and evidence confirming its authenticity, so that we can build policies around it.


    Alice tried not to wince. There went her dream of a simple, quick meeting.


    I have {Shared Memories}. Is that enough for evidence?


    The [King] thought about it for a few moments, before he nodded. Thats acceptable. We would appreciate it if you had everything written down as well, though. While it seems like youve invested heavily into memory Perks, most people dont bother.


    Alice nodded. That was still manageable.


    I accept your conditions, said Alice. And I would like the title for myself and Cecilia as the reward.


    We thought you might appreciate that offer the most, said the [King], as his smile grew wider.


    Then I hereby name you {Royal Crisis Analyst}.


    A moment later, mana surged towards Alice, and a few seconds later, a System notification popped up.


    You achieved an Achievement!


    Royal Crisis Analyst (Rarity:N/A)


    Named by King. Appoint. Chosen to analyze crisis.


    ++80% class experience for classes that analyze the crisis Collapse of the System. Perception stat +20% effect. You g@in ability to sense places where crisis hits harder than others within country_Illvaria, and some perception of Relevaaaaaaant areas of interest.


    Alice blinked as the new Achievement settled into her body. The way the mana from the Achievement moved into her body also felt slightly different than before. She turned her eyesight inwards using {Lesser Organic Vision}, and noticed that a lot of the mana from this new Achievement was making its way towards her head. There, Alice lost sight of it it was moving a little bit too fast, and she was also distracted reading her new Achievement.


    But most distracting of all, a moment later, Alice felt a very new, very weird sensation. It was a very, very weak sense of where people were succumbing to problems caused by the System collapse.


    In a very, very limited way, Alice felt like she could sense all of Illvaria now.


    Some villages were filled with people who were starting to succumb to their class mana. Others had people who had been ripped apart by armies of intelligent, coordinated monsters. Alice couldnt detect most of these crises well, or exactly what was happening inside of them. But she could probably pinpoint most of these crises on a map and only be off by a few dozen kilometers. Considering the fact that her vision extended all the way across Illvaria, that was quite impressive.


    Finally, Alice also sensed something. Something far to the northwest that felt important to her.


    Alice blinked in surprise. A place that was relevant to the crisis


    The fact that the System had a physical mainframe somewhere


    Alice had been baffled about the right way to track down the Systems location after she learned that it existed. After all, this planet was just as big as Earth, and Alice had no way of knowing where the System might be at all. It could be under the ocean, in the sky, or even in the center of the planet or the moon, and she would be none the wiser.


    But now, Alice had the very distinct feeling that something important was to the northwest, even if the exact location was pretty vague.


    And Alice had a very, very strong suspicion that she knew what that important thing was.

 Chapter 163

    Chapter 163


    After bestowing Alice her new royal title, the [King] said that Cecilia would be called upon for her own royal title within the next week. Then he shooed Alice and Ethan out of the throne room.


    Once they got back to Ethans manor, Alice told Ethan about the information her new Perk was giving her. Even now, Alice could feel as if something Northwest of Illvaria was calling to her, and Alice wanted to take advantage of this information and see if she could fix all of this. Naturally, it would be much easier to make things happen with Ethans help.


    So you think that the mainframe of the System is in the Northwest somewhere? asked Ethan, after Alice finished explaining her thoughts.


    Alice nodded. I suspect its what my new Achievement is picking up, at least. I could be wrong, since the only thing I know for sure is that theres something important to the northwest. But I think its plausible that the mainframe of the System is there, and if I could see it... maybe I could figure out how to repair it, she said.


    Ethan frowned.


    That is unfortunate. Of all the directions it could have been in how far away is it? Does your Achievement tell you?


    It doesnt, sadly. I know that its not in Illvaria, because I do have a rough mental map of Illvaria from my Perk. Beyond that, I only know that its far away.


    Ethans facial expression grew darker. There are only a few places northwest of Illvaria, and all of them are problematic. The first place your Achievement could be leading you to is somewhere in the Sigmusi Colonia. In which case, if we wanted to investigate it, we would need to get a way into the Sigmusi Colonias territory. Asking them for passage sounds like an awful idea. Just a week ago one of their Immortals tried to either kidnap or assassinate you. Waltzing into their territory is just asking for them to try again.


    The Sigmusi Colonias territory extends all the way to the western and northern coasts of the Southern continent, so there are no other countries or locations that your Achievement could be leading you towards that are on the southern continent.


    The second place the Achievement could be leading you towards is the western continent, which is filled with the worlds most powerful monsters. The final place your Achievement could be leading you towards is underwater. Trying to access something thats underwater would be a massive logistical hassle. Not to mention, that particular region of the ocean is controlled by the Sigmusi.


    Alice winced. Every single one of those locations sounded frustrating to access and investigate.


    Without submarines, I can definitely see why operating underwater would be a major hassle, said Alice, as she thought of the possibility of the System being underwater. Maybe there was some way to get around the problem of breathing and moving underwater with enchantments?


    As Alice was lost in her thoughts, Ethan started speaking again.


    Actually, there is a fourth location the Achievement could be leading you towards, now that I think about it. When your Perk gave you a glimpse of the mainframe of the System, did you see any hints that would indicate whether the System was underground, underwater, or perhaps flying in the sky somewhere?


    Alice brightened up as she considered the possibility of an airborne System. Trying to find a flying enchantment might take a lot of effort, but it sounded much less dangerous than the other locations that Ethan had mentioned. Not to mention, flying using magic was something most powerful [Kinetic Mages] could do, so the logistical problems of accessing the System would be far easier to solve.


    Alices good mood only lasted a few moments, until she worked on recalling her memories of the System again. She had only seen the mainframe of the System once, while using her Perk to learn more about various types of mana, but based on what she could remember


    I think the System is underground, Alice said, trying not to feel disappointed. Theres a chance that maybe the vision my perk gave me all those weeks ago was incomplete or something. But I dont think the System is flying, unless its a giant enchantment floating in the sky and surrounded by several layers of stone. Alice paused. Actually, maybe the Systems mainframe could be in the moon? Is the moon northwest of here?


    The moon is most definitely not northwest of here right now, said Ethan. According to most [Scholar] estimations of the moons orbit, at this moment it should be a bit to the south and also beneath our feet.


    So much for that idea then, said Alice. She felt a bit of relief at Ethans words.


    Is there any way at all we could get into the Sigmusis territory, to start looking around? asked Alice, hoping that Ethan had some sort of solution she hadnt thought of yet.


    Unless we declare war on the Sigmusi, then successfully conquer the country I doubt it. And honestly, I dont fancy our odds against them unless the other Shil Confederacy nations back us up. And wars take time.


    Alice sighed.


    She absently grabbed a world map and started scanning it, hoping to find something that was Northwest but wasnt one of the three locations Ethan mentioned. Maybe looking at the map would provide Alice with some sort of inspiration?


    There were no good locations for the System to be in. Every single one was problematic and hard to access.


    The only thing Alice got out of looking at the map was a vague guess about an alternate location for the Systems mainframe. Alice felt that Ethans argument about the Systems location made sense. The Western continent was probably the most logical place for the System mainframe to be.


    However, there was one other obvious alternative spot.


    Far to the northwest, there was a place that was renowned for being incredibly rich in mana. It was a massive shipping hazard, and it was filled with monsters. In fact, Alice had heard about it before she just hadnt considered it important, and so she had just ignored it afterwards.


    The maelstrom, said Alice, looking at the large plot of ocean marked on the map. There were even a few small islands noted to exist in the middle of the maelstrom although much like the western continent, nobody had ever explored them, because the dense mana and powerful monsters were too problematic.


    Ethan paused, and looked at the map in front of Alice. Finally, he nodded.


    The maelstrom would also make sense. I think the Western Continent is a better candidate for the location of the System, but the Maelstrom would be my second guess, he said.


    Then, Ethan sighed.


    Regardless of which location the System is in, we dont have enough information to make plans. And we also have massive roadblocks that get in the way of our actions. Ethan shook his head in frustration.


    Alice laughed bitterly. I guess well just have to keep muddling our way forward the way weve been doing so far. Repairing the mainframe of the System is the easiest way forward, but there are a lot of other things we can do to contain the damage right now. Speaking of which, would it be possible for you to help me find a few more people above level 75? I still need to figure out how to control the Alice mana in my brain, she said, trying to push down the feeling of bitterness rising in her heart.


    Im still having some of my [Messengers] look for people. Its a bit difficult, since people who reached above level 75 are rare. But ultimately, there should be more people to look at soon, said Ethan.


    Alice nodded, before she sighed and left.


    She spent a lot of time that night thinking about how to proceed, now that the most obvious paths forward were blocked off, but couldnt think of an easy solution, even during the extra thinking time afforded to her by the {Sleep Reading} Perk.


    When she woke up the next morning, at breakfast, she was surprised to see Ethan was in a rather jovial mood. Before Alice could ask, Ethan grinned at her.


    Youre lucky. Trying to find the mainframe of the System might not be as hopeless as I thought. The sixth Immortal of Illvaria returned to Metsel last night.

 Chapter 164

    Chapter 164


    Alice and Ethan walked into the building where they were scheduled to meet with Murim, Illvarias sixth Immortal. As she stepped into the building, Alice couldnt help but feel both apprehensive and surprised.


    When Alice had heard that she was about to meet with another of Illvarias Immortals, she had expected that she might meet with him at a fancy dinner or a [Noble] tea party. She wouldnt have found it odd if she needed to put on her fancy dress again, instead of being able to wear her comfortable everyday clothes. Alice had pictured a meeting similar to the one with Myra, Ethans mother.


    This idea clashed violently with the building Alice now found herself in.


    The place they were meeting Murim was clearly a pub. It smelled strongly of alcohol, and while there were a few [Waiters] and [Waitresses] puttering about, half of the people were lined up at the bar and ordering drinks. Furthermore, the few [Waiters] and [Waitresses] in the bar werent particularly attractive, despite the fact that their Class should emphasize [Charisma]. Alice checked the level of the servers, and confirmed that most of them were low to mid level there wasnt a single [Waiter] or [Waitress] above level 40 in the entire building.


    The building was also poorly lit and had few decorations. The walls were a rather unappealing piss-yellow color, and on one side of the room Alice could see a group of people cheering as they hurled darts at a dartboard, adding to the noise and clutter of the room. The only real compliment Alice had for the establishment was that, despite the smell and sound, all of the seats looked clean. Though that was probably due to a cleaning Perk, rather than any real diligence on the part of the business owner or staff.


    After entering the building, Ethan raised a wooden token high enough for the [Bartender] behind the counter to see it. The [Bartender] nodded, and gestured towards a staircase leading to the second floor. Ethan and Alice ascended the staircase in silence, before they found the right room and entered.


    Alice carefully inspected her seat and the table before she sat down, just to make sure she wasnt about to sit on anything gross. Luckily, whatever cleaning Perk was at work keeping the rest of the building clean had kept the chair spotless.


    Is this really the meeting place where were supposed to meet Murim? asked Alice, after she reluctantly sat down. Even though Ethan had said that Murim disliked formality, this was still somewhat outside of Alices expectations.


    Ethan sighed, and then nodded. Almost certainly. The [Waitresses] match Murims preferences quite well


    Alice blinked.


    The [Waitresses]?Updated from


    Alice pondered that word for almost a full minute as thoughts swirled around her head. She looked at Ethan in confusion.


    Slightly over thirty and kind of sallow-faced, said Ethan, shrugging. Alices confusion only deepened. She wasnt sure why Ethan had mentioned the [Waitresses] to begin with.


    Well, when your [Charisma] increases, you become more conventionally attractive, but a lot of the direction your body and facial features go is based on your own desires. So its not exactly a 100% thing, even though some facial features are considered pretty universally attractive. You know, symmetry, the golden ratio, things like that. Ethan shrugged. Every time Murim returns from the wilderness, it has usually been at least a decade or two since his last return to civilization. Sometimes he goes five or six decades without seeing another human being. So when he returns, he usually spends a few months cutting loose and partying. Murim is a very attractive, famous person who, at least in theory, has a high status in Society. He has a pretty easy time finding erm female friends to spend a few weeks with. Alice felt her cheeks warm she realized what Ethan meant.


    I dont know if its really the perfect way to handle the stress of being in the wilderness for months on end, said Ethan thoughtfully. But everyones life is their own to live. And he does genuinely seem to love his lifestyle, even if I find it baffling. I dont think Id be able to handle the loneliness. To each their own, I guess. Alice felt a bit surprised to hear Ethan reveal that he would be so impacted by spending decades away from civilization. But then, her thoughts returned to the absurdity of Ethans earlier statements.


    Are the [Waitresses] the only criteria for a meeting spot? asked Alice incredulously.


    No. Ethan sighed. Murim is also a massive alcoholic, and unlike most Immortals, he isnt quite as conventionally wealthy as most of us. After all, most of his activities are conducted outside of civilization. Since most people die horrifically if they go too far south, and thats where Murims exploration usually takes place, he doesnt really have anything to sell. Even his maps arent really that sought after, people would just die of mana poisoning if they tried to follow them. Since hes not that wealthy, he probably chose this place because it sells large quantities of cheap liquor. And with the [Endurance] of an Immortal who has a survival-oriented class, he certainly needs a lot of alcohol if he wants to get drunk.


    Alice felt an oncoming headache, before she pushed it down. How Murim lived his life had nothing to do with her, as long as he wasnt hurting anyone else in the process. Though Alice did wonder how in the world she was supposed to approach this meeting now.


    The two sat in silence as Alice got lost in her thoughts. Minutes ticked by.


    The agreed upon meeting time came and went.


    About ten minutes after the meeting was supposed to start, there was still no sign of the other Immortal.


    Alice started to feel worried.


    Had something happened to the other Immortal? Why wasnt he here yet? Had something gone horribly wrong with the class seeds in his body, causing him to lose control of himself? Alice hadnt seen any similar signs in Ethan, but just because Ethan was avoiding most of the fallout from the System so far didnt mean every other Immortal was. Alice had just assumed that they would be more resistant to the collapse of the System but there were still plenty of things she didnt know about the System. Maybe she had missed something.


    Nice to meet you, Alice, said Murim, giving Alice a nod. I havent seen any of Ethans apprentices be so young in quite a while. Are you biologically sixteen, or chronologically sixteen?


    Both, said Alice. I didnt really level up very much before I became a Mage, but after I survived my baptism, my levelling speed skyrocketed.


    A magic enthusiast, then? asked Murim. Well, its risky to undergo a baptism, but it seems to have worked out for you. As long as you can stand by your own decisions, then regardless of whether you live or die, youve lived a worthy life. Isnt that right? Ive always admired the determination of people who undergo mana baptisms, even if it seems batshit insane.


    Alice decided not to reveal the fact that she had underwent a mana baptism entirely by accident. Now that Murim had put mana baptisms in such a positive light, Alice felt awkward bringing the subject up.


    More importantly, shes also someone who has researched the current crisis in great detail.


    Is that so? asked Murim. What exactly is going on? Ive seen how messed up the mana wastes have become, and Ive also heard that a few people have lost their minds recently Alice almost asked how messed up the mana wastes had gotten, but decided to hold off on questioning Murim until later.


    If you went to any Church of the System, you could get a full, detailed report of the most recent events concerning the System, said Ethan.


    Murim shrugged. I aint religious. The System exists, but the only god I worship is the green woods and the night sky. Why would I go to a church?


    Fair, said Ethan, after a moment. Well, in any case, the current crisis is complex. My apprentice can give you a rundown of the current crisis in more detail than I could. Alice?


    Alice cleared her throat, and then started introducing Murim to the collapse of the System. Since he didnt seem like the kind of person who would appreciate a long, detailed list of theories, Alice did her best to shorten the crisis down to a quick and dirty explanation.


    Finally, after Alices explanation, Murim rubbed his temples.


    So if Im getting this right youre basically saying that the System is a giant enchantment. Now that it broke, everyone is fucked. Is that right?


    Essentially, said Alice, after some thought.


    I knew there was something funny about worshipping the System as a god, said Murim. Back when she was alive, my ma always said I was a smarter cookie than I seemed to be. Murim grinned. Glad to see that I can prove her right today. Then, Murim frowned. But I dont see how this related to me. I dont have a magic seed, and at this point, Im an Immortal. I have an Achievement that makes me totally immune to mana poisoning, so I have no way to force a mana baptism. Even if I did, Im not really willing to undergo one, since that could end pretty damn poorly for me. Ive never really relished the thought of screwing around with magic seeds either. I dont mind helping out if I can, since it sounds like this crisis hurts everyone. Heck, it sounds like that might be the reason the mana wastes are so messed up now. But I dont really see how any of this relates to me.


    Well, its like this, said Ethan. Alice has a few theories about where the System might be. That is to say, a central mainframe of the System.


    Ah. Murim seemed to understand where the conversation was going now. So youre saying that there is a physical location where the System might be, and you want me to locate it?


    Alice nodded. If its possible for you to find it, that would be really useful. I might be able to fix this mess if I have access to the mainframe of the System. That being said, I dont know how dangerous it would be for you, so feel free to reject my request if its impossible.


    Where are the potential locations of the System?


    Either the Sigmusi Colonia, underwater, or the western continent. No matter what location its in, it should be northwest of Illvaria. But I dont know how far to the northwest it is.


    Murim burst out laughing. You dont pick easy targets do you? He shook his head, as if he found the entire situation hilarious. You know what, Im up for a challenge. His grin grew wider and wider, until it looked almost inhuman how far his lips stretched. If its the western continent, then theres no way I can explore it. That area is too dangerous for me. But I can at least investigate the northwest a bit, and tell you what I find. How about you tell me everything you know, and Ill see what I can do? No promises, but I can investigate and see how things go. Im confident in my ability to sneak around the Sigmusi Colonia for a month or two and get away undetected.


    Alice and Murim conversed for nearly an hour afterwards, with Alice giving Murim every scrap of information she could about the Systems mainframe and potential locations.


    Afterwards, Ethan and Murim discussed payment, and a deal was struck.


    Alice now had someone looking for the mainframe of the System for her.

 Chapter 165

    Chapter 165


    After the conversation with Murim ended, Alice and Ethan returned to the manor. Alice started looking over her Status Screen as she took stock of the situation.


    The [Kings] Achievement had given her a rough idea where the System might be, but Alice couldnt take advantage of that information yet. Murim was her only chance to narrow down the physical location of the System, but it was uncertain whether Murim would successfully locate it. He might return empty handed, or duck out if the Sigmusi started hunting him down. In other words, Alice had done everything she could with the Systems physical mainframe for now.


    Alices other attempts to quell the chaos of the collapse were going better. Alices enchantments were on track to handle mana forcibly changing peoples personalities, and Cecilias [Enchanters] were successfully forming new magic seeds. The first few batches of materials from Cyra had arrived recently, and Cecilias [Enchanters] had successfully made a few rings without Alices supervision. Cecilias [Enchanters] had even given her a proposal for expanding the group recently. Alice didnt think that things were moving fast enough on that front, but things were still progressing on that front.


    Now it was time to think about what to do next.


    There were still several problems to solve. Alice mana was a potential threat to Alice that she didnt know how to solve yet. Achievements were still broken. Intelligent monster swarms were starting to devastate smaller towns around the country. The timer before even stronger willed people started losing their sanity from class mana was ticking down, and Alices solutions werent propagating quickly enough to handle that. The recent actions of the Sigmusi and the Society were also worrying. They both seemed dead set on targeting Alice, and Alice didnt have the tools to defend herself properly. Finally, there needed to be some way to create new class seeds, and Alice hadnt the faintest idea how to do that right now. The creation of a new class seed seemed like the most important function of the System, but it was also the most complicated, and Alice wasnt sure how to even start yet.


    Alice massaged her forehead as she sat on her bed, thinking. What problem should she tackle next? What problems could she tackle? Right now, Alice had no idea how to speed up production of enchanted rings that cured mana-related problems. The biggest problem was production capacity, and Alice was more of a researcher than a [Merchant]. Monster armies really werent a problem Alice understood how to tackle. Alices knowledge of military tactics was nonexistent, and although Alice was no longer a slouch when it came to personal combat, Alice was pretty sure that someone like Ethan or the Sun Knight was in a much better place to handle monster armies. Ethan had hinted that his father was dealing with the matter somehow, so Alice decided to ignore it. Similarly, Alice just wasnt able to grow quickly enough to meet the threat of the Society and the Sigmusi. While she definitely wanted to learn how to defend herself eventually, she was stuck relying on Ethan and her [Guards] for now, and that wasnt going to change anytime soon.


    That left Alice mana and broken Achievements. Alice mana was clearly the bigger problem, so Alice decided to focus on it first.


    Unfortunately, Alice wasnt quite sure how to advance that problem. Realistically, Alice needed to be level 85 to look at Alice mana. That was when she would be able to fuse {Expanding Comprehension} and {Intuitive Magic Modelling}. That meant Alice needed to get four levels in [Explorer of Magic].


    How was she supposed to get four more levels in [Explorer of Magic]?


    Alice thought about it, before she sighed.


    Just a few days ago, she had been thinking about what mana types must be part of System mana. She had made a list of magic types she could create. She hadnt used three of her four magic seed creations for the month yet, because Alice had been hoping for a bigger hint about what she needed next. The moment Alice used the first magic seed combination, she had felt the Perk start ticking towards its cooldown, so she hadnt wasted any of her Perk uses. Unfortunately, the meeting with the [King], as well as her discussion with Ethan, hadnt really shed any light on what kinds of mana it would be best to integrate into her magic seed next.


    Alice needed levels now, so it was time to finish using her three magic seed creations for the month.


    She needed pure mana, organic mana, meaning mana, and possibly some sort of core mana that held the System together. But Alice already knew three types of mana she needed to integrate into her System seed, so she might as well get on with it.


    First, Alice started creating meaning mana. It was the type of mana Alice understood the least, but Alice was hoping that maybe it would fix all of the broken grammar in her System messages.


    Alice spent several minutes running various questions through {Safety Analysis}, before she finally got started.


    The process for creating a meaning mana magic seed was interesting. Alice didnt perfectly understand the type of mana she was trying to create, which made it much harder for her to create the new magic seed than usual.


    It ended up taking several more minutes to get the magic seed correctly constructed, and once it was built, Alice felt that she might botched the construction a bit. The magic seed would probably leak a crazy amount of broken mana whenever she used it. Not the end of the world, but Alice was still rather dissatisfied with her work.


    But even though it wasnt perfect, it wasnt a safety hazard. Even though Alice was tempted to destroy it with {Broken Seed} and start over, after a few moments, she sighed, and decided to leave it. She had very limited uses of her seed-creation Perk, and she couldnt waste them. Instead, she activated the second component of her Perk. The newly constructed meaning magic seed was absorbed and integrated into her System magic seed moments later.


    Alice spent a few more seconds going over the changes in her System seed, trying to see if anything felt different than before. She distinctly remembered that after she had created a math magic seed, she had felt like her integrated magic seed had gained something more. Something crucial to what the System was.


    This time, she didnt get the same sensation.


    Alice frowned.


    She had been hoping for that sensation to return, because it might have given her more hints about what it meant. She had been hoping for something new to explore so that she could level up her class further. Unfortunately, her hope ended up fruitless.


    Alice sighed, and decided to try again with another magic seed once she tested out her new mana type. If at first she didnt succeed, she just needed to keep trying. She used some of her newly made meaning mana, along with her Display mana, to look at one of her Perks, and see if the translation of the System message changed.


    Perk Naaaame: Delve _ Memories


    Perk Costs: Delve into the Arcane + Improved Memory


    Perk _ Synergy detected: Sleep Reading


    Vastly improved understanding while using remembering. Can level, analyze, and improve magic better.


    While {Sleep Reading}, can use objects you remember. Levelling speed improved by Get_Number while sleep reading. Experiments and Enchantments very accurate while sleep.


    Alice checked her experience again, and was sad to see that she still hadnt gotten to level 82 in [Explorer of Magic] yet. She was probably close, but apparently her actions so far simply werent enough to push her over the edge.


    She had one more magic seed formation left.


    Alice spent several minutes thinking about what she wanted.


    Now that Alice knew that a variety of different types of mana needed to serve as the core of System mana, Alice wasnt entirely sure what those mana types needed to be.


    Her thoughts drifted towards {Expanding Comprehension}, but {Safety Analysis} told her that trying to delve into the nature of System mana using her half-baked seed would be a bit dangerous right now.


    Alice wasnt sure why. Perhaps the System had once protected her mind from whatever sort of damage delving into the secrets of the System might create. Perhaps trying to analyze an incomplete magic seed would be dangerous. Perhaps there was a completely different problem that needed to be solved. Since {Safety Analysis} didnt tell Alice why things were dangerous, Alice was left to guess what the problem might be. And she had no idea.


    If {Expanding Comprehension} cant tell me what I need to know, I can only guess things and then run them through {Safety Analysis} until I find something simple. I could also make another Organic Magic seed and then feed it to the System seed but Im not sure if thats really the best option. There must be something more useful I can make. Organic magic being integrated into my System seed would probably help me make mana-flesh, among other things but right now, Stats seem to be working well enough, even without the input of the System. Best to put out the immediate fires and focus on actual problems.


    Alice started thinking about the most outlandish ideas she could think of involving System mana, just to see if she found any new mana types that would be helpful and that she needed.


    Artificial Intelligence mana was tossed right out by {Safety Analysis}. Alice was pretty sure it wasnt part of System mana, but it had seemed worth checking. Coding mana didnt work either. Intelligence mana was also ruled out by her Perk. After going through a few dozen variations on intelligence or programming to figure out some of the missing components of the core of System mana, Alice finally found a hit.


    Communication mana.


    During her brainstorming session, Alice had started to wonder what let math mana give information to pure mana. There must be something that let math mana actually relay its findings to other parts of the System. Right now, her magic seed was trying to communicate with itself, but it felt like the communication was very slow and clumsy. Having another type of mana integrated into the seed would help facilitate communication and make it much more efficient. {Safety Analysis} gave her the green light when she thought about integrating it into her System seed, so Alice decided to go for it.


    Alice grinned, and started forming her final magic seed for the month.


    After several minutes of hard work, she created a communication mana magic seed. Just like Alice had expected, her System seed felt much more complete now. The previously slow and clumsy communication between math mana and pure mana started to feel very efficient and clean.


    Alice activated her System seed and extended a tendril outward, before placing it against a big copper coin she had laying around in her storage Perk. Then, she waited to see what happened.


    A few moments later, as mana funneled through her tendril, she noticed that the different kinds of mana in her tendril were all bouncing off of each other and interacting with each other.


    The math mana in her magic seed was giving Alice random numbers, which the display mana and meaning mana translated those numbers into something that was actually useful.


    Alice was bombarded by a wave of information.


    Suddenly, Alice had a very accurate understanding of the mana inside of the copper coin. Her Perks usually gave her good information about things after all, Alice still had {Advanced Mana Measurement} to give her numbers when she wanted to know the number of mariums in a given object or area. But now, Alice was getting far more detailed information than {Advanced Mana Measurement} had ever given her. She knew exactly how the mana distribution in the copper coin looked. She could tell that near the center of the coin, the mana was slightly more compact and concentrated. Alice watched, in fascination, as the mana swirled around inside of the coin. She was intimately aware of where each fraction of a marium of mana was, and could even see as the concentration of mana in the coin slowly changed, swirling around in an endless dancing cloud of mana each second.


    Her math mana worked with her pure mana to analyze and measure every single marium of mana in her view. Her communication mana fed that information to her display mana and meaning mana. Those two kinds of mana then worked together to create a packet of information and sent it to Alices brain. Alices brain unpacked that information and translated it. It was a coherent set of systems layered on top of each other to create a useful string of information. And it happened without any input from Perks or external measuring devices. Alice smiled, as she finally confirmed that she had made exceptional progress.


    And then, Alice shut the mana tendril off as a massive headache began to form right behind her eyes.


    Unlike the mainframe of the System, Alice had a regular, human brain. She had gained a lot of points in Intelligence since coming to this world, and so she could process way more information per second than a normal human being should be able to but there was still a limit.


    The amount of information her new magic seed was feeding her was probably dozens of times higher than the amount of information her brain was able to process. Alice suspected that if she didnt shut the magic seed off immediately, her head might explode.


    I need to create some sort of filter for information, thought Alice, grimacing as she rubbed her forehead. Sadly, she hadnt thought about this when creating her filtration magic seed, so her filtration seed was entirely concentrated on filtering mana. Perhaps she needed an information filtration magic seed? Or something like that? Something to think about next month.


    Alice sighed, and then grinned as her headache started to go away. After filtering a few different chunks of mana into [Explorer of Magic] mana, she checked her levels.


    You have leveled up!


    Explorer of Magic : 81 -> 83


    She had been very close to level 82 before she started her experiment, but finally figuring out how the core of System mana worked had clearly been worth quite a bit of experience. She hadnt quite hit level 85 yet, but she had still gotten quite a bit from this. Alice also suspected that once she had some sort of information filter installed in her new magic seed, she might be able to figure out what part of her mana crystal was broken, even without reaching level 85. Of course, hitting level 85 would probably make the process much easier, so Alice would have to see what happened. But she had definite options for how to start making real solutions for her problems.


    Alice went to sleep that night satisfied with her progress.

 Chapter 166

    Chapter 166


    During the time she spent in her mental library while asleep, Alice got to thinking.


    The problems of Illvaria were indeed numerous, and Alice didnt have a way to interact with many of those problems. After all, she was a researcher, not a [General] or an industrial expert. The bottleneck on production of enchantments, for example, wasnt one that Alice knew how to fix yet.


    At least, that was what she thought at first. But while Alice was asleep, she realized that wasnt entirely true.


    The biggest bottleneck on enchantment production was the number of [Enchanters]. Alice used {Broken Seed} to allow [Enchanters] to get the magic seeds they needed to make system-related enchantments. Alice could only use {Broken Seed} once every four days.


    But what if there was a way to use {Broken Seed} far more frequently? Naturally, Alice was thinking about a particular type of enchantment that could help.The source of this content no/v(el)bi((n))


    System enchantments.


    Alice had largely assumed that System enchantments were out of her reach, except for with the aid of System Perks. After all, that was common sense for the people of this dimension. To make a System enchantment, one needed to be above level 50 in a production class and then take an appropriate Perk. But Alice realized that she might have a way to sidestep this common sense a bit. After all, the System was just a very complicated enchantment that helped control mana. If that was the case perhaps Alice could make System enchantments without the relevant Perks? Alice had already fused {Sciences Mana} and lost access to it, but that didnt mean that it was hopeless to make System enchantments. Alice had even gone through the process of making System enchantments before, albeit aided by a Perk at the time.


    And System enchantments were uniquely suited to fixing the limited uses of {Broken Seed} each week. Stat boosts were the most common type of System enchantment, but System enchantments could also grant people access to Perks they didnt normally have.


    What if Alice could create a System enchantment that let the wearer use {Broken Seed}?


    In that case the number of [Enchanters] with relevant magic seeds would skyrocket. And the biggest bottleneck in enchantment production would be fixed. After the visit to Cyra, they had more enchanting materials than they could currently make use of. If Alice could raise the number of [Enchanters] to meet that need, they might actually make class-fixing enchantments fast enough to cope with the onset of class-mana poisoning. A few people might fall into temporary madness as a result of their unfiltered mana but the damage could be mitigated by a huge amount. And it wasnt like the people who fell into mana-madness were dead. They lost their mind and their free will, which made Alice incredibly uncomfortable but they could still be restored to their original personality and after the fact. Previously, the amount of class-fixing enchantments was so hopelessly low that it still barely functioned as a solution. But if Alice got a {Broken Seed} system enchantment working, the entire problem would become basically manageable. And from there, Alice would only need to replace the Systems function of creating class seeds, and all of the urgent fires from the collapse of the System would finally be put out. Or, at least, all of the fires Alice was capable of fixing.


    With that thought in mind, Alice got to work while still in the midst of her dream library.


    She was much less familiar with System enchantments than she was with normal enchantments. So Alice spent several minutes first reviewing the few times she had created a System enchantment. She hadnt made extensive use of {Sciences Man} before she had combined it with {Seeds of Ambition} to create {Systems Ambition}. But she had still used it a few times, and she had even gotten some lessons from a [Tailor] to figure out how to use her new Perk. She remembered that System enchantments relied a lot on doing something related to a certain idea while using the Perk. So she started thinking about what it meant to destroy a magic seed without harming the wearer.


    As she worked, Alice felt a bit regretful at the fact that her only method of naturally making a System enchantment was gone. After all, it might have made things a little bit easier if Alice could try making a few more enchantments. However, at the end of the day, it wasnt a big deal.


    {Sciences Mana} wouldnt have been able to support what Alice was trying to do. The Perk just didnt have enough output to let Alice create a System Enchantment that let people access a level 35 Perk. If Alice had reached level 80 in [Scientist], and then combined {Sciences Mana} with a [Careful Enchanter] Perk, it might have been able to do what Alice needed. But Alice a long way away from reaching level 80 in [Scientist], and her Perk had already been combined with another one.


    Still, even though Alice was glad that she could understand more about how the System tendrils worked now, she was struggling to figure out how she would create an artificial magic seed and thus expand the use of {Broken Seed}. There was just too much going on that Alice didnt understand here.


    Alice sighed, before turning to the artificial magic seeds. In any case, Alice was very interested in artificial magic seeds for other reasons. The System clearly had some way of creating a magic seed so that people could have Classes. Perhaps Alice could finally get the class-creation of the System working again if she stared at the artifact for long enough?


    After ten more minutes of trying and failing to learn anything new, Alice finally gave up. She turned to her side.


    Ethan, who created this artifact? asked Alice.


    If she couldnt recreate an artifact on her own, the easiest way to fix things was just to ask the creator of the artifact. In any case, Alice was perfectly happy to work with someone else while fixing the collapse of the System. Shed been shown, time and time again, that she couldnt fix everything on her own.


    It was created by Demor, an [Enchanter] from one of the other Shil Confederacy member-nations. Hes not from Illvaria none of the Immortals of Illvaria are capable of creating an artifact, said Ethan. While there are five larger nations in the Shil Confederacy that kind of run the confederacy, that doesnt mean that none of the smaller nations have any noteworthy strength or Immortals. And most of those nations are eager to forge alliances with the larger member-nations and keep themselves safe. After all, the Shil Confederacy might work together against outside threats, but most nations in the confederacy are also perfectly happy to invade their neighbors if given the opportunity. This creates a rather byzantine web of smaller alliances that the member states take part it but anyway. I digress. The point is, at the time, Illvaria and a smaller member nation by the name of Morendia were allied, and the Illvarian [King] of the time was rather invested in the creation of long-term magic artifacts. Since the Illvarian south was perfectly intact at the time, and also one of the wealthier parts of the country, the Illvarian [King] felt it was a good idea to cement its food supply, since it needed a lot of imports from the north to survive on its own. So he hired some outside help. Ethan shrugged. Well, I think Doll worked on some parts of it too, but most of the work wasnt done by her.


    Alice sighed. Of course it wasnt that easy.


    Is it possible to contact Demor and ask him a bit about the theory behind artifacts? asked Alice. Im trying to see if theres a way to give other people access to the {Broken Seed} Perk I have access to. Making an artifact might be a solution to the problem.


    Ethan paused, before he nodded. Its probably possible. The alliance between Illvaria and Morendia isnt as strong as it used to be, but the general reasons for the alliance are still valid. Morendia has Immortals who are capable and willing to help Illvaria in some things that Illvarias Immortals just dont specialize in. Their military is also pretty strong for a small nation. Illvaria and Morendia also somewhat distant from each other, so they dont have any territory that both nations dispute the ownership of. But theyre still close enough to help fight other Shil Confederacy nations.


    Alice nodded. So we can invite him over here?


    Ethan frowned.


    Well that might be a bit more difficult. You see, the collapse of the System is almost certainly being felt by every nation on the planet right now. Nations that are weaker are more likely to turtle up and hide in their territory which makes it more likely that [Enchanters] and other non-combat oriented Immortals just wont leave their safe spots. Youre a bit of an exception, but Ethan shrugged.


    Alice grimaced.


    Ill send a few letters by the fastest [Messengers] we have available, but how do you feel about travelling to another country? asked Ethan.

 Chapter 167

    Chapter 167


    Alice was becoming decidedly tired of leaving Metsel. That was the conclusion she came to after her fourth day travelling on a horse. She¡¯d thought it was bad when she and Ethan had ridden to that village, but after four days riding, she was convinced that the smell of horse had seeped into her very bones. At least her Endurance was high enough that she didn¡¯t really suffer from the muscle cramps and soreness she had last time.


    Ethan had decided that two attempts on Alice¡¯s life were enough. Before leaving Metsel, he spent a few days placing an order with Doll. The [Tailors] who had made Alice¡¯s dress so long ago had given Ethan a list of measurements to submit. After all, according to Ethan, Doll didn¡¯t see non-Immortals. Not even if she was making equipment for them. Her Perks would take care of that, apparently.


    A day after Ethan had left to place an order, he returned with a metal shirt and metal pants. The shirt looked almost like a breastplate, but there were some very distinct differences. For one, it looked like it was some sort of hybrid between a long sleeved shirt and actual armor ¨C which confused Alice quite a bit. She didn¡¯t know much about armor, but she was pretty sure that wasn¡¯t what armor was supposed to look like. Inside of the shirt, there were also a bunch of complicated looking straps and latches. Alice had no idea how to put it on. It was also swimming in System mana, making Alice wonder just how many System enchantments Doll had stuffed into the item.


    When she had given the metal shirt a baffled look, Ethan had grinned.


    ¡°She already had it made. She just needed to resize it enough for the Perks to do the rest. It should fit you perfectly,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s one of her better works in the last few decades. Put it on.¡±


    When Alice had touched the armor, she realized that her concern about how all of the latches and straps worked was irrelevant.


    The moment she touched it, the suit of armor started rippling, almost as if she had just touched a pool of water. Then, it had swarmed across her body, and all of the straps and latches had just... clicked into place.


    A few moments later, Alice saw System mana spread throughout her body. Then, she started feeling more solid. Almost as if her skin had been rebuilt out of iron. Alice didn¡¯t even need to look at her Status Screen to realize that a huge System enchantment had just activated.


    ¡°Ethan... how much [Endurance] did I just get?¡± asked Alice.


    ¡°A hundred points,¡± said Ethan, causing Alice to blink in shock. She had heard that Doll was Illvaria¡¯s best craftsman, since she was an Immortal [Blacksmith] and [Tailor]. But one hundred points from a set of clothes was just insane. ¡°And you also now have the ¡®resilient body¡¯ Perk while the armor is on. It¡¯s a pretty common level 20 Perk that a lot of different melee classes have access to. It makes your skin sturdier and harder to bruise, cut, or pierce. In most cases it¡¯s similar to a 10% increase to your endurance stat ¨C but keep in mind that it¡¯s not entirely the same. It doesn¡¯t provide the same temperature and disease resistance that raw Endurance does, and it also won¡¯t help against things like lightning or fire. Electromagnetic mages aren¡¯t exactly common, but they do still sometimes make their way onto battlefields.¡±


    Alice had looked at the armor, opened her mouth, and then closed it.


    One hundred points of Endurance from a suit of enchanted armor was way more than she had expected. The extra Perk on top of the extra hundred stat points was even more ludicrous. While it didn¡¯t quite double Alice¡¯s Endurance stat... it got pretty close. Alice¡¯s [Endurance] was currently sitting at 138, before factoring in stat effectiveness. And now, with her new armor, Alice had 238 Endurance. Alice was very impressed.


    Of course, that wasn¡¯t the only precaution Ethan had taken this time. Ethan had done away with most of the entourage of [Guards] that had followed them around last time. According to him, they were useful in a fight ¨C but they also forced the group to move more slowly, making it easier to intercept or harm them. Instead, when the group had prepared to leave Metsel, Alice was more than a little surprised to see Allira, Immortal of Song and Shadow, join them.


    Alice hadn¡¯t seen Allira since her time in Cyra ¨C but she vividly remembered just how lethal Allira¡¯s singing had proven against the vinebears. Ethan also assured Alice that Allira was good at scouting.


    The final member of their little group was Cecilia. She had extensively tested the best of her [Enchanters], and deemed them able to manage the newly recruited [Enchanters] for the time the journey was expected to take. And Alice was afraid of letting Cecilia out of her eyesight. Given how focused the Society was on her, it seemed far more likely than before that Cecilia would be targeted. Alice liked Cecilia¡¯s survival odds much better if she was defended by multiple Immortals instead of in the city. So Alice had begged Ethan to bring Cecilia along with them, and Ethan had agreed.


    When Cecilia and Alice had seen Allira, she had seemed rather surprised to see them as well.


    ¡°Your name was Alice, right? And you were Cecilia?¡± asked Allira, upon seeing the two of them. ¡°Well, it¡¯s a small world. Didn¡¯t think I¡¯d see the two of you again so soon. And you¡¯ve certainly moved up in the world,¡± she said, giving Alice a wink. ¡°Well done.¡±


    After Allira had joined the group, they had started riding.New stories at novelhall.com


    And riding.


    And riding.


    And riding.


    For four days, the group had travelled on horseback. Ethan and Allira had taken care of watch each night, which was basically the only time the group stopped to rest. Cecilia looked like she wanted to flop over and die, and even though Alice¡¯s body didn¡¯t hurt, she sympathized with that feeling. She felt exhausted after spending nearly fourteen hours each day in the saddle.


    ¡°I see the border fort up ahead,¡± said Ethan, breaking Alice out of her thoughts. She took a few moments longer than expected to blink herself back into awareness of her surroundings. The monotony of each day had started to get to her more than expected.


    ¡°[Queen], but yes. [Queen] Cendaria, who named the country after herself when she reached Immortality, stopped aging two hundred years ago.¡± Ethan frowned. ¡°She is not on the best of terms with Illvaria, frankly. She also likes to rub in the fact that a ¡®little country¡¯ like hers has an Immortal [Queen], while Illvaria does not have an Immortal ruler. Of course, she¡¯s also the only Immortal in her country, while Illvaria has six Immortals currently living. I also think she wishes her country had a direction to expand in, although she¡¯s not dumb enough to invade us.¡±


    ¡°So... she¡¯s an issue?¡± asked Alice, wondering if they were going to face any problems while travelling through Cendaria¡¯s territory. Alice had already been on the receiving end of multiple assassination or kidnapping attempts, and she wasn¡¯t eager to face more.


    Ethan shook his head. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have travelled through her territory if I thought she was going to be a problem. While Cendaria isn¡¯t on the best terms with Illvaria, she honors oaths and treaties. She has some sort of Perk that only works if she uphold bargains. It was probably the result of combining {Honorable Treaty} with some other Perk at level 75. At least, that¡¯s what the [Scholars] in Illvaria think. It¡¯s hard to get the exact wording of other people¡¯s Perks, of course, but part of the reason that her rulership has such a noticeable effect on the country is the fact that her Perk also has a restriction on it.¡± Ethan shrugged. ¡°Or at least, that¡¯s what our [Scholars] think. At the very least, she has a very, very strong historical record of upholding promises and treaties. And while she and Illvaria have their disagreements, she is still a member of the Shil Confederacy. When I sent a [Messenger] asking her for passage, she agreed, and guaranteed your safety within her lands,¡± said Ethan. ¡°I had a few [Scholars] comb the exact wording of the message, just to make sure. And even if we missed something, you¡¯re currently guarded by two Immortals and your own strength, along with armor made by Doll. Hurting you would be very hard right now.¡±


    Alice nodded, feeling slightly more relieved at Ethan¡¯s words. It wasn¡¯t an absolute guarantee of her safety ¨C but then again, it was probably impossible to achieve absolute safety these days. With the intelligent and strengthened monster hordes running around, and the desperation caused by the System collapsing, Alice doubted absolute safety existed anymore. People in the middle of catastrophes could do crazy things. That was probably the very reason that the Society and the Sigmusi were so focused on her, despite the fact that it would invite massive retaliation from Illvaria. They were desperate to learn what was happening, and knew for sure that Alice could give them more details than were available to the public.


    ¡°Anyway, let¡¯s go,¡± said Ethan. ¡°We have a [Queen] to meet, and then we need to keep moving. We have two more countries to pass through.¡± Ethan paused. ¡°Well... three. But one of them is basically only a country by technicality.¡± Alice blinked, but decided to leave it for later. Instead, the four continued moving through the overly green countryside.


    Alice noticed, as the group kept travelling onward, that there weren¡¯t that any [Farmers] tending the fields. Many of the regions they passed through had the signs of recent neglect that they had seen earlier... and a few of them had signs of battle. A few of them looked like they had been razed to the ground, while other villages had signs of the inhabitants packing up and leaving in a hurry.


    Ethan and Allira grimaced as they passed by the fourth abandoned village in a row.


    ¡°The monster hordes are hitting Cendaria a lot harder than they hit Illvaria,¡± said Allira, after looking at the messed up houses and bloodstains. ¡°I¡¯m surprised that Cendaria has let it get this bad.¡±


    Ethan nodded. ¡°I knew that Cendaria¡¯s military was weaker than Illvaria¡¯s, but I didn¡¯t think it would be this bad. Abandoning a few outlying villages makes sense, but this is still a little much.¡±


    Alice grimaced.


    She might have been more sheltered from the monster hordes than she had thought. She had assumed that Illvaria had the problem under control, and figured other countries were also managing. But the abandoned or destroyed villages they had encountered painted a different picture.


    It only took Alice a few minutes to realize why. The monster hordes were bad enough on their own. Coupled with most of the citizens gradually losing their mind, and all of the other cascading problems caused by the collapse of the System, perhaps the monsters served as the straw that broke the camel¡¯s back.


    ¡°Let¡¯s hope the same thing doesn¡¯t happen to Illvaria,¡± Allira said.


    Then, the group continued travelling onwards. Two hours later, the group came upon something Alice had been half-dreading and half-expecting.


    ¡°I see a monster horde,¡± said Allira. ¡°Around two hundred. Maybe two-fifty.¡±


    ¡°What kind?¡± asked Ethan.


    ¡°Glimmerspren,¡± said Allira. ¡°I don¡¯t see any villagers still left in the area. They lost a while ago. We can take the horde, even if all of them have a few extra Perks. Glimmerspren are particularly weak against me because they have no way to shut off their sense of hearing. They should be a manageable threat.¡±


    It took Alice a few seconds, but she remembered the term Glimmerspren. It was one of the monsters she had learned about during her time in her monster biology class. Glimmerspren were creatures that faintly resembled crows, but had the rather unique trait of folding in and out of sight based on light level. In dim light, they were easy to spot, but in full light or darkness, they were almost impossible to track with the naked eye. They also had the ability to fire metallic feathers at targets with fairly high accuracy.


    ¡°Glimmerspren...¡± said Ethan thoughtfully, before he turned towards Alice. ¡°Normally, I would take this as an opportunity for you to train a bit before stepping in. You¡¯ll need to be able to defend yourself eventually, and we won¡¯t lose that much time if you fight for half an hour or so before we move on. But with times being what they are... I¡¯ll leave the choice up to you. What do you think?¡±


    Alice thought about it. Two hundred and fifty monsters was definitely more than she could handle... but she also wasn¡¯t so confident in the future that it seemed like a great idea to throw away a chance to train. Even if she was reliant on Ethan and the [Soldiers] of Illvaria to keep her safe, she didn¡¯t want that to remain the case forever. Also, Alice was full on basically all of her mana types, and needed some levels in various classes to progress. Maybe trying to get creative in using her magic during a fight would push her closer to level 85 in [Explorer of Magic]?


    Alice hesitated, before she sighed.


    ¡°How about I try what I can, and then you step in once I start getting overwhelmed?¡± asked Alice, trying not to grimace. She couldn¡¯t believe that she was heading towards a fight.


    Ethan grinned. ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re taking the chance to improve,¡± he said. Alice sighed, got off her horse, and stepped towards the monster horde in the distance.

 Chapter 168

    Chapter 168


    The first few monsters were near the edge of the village. Alice took a moment to look at the village itself, and saw the same signs of hasty departure they had come across in other villages they had found. The houses were all abandoned, as if the inhabitants had left in a hurry, and most of the valuables had been taken away. The fields of crops were left untended, despite the fact that spring was approaching and most [Farmers] with decent levels should have been clearing the fields and preparing for planting by now.


    Alice looked at the few monsters in front of her, and fell into thought.


    If she wanted to get a few levels in [Explorer of Magic], she needed to use magic creatively, and to learn more about magic through her experiments. She felt that exterminating the glimmerspren with raw kinetic magic would be very easy ¨C after all, their primary form of attack was to spray enemies with metallic feathers. Kinetic magic would be able to easily manage any form of attack that relied on physical projectiles. The only other advantage glimmerspren had over normal birds was the fact that they were hard to spot. Alice was able to confirm the locations of the creatures with ease. The mana contained inside of the monsters was nowhere near as hard to spot as their physical bodies, so any decent mana-sight Perk could nullify this advantage.


    But how could she use magic to creatively kill monsters? Alice didn¡¯t just want a few levels in [Kinetic Manabinder] out of this fight, even if [Kinetic Manabinder] was a useful class to train.


    Alice thought for several seconds, but she wasn¡¯t quite sure what to do.


    Therefore, Alice started pushing her thoughts in a different direction.


    She had always wondered how exactly the System actually built Class seeds in people. Since she had no idea where to even start, Alice had constantly pushed it away. But the fact remained that Alice did need to figure it out eventually. Leaving it as a problem for ¡®Future Alice¡¯ wasn¡¯t a good long term solution. Creating new Classes was the only way that children would be safe from the personality-bending effects of mana.


    Alice would have never originally thought that monsters were a good test subject for this. After all, the System never gave monsters any sort of abilities.


    But nowadays, monsters were both more intelligent, and also sometimes had access to distorted Perks. That probably meant that monsters could, in theory, have class magic seeds, just like humans.


    Of course, in the process of testing this idea, Alice was probably going to accidentally kill or destroy a lot of her test subjects. She had originally been hoping that her Perks would keep her from messing up horribly... but there was also another way that she could get some testing done.


    What if she tried forcing monsters to develop class seeds, just to see what happened?


    Alice had no idea if she would get any valuable data from that experiment at all... but they were monsters. Alice didn¡¯t feel particularly bad about killing them, and whatever experiments she conducted on them would surely be interesting. Interesting experiments were a good way to raise [Explorer of Magic] levels. Alice suddenly found herself eager to get started.


    She had never tried ¡®forcing¡¯ something to form a magic seed. Much less a monster, which wasn¡¯t a particularly intelligent creature. A monster wouldn¡¯t even know what a magic seed was. Mages usually had to explicitly sit around and focus on a specific topic while absorbing nearby mana to form a magic seed. So Alice had no idea if the whole process would work at all.


    But now that Alice thought about it, people formed Class Seeds all the time, and had no conscious knowledge of what they were doing. Obviously, it was possible to ¡®help¡¯ something form a magic seed without its knowledge. If Alice wanted to repair or replace the System, she needed to figure out how to make non-mages form magic seeds. This was like a trial run, except that there were no moral consequences for failure. There were also huge differences between monster biology and human biology, but it could still serve as a reference for future experiments.


    Alice took a few stones and used them to beat a few glimmerspren out of the sky. Alice spent a few seconds verifying that they weren¡¯t going to spray her with projectiles or die. One of them tried to spray her with a round of projectiles, so she ripped off its wings. Then, she dragged them towards her.


    Alice reached a hand out towards the first glimmerspren and started to think.


    How do I make something form a class seed? Or a magic seed? She thought.


    Alice thought about it for several seconds, before she shrugged and decided to try out the dumbest way first. She doubted it would work, but if it somehow turned out to be the correct answer, she would feel like an idiot if she didn¡¯t test it first.


    Alice took a huge amount of kinetic energy out of her kinetic seed and crammed it into the monster¡¯s body, while concentrating on what kinetic energy was. She did her best to ¡®direct¡¯ the rampaging mana, much like she would if she were forming a magic seed.


    The monster core inside of the glimmerspren¡¯s body drank up the mana instantly, as if it were a black hole. Alice frowned.


    Humans didn¡¯t have any organ analogous to monster cores. The interference of the monster core would make testing much harder.


    Alice tried again. This time, she also used some pure mana magic to prevent the nearby mana from drifting towards the monster core. The monster¡¯s flesh and skin pushed back against her attempts at manipulating mana inside its body ¨C but Alice bulldozed the monster¡¯s mana resistance by just throwing more mana at the problem. In moments, she had completely cut off the flow of mana to the monster¡¯s core. Then, before Alice could start shoving more kinetic mana into the monster, the monster started spasming. It seemed to react the same way a human did once they couldn¡¯t breathe. It started frantically struggling, twitching the nubs of its missing wings, and desperately trying to free itself.


    Unfortunately, the creature had no real means of escape. But as Alice watched the monster struggle, she realized she was going about this the wrong way.


    Monsters universally died when their flow of mana was cut off. But she had expected a little bit more time. Wasn¡¯t it supposed to take around 10 minutes for monsters to die after their access to mana was cut off? Clearly, that time estimate was wrong, or this monster was dying more quickly for some reason.


    ¡°I have an idea,¡± she said. ¡°I want to observe a monster as it becomes a monster alpha. I just had a thought. Monsters and people who are levelling up share a lot of characteristics with each other. What if monster cores are the basis for how class seeds work? If that¡¯s the case, by observing a monster core in more detail, I might be able to get a better idea how class seeds themselves work. And if I know how they work...¡±


    ¡°You might be able to reverse engineer them and figure out how to make them. And by doing so, solve one of the biggest remaining problems?¡± said Ethan. He nodded thoughtfully. ¡°All right, I can see what you¡¯re going for. What do you want me to do?¡±


    ¡°You must have a completely absurd amount of mana available to you, right? Can you force-feed this monster a lot of mana?¡±


    Ethan grinned. ¡°As an Immortal who specializes in magic... I absolutely have a ridiculous amount of mana. It¡¯s not unlimited, but the quantity is quite absurd.¡±


    Ethan chuckled. ¡°I¡¯m a bit of an exception to the usual stats of Immortals my age. Most magic-focused Immortals who are around 4 centuries old have much less mana. But that¡¯s a story for another time. You just want me to shove raw mana into the monster¡¯s body, right?¡±


    Alice nodded.


    Ethan grabbed the monster Alice had been experimenting on, and then started cramming mana into the creature. Alice saw hundreds of Mariums pour into the creature, helping its monster core grow richer and more dense each second. But hundreds of Mariums weren¡¯t enough to prompt the creature to evolve. Alice¡¯s eyes widened as the number of Mariums Ethan shoved into the creature exceeded one thousand. Then two thousand.


    At about three thousand Mariums, Alice started to wonder how high Ethan¡¯s magic stat was. Three thousand Mariums was a number that Alice had a hard time wrapping her head around. It just seemed so utterly ridiculous that it was hard to think about.


    Finally, at four thousand Mariums, Alice saw something start to change.


    ¡°Stop,¡± she said, and Ethan snapped off the flow of mana. A few moments later, Alice saw the monster¡¯s core start to glow, like a shining beacon of energy. It also started to expand. It started out around the size of a peanut, and over the course of the next five minutes, it gradually increased in size until it resembled a golf ball. As the minutes passed by, mana started to pour out of the core and into the rest of the monster¡¯s body. Alice also noticed that the type of mana was also changing.


    Originally, there had been two kinds of magic seed present in the monster¡¯s core. One type of mana had looked pretty similar to kinetic magic, and although it hadn¡¯t been entirely the same. Alice suspected it was the mana that glimmerspren used to launch feathers at people. The other type of mana had been some sort of... optical camouflage based mana type. Alice wasn¡¯t exactly sure how that mana type worked, but it seemed to be based on optical illusions.


    Now, there was a third type of mana present. It looked kind of like a mixture of organic mana and pure mana, but with another ideas mixed in that Alice just didn¡¯t understand. It wasn¡¯t quite organic mana, but it also wasn¡¯t... not organic mana. It just looked wrong to her.


    This mixture of mana constantly flooded the monster¡¯s body, swirling around it as it started to interact with the monster¡¯s muscles, bones, and every single organ and piece of flesh it encountered. As more minutes slowly ticked by, Alice noticed that the monster¡¯s body was getting bigger. The monster¡¯s muscles and bones were becoming more defined. Its monster core was growing brighter and brighter.


    Alice blinked in surprise. Usually, when people got new Perks, their class fractal just got a little bit brighter and more defined. It definitely didn¡¯t look like this. This looked more like a mana baptism than a class fractal...


    A few moments later, Alice saw something else start to appear in her surroundings. Something that was even more unexpected.


    It almost seemed like a paired enchantment was forming between the monster Ethan had forced into an evolution and the single nearby glimmerspren.


    Paired enchantments?


    Alice was now completely baffled. It almost seemed like the monster was creating a constant, endless set of links between it and the other glimmerspren in its surroundings. A few moments later, Alice realized what was happening.


    Monster alphas were known to be able to command their ordinary brethren. Obviously, they needed to have some method of communicating and controlling their kin. That must be what Alice was seeing right now.


    Moments later, it hissed, and Alice saw some tendrils of magic reach out towards its surroundings. At the same time, the monster core in its body started to flash with glimmers of rainbow mana for the briefest of seconds. It didn¡¯t look like the System had returned, but it looked like a pale imitation of it. A few moments later, the monster¡¯s core flickered again, and Alice recognized with some surprise that it was an imitation of her mana ¨C and Ethan¡¯s.


    So monster cores somehow replicated types of mana that they had encountered during the evolution process?


    She blinked in recognition as she realized the monster was somehow copying... some sort of Perk using the knockoff System mana.


    A few magic tendrils started spreading out of the glimmerspren¡¯s body and towards its surroundings, and Alice sighed as she killed the creature. As much as she wanted more data, she wasn¡¯t going to give the creature time to potentially fight back and kill her. If the monster was copying a System Perk, Alice didn¡¯t want the monster to get some sort of self-regenerating Perk or crazy offense Perk and kill her before she could respond.


    Alice heard a few System notifications go off, but she ignored them for now as she turned towards her next test subject. She needed more data.

 Chapter 169

    Chapter 169


    With her second test subject dead, Alice turned towards the third glimmerspren. The creature constantly flopped around and wriggled, as though it were a zombie. Even with no wings, it still kept trying to wriggle towards Alice, as though it wanted to take a bite out of her.


    Alice shuddered. Monsters were downright creepy sometimes. She shook her head and tried to remove the image of the creature inching its way towards her from her mind. Instead, she turned towards Ethan again.


    ¡°Do you have enough mana to make this one into an alpha as well?¡± she asked, hesitantly.


    Ethan paused, as if thinking about it.


    ¡°I can make one more evolve, but after that, I don¡¯t want to make a third alpha. Even for me, this isn¡¯t a small amount of mana, and I need to keep some ready for an emergency. I¡¯m pretty sure that the [Queen] won¡¯t do anything stupid while we¡¯re here... but the Society or the Sigmusi might still send a wave of [Assassins] after us. It never hurts to be prepared for the worst.¡±


    ¡°Understood,¡± said Alice. In that case, she had to make this test count. She was desperately hoping that this round of experiments could bring her to level 85. If it didn¡¯t, Alice would need to spend more time working on [Explorer of Magic] before she could investigate the mana gem in her brain more thoroughly.


    Ethan stepped towards the final glimmerspren, and started infusing it with mana, just like the previous one. Alice crossed her fingers and hoped that this one wouldn¡¯t also develop a Perk. Alice was wary of randomly getting killed by a monster wielding a Perk, since there was such a massive variety of Perks that existed. Even if she lost the opportunity to conduct more tests, if this monster also developed a Perk Alice would kill it immediately.


    Just like before, its body started shimmering with mana. The two kinds of mana present in its monster core flashed and pulsed, and at the same time, a new type of mana started to spread throughout its body and warp it into a new shape.


    The monster core in its body started pulsing with rainbow mana, then a few unidentified types of mana, then Ethan¡¯s organic mana. Thankfully, this time, the monster didn¡¯t start developing a perk. She didn¡¯t have to cancel the experiment this time.


    Five minutes passed as the monster¡¯s body changed. Then ten minutes. After twenty minutes, Alice started frowning.


    Why aren¡¯t there any paired enchantments forming this time? Alice wondered. When the second test subject had started to turn into a monster alpha, it had only taken fifteen minutes for the creature to start forming pseudo-paired enchantments with the other test subjects. Yet this time, twenty minutes had passed, and there was still no sign of the monster forming a connection with other monsters. What was the difference here?


    Maybe it¡¯s a range limitation thing? Alice thought. Theoretically, most of the nearby glimmerspren should be in range of the monster alpha she and Ethan had created ¨C but perhaps its range constantly expanded during the process of becoming an alpha. If that was the case, things would make sense to her. The second test subject had only been a few meters away from the third test subject, which would allow it to form a connection between the two almost instantly. By contrast, for this glimmerspren, there were no nearby other glimmerspren. Alice had chosen a group of monsters that was completely out of the way to target first, so the nearest glimmerspren were still a decent distance away.


    As Alice thought about the control monster alphas exerted over their kin, she found herself curious. What would happen if she re-introduced the newly created glimmerspren alpha to the monster swarm? The original monster swarm already had an alpha. That was the reason why they were moving as a group, rather than just wandering around as individual monsters. What happened when two different monster alphas appeared right next to each other?


    Then, Alice frowned. During the expedition from Cyra to the broken mana zone, Alice remembered that only one monster swarm had come out of the entire mess. It had been a massive vinebear pack. Based on that expedition, it seemed like monster swarms usually just massacred each other until one remained. However, during the most recent trip to Cyra, she and Ethan had seen two monster swarms working together. Which Ethan had noted was rather atypical behavior for monsters. Even if monster alphas normally slaughtered each other, it was hard to say whether that was still true now.


    In these circumstances, awakening another monster alpha and letting it loose upon the world probably wasn¡¯t a very good idea. Alice felt a bit regretful, but decided to keep an eye out for an opportunity to observe this process in detail later. Perhaps if the group ran across a few spidercrab packs they could give it a go and see what happened. Even with perks, Alice seriously doubted spidercrabs could threaten them.


    But Alice still felt a little itch of curiosity in her heart. She already had an evolving monster alpha right in front of her. Surely it wouldn¡¯t hurt to just bring over a few more glimmerspren and see what happened, right?


    She spent a few moments scanning their surroundings, before she turned towards Allira. ¡°Honored Immortal, would it be possible to bring over a few more test subjects? I want to see how the monster alpha¡¯s monster core interacts with a few other glimmerspren. I just need them alive, their condition doesn¡¯t matter.¡±


    Allira looked at the evolving monster alpha for a few moments, before she shrugged. ¡°Sure. Give me a moment,¡± she said, before hopping into the nearby woods. Less than a minute later, she returned with five more de-winged glimmerspren.


    Alice took the half-dead monsters and double checked that they didn¡¯t have any Perks available to them. If they had Perks, they needed to be eliminated before they caused more chaos.


    Out of curiosity, Alice grabbed it and started jogging away from the village where the original monster alpha was located. She made sure to avoid the range of the newly awakening monster alpha, because Alice wanted to see what happened when another monster left the range of its alpha.


    After it got a certain range away, the ¡®paired enchantment¡¯ in the monster¡¯s core naturally fell away on its own, leaving a totally normal monster behind. Alice noticed that whatever influence the original monster alpha had on its core started to gradually disappear. In other words, monsters needed to stay near the monster alpha if they wanted to keep benefitting from its presence.


    Alice shrugged, and turned her attention back towards her artificial monster alpha. As it continued to evolve, the monster core started to form strands of mana that connected the monster core with the rest of its body more tightly. Alice was vaguely reminded of the nervous system of a human ¨C the way that various nerves were connected to the spinal cord, and those, in turn, enabled human movement, along with small electrical impulses. It seemed that monster cores had a somewhat similar function, except that electricity was replaced with mana. Nothing else seemed particularly remarkable about the monster¡¯s ascension, much to Alice¡¯s disappointment. She had been hoping for some insight about the way that the System¡¯s Perk creation and class seeds worked behind the scenes, but while she was getting some idea how and why some things worked, there were a lot of components to this experiment that she either wasn¡¯t understanding or just wasn¡¯t finding.


    Finally, after about an hour since she had started the experiment, the monster core flashed a couple of times, and then it stopped changing. Alice realized that it had finished ascending. It had ¡®finalized¡¯ its new form. This, unlike some of the other parts of the monster¡¯s evolution, caught Alice¡¯s interest again.


    She had seen multiple things ¡®flash¡¯ with mana during her investigation of the System. When she was observing a mana baptism, a successful mana baptism always resulted in several quick flashes of mana. Now, she had seen a monster alpha¡¯s monster core do the exact same thing once it finished evolving into an alpha.


    Alice still had no idea what that little flash of mana signified, or what it meant. Which was unfortunate, because Alice was starting to suspect that the little flash of mana she kept seeing was somehow really important to the whole process. It might be the missing puzzle piece that let her link everything together, and she just couldn¡¯t understand what it was or how it worked. And right now, she had no way to investigate it in detail.


    She sighed, and spent several more minutes observing the new monster alpha. Sadly, it seemed to be done doing interesting things. After another twenty minutes of observation, the only thing the monster alpha did was flop around and try to wrangle more subordinates. While Alice was getting a better idea how the connection between monster alphas and their subordinates worked, she wasn¡¯t learning much else.


    With a sigh, Alice fired a rock through the monster¡¯s brain, killing it instantly. Then, she purified her mana types and checked her System notifications.


    Alice grinned.


    The first System notification was the entire reason she had started this whole experiment chain.


    You have leveled up!


    Explorer of Magic : 83 -> 85


    Alice had finally reached level 85 in [Explorer of Magic].


    Alice had also gotten some levels in her other Classes as well.


    You have leveled up!


    Survivor : 66 -> 67, Scholar: 62 -> 66, Scientist 66 -> 68, Kinetic Manabinder 51 -> 52


    Alice resisted the urge to rub her hands together in glee.


    She had two new Perks to choose.

 Chapter 170

    Chapter 170


    The first thing Alice did was look at her [Explorer of Magic] Perks. She had been looking forward to this moment for a long time now.


    Just to make absolutely sure she wasn¡¯t making a mistake, Alice first scanned the new Perks she had unlocked by reaching level 85. One of the Perks looked all right ¨C it would give her an extra five magic tendrils and slightly increase the effect of her magic stat. Alice did want to increase her combat abilities. But it wasn¡¯t her priority right now. Alice had already had plans for her level 85 Perk combination, and she had just been checking to make sure there weren¡¯t any better options.


    Without further hesitation, Alice combined the Perks {Expanding Comprehension} and {Intuitive Magic Modelling}.


    Expanding Comprehension (Tier 2 Perk, level 55 Explorer of Magic) (Level 50 Explorer of magic Perk + Level 40 Explorer of Magic Perk)


    Perk Costs: Infusion of Comprehension + Reset Perk sacrificed to create this Perk.


    Once per two weeks, you may select one of your seeds. Over the course of the next hour, you will gradually expand your understanding of the Seed, as well as the concepts associated with it. The clarity will be lower compared to directly using {Infusion of Comprehension}. In addition, the Mana Conversion Ratio of the seed may improve by small amounts with each use of this Perk. At maximum an increase of 5% may occur. This Perk may never improve the Mana Conversion ratio of a given seed by more than 50% in total.


    Warning: You will be helpless during this time, so it is highly recommended you activate this perk only when your safety is assured and you are in an environment where you will not be disturbed.


    Alice had gotten a great deal of use out of {Expanding Comprehension} in the past. It had given her a lot of inspiration and a lot of useful discoveries. However, Alice was starting to feel like the Perk was just a bit underpowered compared to the questions she was trying to solve now. Her System seed was too complex, and there were too many types of mana Alice needed to untangle. {Expanding Comprehension} just wasn¡¯t suited for handling compound magic seeds, and that was what Alice was working with these days. So the perk needed an upgrade. She had high hopes for what the Perk would achieve once combined with {Intuitive Mana Modelling}.


    Intuitive Magic Modelling (Tier 2 Perk, level 65 Explorer of Magic) (Level 5 Explorer of Magic Perk + Level 45 Explorer of Magic Perk)


    Perk Costs: Magic Proficiency + Mana Construct Modeling sacrificed to create this Perk.


    You intuitively mentally ¡®model¡¯ any form of mana within ten meters of you, whether they are complex mana constructs, forms of mana, or enchantments. You will intuitively know what kinds of mana they are made of and have an intuitive understanding of some of the simpler components of anything you model. In short, this will give you some level of understanding of what an enchantment or mana construct is, how it works, and what it does, although it won¡¯t feed you information beyond a certain level of complexity.


    {Intuitive Magic Modelling}, similarly, was only somewhat useful to Alice these days. She used it to help understand the effects of some enchantments that she came across on a day to day basis, and having a natural ¡®intuition¡¯ that pointed her in the right direction was very useful while doing research. However, the biggest problem with the Perk was the final sentence. The Perk would not feed her information beyond a certain level of complexity... and most of the System constructs Alice had come across were like giant fractals made of mana. They were about as complex as mana could possibly get. If the Perk was capable of explaining simple problems to Alice, akin to the magical version of algebra, Alice was trying to tackle calculus. The Perk just wasn¡¯t able to keep up with her needs. Unlike {Expanding Comprehension}, at this point, {Intuitive Magic Modelling} didn¡¯t have much value for Alice in a research setting anymore.


    Alice took one final look at her two Perks, before she combined the two. She used her System seed to make sure that the translation for the Perk made sense, and then started reading her new Perk.


    Magic Comprehension (Tier 3 Perk, level 85 Explorer of Magic) (Level 55 Explorer of Magic Perk + Level 65 Explorer of Magic Perk)


    Perk Costs: Intuitive Magic Modelling + Expanding Comprehension sacrificed to create this Perk.


    You gain the ability to naturally understand types of mana that you come into contact with. Once per week, you may also create ¡®mental maps¡¯ of any type of mana or mana-related phenomenon you come into contact with. Mental maps will create a comprehensive, detailed mental image of a type of mana which can be accurate tested in your mental library, or analyzed for any details you wish to learn.


    Note: Creation of a mental map requires that you first interact with a type of mana or mana-related phenomenon, then spend a time and mental energy focusing on it and thinking about it. The longer you spend working on a mental map, the more detailed and accurate it will become.


    Alice grinned.


    First of all, the limit on information complexity limit was gone. Instead, it had been replaced by the mental map feature. She could only use it once per week, and she would need some time to flesh out a mental map... but afterwards, she would have a detailed, accurate picture of any mana construct she wanted to investigate. She could work on her mental maps whenever she was asleep ¨C her dream library was practically custom-built to work with this Perk. Alice was very happy with the result of her Perk combination.


    The ability to enhance her magic seeds was also gone, but Alice didn¡¯t really care about that. She already had {Scholar of Magic} to help improve her magic seeds over time, and her magic stat was still increasingly surprisingly quickly. While Alice was nowhere near the font of mana Ethan was, she was still steadily improving her magic seeds as time moved forward.


    Alice gave her new Perk a try by focusing on the weird mana gem that she had seen inside of her own brain. After a few minutes of focus and effort, she felt a very fuzzy image of a mana gem form inside of her thoughts ¨C it was almost as if Alice was looking at a picture that she had taken in the past, albeit at very low resolution. She started poking at her new Perk, before she realized with delight that the Perk neglected to mention a useful feature. Not only did she have a mental map that she could examine and experiment on, but she could ¡®zoom in¡¯ to any level of detail she wanted to. It was like having a perfect sample of a mana construct situated in the middle of a lab, with state of the art equipment ready for use.


    Of course, the details were far too grainy for her to see anything right now. But after Alice finished solidifying her mental map, she was sure that this issue would disappear. Based off of a rough guesstimate from a few minutes of work, Alice would probably need twenty or thirty hours to finish solidifying the mental map. She would be done in three or four days, assuming she only worked on it while she was asleep.


    Once she was done, Alice would finally be able to finally figure out why her magic gem wasn¡¯t absorbing her Alice mana and dealing with it. The solution was in sight.Re?Ad lateSt chapters at novelhall.com Only


    After that, Alice focused on her [Scholar] Perks. She had one more Perk to deal with, and Alice was looking forward to getting something new out of the [Scholar] Class.


    Alice started looking through her old Perks, to figure out what was useful and what she didn¡¯t care about losing or using as combination fuel.


    Another upgrade to her understanding was an exceptional boon, especially given how absurdly complicated some of the topics she was trying to understand were. Combined with the understanding boost from her other new Perk, {Magic Comprehension}, Alice suspected that she would be able to do her research far more quickly and efficiently than before. And the Perk hadn¡¯t lost the ability to increase the size of her magic seeds ¨C instead, based on the wording of the Perk, Alice suspected her magic seeds would grow faster than before. The Perk wasn¡¯t anything fancy, but it did what it needed to and helped Alice improve.


    With both of her new Perks built, Alice focused her attention inwards, towards her magic gem. She spent a few minutes nailing down its exact location, before she continued using her ¡®mental map¡¯ to build a perfect copy of it inside of her mind.


    Alice quickly confirmed that she could ¡®build¡¯ her mental map of the mana gem far more quickly if she was also observing the real thing. At the same time, her {Scholar of Thought and Magic} Perk was actually surprisingly helpful ¨C it was capable of assisting her in making intuitive leaps that she might have had a hard time making originally. She could look at some of the components of the mana gem, and just... understand what they were trying to do. She would be able to do the same thing with some work, but it probably would have taken her several minutes of squinting at each part of the mana gem to figure out what she was looking at. The help from her two newest Perks let her skip this process.


    But Alice was shocked when she looked at one of the ¡®facets¡¯ of the mana gem, and realized that it boosted her... physical strength?


    To be precise, it seemed that the facet of the mana gem she was looking at was a +1% boost to the effect of her Strength stat, along with a few other bonuses. Alice stopped focusing on the other parts of the gem, and instead started poking at that one facet of the mana gem. The fact that it was boosting her physical strength just didn¡¯t make sense to her. She had expected the magic gem to be related to the growth of Alice mana, or related to some sort of way to preserve her personality, or... something. A physical strength boost was totally different from what she had expected to find.


    However, as Alice kept poking at the specific facet of the mana gem she had found, she realized that strength wasn¡¯t the only thing that the magic gem contained.


    In addition to the +1% boost to strength, the little facet of the mana gem had four other components.


    One of them gave her a 1% boost to the effect of her Dexterity Stat.


    One of the components was a 1% boost to her Perception stat.


    The second to last component of the gem facet gave Alice a... +15% boost to experience growth, but only applied to the concept of fighting?


    As Alice identified each part of the gem facet, she started scanning her Achievements list. The description for this gem facet sounded awfully familiar, and the last bit in particular was a type of boost she had only ever recalled seeing from one part of the System...


    A few moments later, Alice found it.


    Murderer (Rarity: 4)


    You have slain another human being.


    Effect of Strength, Dexterity, and Perception increased by 1%. Classes with some relationship to fighting other humans gain experience 15% faster.


    The effects for this ¡®gem facet¡¯ were exactly the same as the effects of the {Murderer} achievement that Alice had gotten all the way back in Cyra.


    In short, the mana gem that Alice was looking at was... some sort of Achievement collection?


    Alice, admittedly, had never actually figured out where Achievements were ¡®stored.¡¯ Attributes were obviously stored in the respective muscles and nerves related to them. Classes were ¡®stored¡¯ inside of Class seeds, which were usually located in people¡¯s hearts or brains. But Alice had never actually found where Skills and Achievements were ¡®stored¡¯ in the human body. She had always sort of assumed they were lumped into class fractals and muscles somehow.


    Now, it appeared that she had been mistaken.


    Alice concentrated on the last aspect of the fractal, that she hadn¡¯t identified yet... and quickly realized it was, by far, the most complicated part of the whole thing.


    As far as Alice could tell, the last component of the mana gem facet was further subdivided into two parts.


    The first part was something like ¡®containment,¡¯ and restrained the other half of the facet component.


    And the other part of the gem facet... was the concept of {Murderer}.


    Alice confirmed something.


    She had finally figured out where Achievements were stored. But her discovery didn¡¯t give her an immediate way to fix the problem of Alice mana, or even a clear idea of what all of the components of the gem were for. If the gem was responsible for storing Achievements... how was it related to Alice mana? And why were mana gems seemingly only present in people above level 75?

 Chapter 171

    Chapter 171


    Alice spent a great deal of time pondering the relationship between Alice mana and Achievements as the group continued travelling. Every night, Alice diligently worked on her mental map. Alice also took some time to discuss her discoveries, thoughts, and her Perk from [Explorer of Magic] with Cecilia, Ethan, and Allira. She wanted second opinions on what she had found and what it all meant. Alice also used {Shared Memories}, to directly show Ethan and Cecilia what she was seeing, in hopes that one of them could provide her with some of the insight that she was missing.


    Alice also offered to share her memories with Allira, in hopes that she would have an idea to share with Alice. Sadly, Allira wasn¡¯t too interested in her research. Allira was willing to smile and chat with Alice for a while every night, but the more time Alice spent with her, the more Alice felt a certain sense of... distance when she talked with Allira. She vaguely recalled that the first time Ethan¡¯s mother had mentioned Allira, she had complained that Allira was friendly with everyone, but never really got to know anyone. Alice was beginning to see what Myra meant. And sadly, that also meant Allira was rather resistant to chatting about Alice¡¯s research. Allira claimed that she wasn¡¯t someone who had ever studied mana or magic in any great detail, which Alice thought made sense. Still, Alice had been hoping for as many opinions as she could get.


    At the very least, Cecilia and Ethan were more than happy to weigh in on Alice¡¯s discoveries. On the second night after the monster alpha experiments, the three sat around the campfire and discussed Alice¡¯s mana gem in greater detail.


    ¡°I still don¡¯t know why the mana gem has Achievements in it,¡± said Alice. ¡°It¡¯s obvious linked to Alice mana somehow, but I just... can¡¯t find the connection.¡±


    ¡°Well... since all of the mana is related to your Achievements, and it¡¯s also directly linked to Alice mana... maybe it¡¯s linked to your Immortality Achievement?¡± said Cecilia, thoughtfully. ¡°It could work as, like... a seed for Immortality. Or something like that.¡±


    ¡°Seed for Immortality?¡± asked Alice.


    ¡°Well... I should preface this by saying that I don¡¯t understand exactly how Immortality works, at least not in any real detail,¡± said Cecilia, as she eyed Ethan. ¡°Honored Immortal Ethan could probably tell you more about that. But Immortals obviously have something that makes them biologically different from everyone else. They don¡¯t age, and all of them, without exception, have the ability to shrug off lethal wounds as long as their brain isn¡¯t destroyed.


    ¡°The fact that Immortals ALL have this trait makes me think that it¡¯s something biological, which the System just lumps together with the Achievement. You also said that the mana gem is only present in people above level 75, which is basically the final part of the race towards Immortality. If you reach level 100 and evolve your class, you start aging so slowly that reaching Immortality is pretty easy. So maybe the mana gem is kind of like the fertile soil that your Immortality Achievement will grow out of. Or maybe it¡¯s some sort of biological construct that grows into whatever characteristics Immortals have, behind the scenes. I don¡¯t know. I¡¯m obviously making a lot of guesses with shaky information here,¡± said Cecilia, as she shrugged. ¡°In the first place, we don¡¯t really have much data about what happens right before someone reaches Immortality. That makes guessing a lot harder. But I think my ideas might have some merit to them.¡±


    Ethan frowned thoughtfully. ¡°Cecilia¡¯s guess makes some sense. But I can¡¯t figure out why the mana gem would store other Achievements in that case. If the mana gem is supposed to absorb all of your Alice mana and prepare your Immortality Achievement, it seems weird that it has all of the other Achievements mixed into it. After all, you only observed these mana gem in people above level 75. Almost everyone alive on this planet has an Achievement, since a few of them are very easy to acquire. Logically speaking, that should mean that everyone would have a mana gem. I¡¯m mostly a combatant, but that particular bit of information is what¡¯s bothering me the most about it.¡±


    Alice nodded.


    To be honest, that was the most confusing part about the mana gems. If they truly contained Achievements, why didn¡¯t everyone have them? Alice didn¡¯t think there were many people in this world who had no Achievements at all, besides six year olds who had just gotten access to their Status Screen.


    ¡°You know, what if we¡¯re looking at this the wrong way?¡± asked Cecilia, after some thought. ¡°I remember you mentioning that only people above level 75 have the mana gems you¡¯ve mentioned... but it¡¯s also true that reaching level 75 is impossible for most people. The average person reaches level 50 or 60 by the time they die of old age. In order to go further, you need at least decently high-rarity Achievements to keep pushing forward. Otherwise, the increasing cost of each level eventually stifles your progress. What if it we¡¯re reversing cause and effect here? Maybe mana gems form once you get a certain rarity of Achievement. In that case, people who have high rarity Achievements form mana gems, and those Achievements also make them capable of reaching level 75? After all, the number of people with the potential to reach level 75 is pretty low. They¡¯re not so rare people never see them ¨C but they¡¯re the elites of the country. Even if they fail to reach Immortality most of the time, they¡¯re still extraordinary people. They¡¯re the best craftsmen or warriors even in large groups of people. Alice hasn¡¯t found a mana gem in anyone below level 75 YET. But that might be more of a probability thing than an absolute restriction.¡±


    Alice thought about that. It was actually a good theory. It made sense. Correlation and causation weren¡¯t the same thing, and Alice had gotten so lost in her thoughts and experiments that she had overlooked that. In fact, now that Cecilia brought it up, Alice also realized that it was possible everyone did have a mana gem. Perhaps they were just so tiny in normal people that they were impossible to see. Alice had already been having problems ¡®zooming in¡¯ her vision enough to see most mana gems. If the rarity of someone¡¯s Achievements determined the size of their mana gem, it made perfect sense for her to miss the mana gems in most people¡¯s brains.


    Then, Alice realized there was a small problem with that theory.


    ¡°I don¡¯t remember seeing a mana gem in my brain, though,¡± said Alice. ¡°And I¡¯ve had really high rarity Achievements for a very long time. If Achievement rarity was the thing that determined gem size, shouldn¡¯t I have had a pretty big gem since the moment I got here? I got {Outworlder} almost immediately, and that¡¯s a rarity 10 Achievement.¡±


    Cecilia looked thoughtful. ¡°That might be a strike against my theory. That being said, the System also notes that you have increased support from the System, and while we¡¯ve found a few corner cases where that seems to matter... it¡¯s also inconsistent and hard to figure out if we know all of the things the System does differently for you. It¡¯s not inconceivable that the System works differently for you and then treats everyone else differently, especially when it comes to things like mana gems.¡±


    Alice thought about it, and nodded. While experiments and data based on herself were useful, Cecilia did bring up a good point. The System clearly had some sort of difference in how it handled other people versus {Outworlders}. It was hard to say if that interacted with mana gems somehow to mess up her data.


    ¡°Cecilia, can I take a look at your brain again?¡± asked Alice, after a few moments. ¡°I¡¯d like to look for a mana gem in your brain again.¡±


    ¡°Go for it,¡± said Cecilia, extending an arm so that Alice could easily access it.


    Alice activated every single relevant Perk she had that would let her see inside of Cecilia¡¯s body, both from a mundane and a magical perspective. Then, she started carefully scanning Cecilia¡¯s brain again, to see if she could find a mana gem that she might have missed the first time... and once again, she found nothing.


    Was it too small for her Perks to pick out? Or was she missing something? Or did it not exist at all? Alice frowned in thought.


    ¡°Still didn¡¯t find it?¡± asked Cecilia. ¡°You look disappointed.¡±


    Alice sighed, and then nodded.


    ¡°I was honestly expecting to find a mana gem this time. I have better Perks than before, and even if none of them directly improve my vision... well, I was still expecting something,¡± said Alice. ¡°Instead, I still see nothing. Maybe there is some sort of fundamental difference between level 79 and level 80?¡± Alice sighed. ¡°I just don¡¯t know,¡± she eventually said. Running into a roadblock in her research even after getting her new Perk really made Alice feel frustrated. A lot of her earlier Perks had allowed her to slip past the roadblocks most other researchers encountered during their research. Alice admitted that she had been pretty lucky in that respect... but unfortunately, if she wanted more answers, she would need to wait longer.


    ¡°Relax, Alice,¡± said Cecilia, as she looked at Alice. Alice realized that she had let her shoulders tense up unnaturally, and made some effort to relax her body.


    ¡°I remember seeing a phrase in your memories that fits well here. Rome wasn¡¯t built in a day,¡± said Cecilia. ¡°You just have to keep trying to learn everything, and eventually it¡¯ll all make sense.¡±


    Cecilia even said the last part in English, which made Alice smile. Cecilia was getting better and better at English. Had she been practicing behind Alice¡¯s back?


    Hearing her friend try to cheer her up made Alice¡¯s mood a lot better.


    ¡°You¡¯re right,¡± said Alice. ¡°I¡¯m disappointed I didn¡¯t find anything, but I just need more data. I can get that pretty easily once we¡¯re back in Illvaria and I have more mental maps available. I get one a week.¡± Alice paused. ¡°Do you mind if I make a mental map of your brain next, Cecilia? I¡¯m able to ¡®zoom in¡¯ on images I¡¯ve made mental maps of, which helps a lot.¡±


    Alice had assumed that the reason she had a hard time finding Achievements previously was because she just hadn¡¯t found mana gems yet, either due to size limitations or because level 75¡¯s were the only ones that had them. But as Alice continued exploring her mana gem, she learned that Achievements were basically the misc folder in an otherwise well organized system.


    Does someone have a distinct image of who Alice is, and the System wants to deal with the excess mana?


    Make it into an Achievement.


    Has someone gotten closer to the concept of ¡®research,¡¯ and they need a way to bridge the gap between concept and human without warping the person¡¯s personality?


    Make it into an Achievement.


    Is there some sort of weird mana fluctuation, that the System needs to handle somehow?


    That¡¯s also an Achievement.


    Are people getting weaker because of old age?


    Achievement.


    Apparently, Achievements like {Malnourished} and {Old Age} had a bit less to do with mana than Alice had thought they did. They still had some links to mana, but that was probably mostly because a lot of people believed that {Malnourished} and {Old Age} made people weaker. Alice had the distinct impression that the System would have classified those as Achievements either way.


    Achievement was basically a dumping site where the System tossed absolutely everything that didn¡¯t fit into the rest of someone¡¯s status screen.


    Most Achievements seemed to be related to these mana concepts that Alice had found... but a disturbing number of them just seemed like random nonsense as well. The Achievements that had any sort of impact on levelling speed all had the strange concept-images that Alice had discovered. But really, that was the most consistent thing Alice found in the entire mess.


    The only other thing that Alice nailed down with absolute certainty was that the mana gem was trying to connect to the System.


    At least, she was pretty sure that was what she had found.


    Alice had long confirmed that the System operated off of a few certain principles when it came to things like Perk selection. The System would always figure out what the person choosing a Perk wanted, and then select from a very wide list of possible Perks, before presenting the Perk chooser a few options. These options would essentially be based on what the user wanted ¨C but there was an extremely consistent set of Perks that the System drew from. A [Barmaid], for example, had a few hundred different Perks that they could unlock at level 5 ¨C but the System always pulled from that selection of perks for whatever the [Barmaid] could unlock.


    Obviously, that meant that the System that people used on a daily basis had some sort of connection to the mainframe of the System. And Alice was pretty sure that she had found the spot where the System connected to the local version of the System people used.


    When Alice tried to use her System seed to translate what the little facet of the gem she had found was doing, Alice essentially saw one message.


    Error! Cannot connect to mainframe


    Trying again.


    This phrase repeated over... and over... and over... and over again. Every five seconds that Alice used her mana to translate the message, she just saw the same thing cycling over and over again.


    At the very least, Alice had now confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt that the way the System handled Achievements was somehow meant to be updated every few seconds. It was probably the only reason the entire Achievement system worked at all, considering how absurdly inconsistent the whole mess was behind the scenes. The local version of the System just wasn¡¯t meant to handle the complicated mess at all, and the System was supposed to take over and keep everything running.


    Sadly, the System was gone now.


    Which meant that Alice had a much bigger task in front of her than she had imagined. Instead of just figuring out how one category of ¡®things the System does¡¯ worked, Alice needed to untangle the giant mess and figure out how every single little component worked. Otherwise, Alice stood a very real chance of making the Achievements worse instead of better.


    At the very least, Alice was now pretty sure that part of Cecilia¡¯s speculation was right. There was a curious little bit of the mana gem that looked like it was supposed to be doing something with Alice mana. It just... wasn¡¯t working, for whatever reason. Alice could intuitively tell that it was like a jigsaw puzzle that was missing a piece. Alice mana fit perfectly into that missing puzzle piece... she just wasn¡¯t quite sure whether stuffing all of the Alice mana into the same area would break everything. {Safety Analysis} was giving her ¡®bad idea but not lethal¡¯ vibes, and Alice wasn¡¯t quite sure what to make of that.


    The day after Alice discovered what a disorganized mess Achievements were, Ethan and Allira informed her of something.


    ¡°We¡¯ve almost reached the palace,¡± said Ethan. ¡°We¡¯re going to say hello, and then move on. We just need to announce our presence before exiting the territory, or the [Queen] might think that we¡¯re avoiding her.¡±


    Allira grimaced. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t mind avoiding her,¡± she said.


    Ethan also rolled his eyes, but the two still led the group towards the city Alice could now see in the distance.

 Chapter 172

    Chapter 172


    As the group made their way through the streets of Cendaria¡¯s capital city, Alice couldn¡¯t help but notice just how much denser the crowds were. Illvaria¡¯s capital was larger, but Cendaria¡¯s capital, Cendria, was denser. The moment the group stepped past the city walls, Alice found herself packed into a sea of people, almost like a sardine in a can.


    It was also overwhelmingly obvious that the city wasn¡¯t meant to handle this many people. The streets were crowded to the point where people could barely walk. The buildings weren¡¯t much taller than they were in Illvaria. The city just wasn¡¯t meant to handle this many people.


    Why were there so many people packed into this city, when it couldn¡¯t accommodate them?


    It took Alice a few moments to realize what was going on. There were almost a dozen easily noticed signs in Cendaria¡¯s capital, all pointing people in different directions. Allira translated the signs for the rest of the group, and they painted a grim picture.


    Refugee quarters ¨C this way.


    Those seeking aid with class madness ¨C this way.


    Urgent healing ¨C this way.


    Alice realized, belatedly, that the [Guards] standing outside of the city hadn¡¯t been very vigilant. In Illvaria, Alice needed to answer detailed questionnaires under lie detection anytime she entered a city. But here, the [Guards] only asked a few questions before letting them in. There was still some basic security ¨C but it was very light. Alice didn¡¯t think that Cendarians were unaware of the massive problem with their security questions. In other words... something was forcing them to ignore this problem.


    And that something was probably the collapse of the System. Alice was becoming increasingly aware of how much worse Cendaria had been hit by the collapse of the System. In Illvaria, Alice was mostly sheltered from the impact of the catastrophe. Her presence had also curtailed many of the worst effects of the collapse. In Cendaria, they didn¡¯t have an Alice of their own. Unlike Illvaria, Cendaria was slowly crumbling as everything that kept the citizens safe collapsed.


    Alice remembered Ethan and Allira indicating, in no uncertain terms, that the [Queen] of Cendaria was usually quite unpleasant. Alice hadn¡¯t thought much about it at the time... but suddenly, it made a lot more sense that the [Queen] was still letting them pass through the area unmolested. As much as national rivalry mattered to those caught in the middle of it, the survival of one¡¯s people was still what came first for any monarch. If someone heard that Illvaria was doing much better than everyone else during this crisis, they would naturally try to ask for information and try to get on Illvaria¡¯s good side.


    The group quickly steered their way past the areas for refugees. In the inner region of the city, Alice noticed that the overwhelming crowds had decreased some. People were still packed together, but at least she didn¡¯t feel like a sardine anymore.


    The people who walked the streets also looked wealthier than those of Metsel. There were more people walking around in expensive clothing, and the [Soldiers] also had more System-enchanted armor.


    Of course, while people had higher-quality clothing, they had fewer enchantments. Alice only saw a few Mages walking around, and enchanted items were as rare as gold here. While Cendaria looked more wealthy than Illvaria at first glance, if one included the cost of enchantments and training Mages, Cendaria had a lot less wealth spread amongst its citizens.Re?Ad lateSt chapters at novelhall.com Only


    That was probably another reason Cendaria was hit so much harder by the collapse of the System. Mages were a huge part of this world¡¯s military. Illvaria was practically the magic capital of the southern continent. This made Illvarian society much more resilient against the enhanced monster swarms ravaging the countryside.


    The group of four was unusually quiet as they moved through Cendaria¡¯s capital. Seeing the impact of the crisis on Cendaria, nobody was in the mood for chatting.


    Finally, the group saw the palace in the distance.


    The palace of Cendaria was also seemingly opulent, but low on enchantments. Alice could see that the edges of the palace were made of a strange but beautiful turquoise stone. However, the building didn¡¯t have many enchantments attached to it.


    In Illvaria, the palace had nearly a dozen enchantments woven into it.


    The walls of Cendaria¡¯s palace only had three enchantments in them. One enchantment seemed to be a wall fortification of some sort. The other two enchantments... were based on light and heat. Alice suspected that the heat one was regulating the temperature inside of the palace. She had no clue what the light-based enchantment was doing, but the low quantity of enchantments was rather disappointing here.


    ¡°Why do the enchantments on the palace seem so...¡± Alice struggled to figure out what word she wanted to use.


    Casual?


    Relaxed?


    Harmless?


    After seeing the military efficiency of Illvaria¡¯s palace, she had assumed that every palace here was a fortress of magic and enchantments. Cendaria¡¯s palace looked more like it was built more for comfort than defense.


    ¡°Cendaria spends a lot less on its military than Illvaria. That¡¯s because it¡¯s in a far safer position.¡± said Ethan. ¡°There is another country to the north of Cendaria, cutting off their border with the nomads. There is a country south of Cendaria, so they don¡¯t have a direct border with the mana wastes. That means that there aren¡¯t any powerful monsters barging into the country. They don¡¯t have to deal with dangerous monster raids as often... and they also don¡¯t have the dangerous, high level fights that let people push combat classes to greater heights. In Illvaria, if someone wants to push a combat class past level 60 or 70, they can just fight monsters or join the army for a while. Here, they can basically only spar or train. While that still works, the efficiency is much lower. So combat Classes are slightly weaker in Cendaria.


    ¡°To the west, they have Illvaria as a neighbor ¨C and we¡¯re too busy fending off the nomads and preparing for a Simusi invasion to think about expanding east. Then, to the east, all of the neighbors of Cendaria are small and weak. Cendaria only has a quarter of Illvaria¡¯s population... but two of the three nations to Cendaria¡¯s east make even that tiny population seem massive.¡± Ethan grimaced. ¡°Well, technically there are four nations to the east of Cendaria. But one of them is basically only a nation on technicality.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± said Alice, frowning. If Cendaria wasn¡¯t that worried about military invasion or conquest, their seemingly lax palace enchantments made more sense. Then, Ethan¡¯s last words caught her attention.


    ¡°A nation that¡¯s only a nation by technicality?¡± asked Alice, frowning. How could a nation only be a nation on technicality?


    The heavy mood of the group seemed to fade away as Ethan chuckled. He leaned a little closer to Alice so that his voice would carry less.


    ¡°It¡¯s a rather absurd story, actually. But it¡¯s one you might enjoy. We¡¯ll be passing through it later.


    ¡°About a hundred and fifty years ago, a [Farmer] moved to a little farmstead just east of Cendaria. He¡¯s from the central continent, and I¡¯m pretty sure he moved to the south in order to get away from the constant wars up there. Anyway, he started creating truly absurd amounts of crops. Even in the middle of winter, he could create a bumper harvest of summer crops ¨C and he could do that every couple days. Immortal [Farmers] can produce truly absurd amounts of food, after all. He was single-handedly capable of feeding a large town. For a while, he got along well with the nation he lived in at the time.


    The female [Guard] and her companion looked relieved. ¡°Thank you for your patience. Follow me.¡±


    The group walked into the palace, where Alice noticed that the walls were covered in gold ornaments, paintings, and other expensive looking art. However, it all looked... kind of gaudy.


    The impression Alice got of the palace was that of someone flaunting their wealth. She missed the more obviously utilitarian and magically focused architecture of Illvaria. She hadn¡¯t realized how much of a blessing it was that she had ended up in the magic capital of the southern continent until now. Illvaria might have many shortcomings, but it was an amazing place to study magic. If she had ended up in Cendaria instead, she probably would have had a much harder time establishing herself in this world.


    She dismissed those thoughts as the [Soldier] led them through the halls of the palace, until they arrived at an audience chamber.


    They didn¡¯t need to wait for long before [Queen] Cendaria allowed them into the room.


    The group of four walked into a throne room that sparkled with a variety of luxurious gems and a throne made of gold. Sitting atop the throne was a woman with golden-blonde hair, upraised, vibrant eyes, and a dignified, but somewhat mischievous, smile. She was nearly as beautiful as Allira, although she fell a bit short.


    ¡°Allira. Ethan. And Ethan¡¯s... two apprentices?¡± asked the [Queen] of Cendaria, giving their group curious looks.


    Ethan shook his head. ¡°Cecilia is a friend of my apprentice, and she is here for her own safety ¨C as well as the fact that she can provide some useful insight on various matters. But she is not my apprentice.¡± He glanced at Cecilia, before he sighed. ¡°Perhaps in the future.¡±


    Cendaria nodded thoughtfully. Oddly enough, Alice noticed [Queen] Cendaria looking at her out of the corner of her eyes. Alice saw a veritable flood of Perks pass through the [Queen] of Cendaria¡¯s eyes. A few of them extended towards Alice, which she shut off using her Perks. The [Queen]¡¯s eyes widened, and then she looked thoughtful. A few moments later, Cendaria addressed her, nearly ignoring the rest of the group.


    ¡°I¡¯ve seen several actions and papers written in your name. Did you write everything?¡± asked [Queen] Cendaria.


    ¡°I did,¡± said Alice, taken aback. Shouldn¡¯t conversations like this be Ethan¡¯s or Allira¡¯s job? ¡°Why do you ask?¡±


    ¡°I was impressed by your papers. But more to the point... I wanted to ask you about things. Recently... a lot of disasters have fallen upon my people. Monster swarms ravaging the countryside as my [Soldiers] struggle to keep up and handle them. People losing their minds as their class takes over. Almost fifteen percent of the population in this city right now is suffering from one of these two things. And the number is just growing, every single week,¡± said Cendaria. ¡°What exactly is going on?¡±


    Ethan frowned, and shifted his body to slightly shield Alice from view. He turned towards Alice, and opened his mouth to speak... before he looked thoughtful. He glanced at Alice, and then glanced at [Queen] Cendaria again. Alice couldn¡¯t quite figure out what the meaning of Ethan¡¯s glance was. It almost looked like he was thinking about something.


    ¡°That is the kind of information that you would need to speak with the [King] of Illvaria about, [Queen] Cendaria,¡± said Ethan, finally. ¡°The relationship between our two countries isn¡¯t good enough that we would freely share valuable information.¡±


    Allira didn¡¯t say a word, but she glared at the [Queen] of Cendaria. Alice could feel a hint of hostility in Allira¡¯s gaze, as if she particularly disliked the woman.


    [Queen] Cendaria looked at Ethan and Allira, before she sighed.


    ¡°I know that we¡¯ve had our differences, and I acknowledge that a lot of it was my fault. To put it bluntly, I was rude. But even if you dislike me, I don¡¯t want my people to die. I may be petty, rude, and obnoxious, but I became an Immortal [Queen] because I truly do care about my people.¡± [Queen] Cendaria sounded like she was forcing every single word out through gritted teeth. Alice could see just how little [Queen] Cendaria liked saying this.


    And yet, she did it anyway. Despite how much it must have rankled her pride, she was still willing to put her pride away when her people¡¯s lives were at stake.


    That was... respectable. Despite everything else she had heard about the woman, Cendaria didn¡¯t seem too bad. And Cendaria was right about one thing. The people of Cendaria were clearly suffering right now. Alice sighed.


    ¡°I don¡¯t mind sharing a bit of information, Ethan,¡± she said.


    Ethan glanced doubtfully at Alice. ¡°She¡¯s a [Queen] from a rival country. And not one that gets along well with Illvaria, either. You shouldn¡¯t just give away information for free to someone like her. You should at least make her pay something for the information,¡± he said.


    Alice shook her head.


    Maybe she was being foolish. It was entirely possible. But the collapse of the System was a crisis that affected everyone. Just a few weeks ago, Alice and Ethan had run into a massive roadblock because they couldn¡¯t trust the Sigmusi to let them pass through their territory. Now, Alice felt like she was on the other side of that decision... and in a very uncomfortable way. Was it really right for her to let people die because of diplomatic tension right now?


    Especially after [Queen] Cendaria had put down her pride like this to get potentially lifesaving information for her people?


    ¡°The entirety of humanity is experiencing a crisis right now,¡± said Alice. ¡°I think that means that we should work together. At least until the crisis is over, we shouldn¡¯t be stockpiling information that could save lives. The more stable the rest of the world is, the longer I have to find a real solution.¡±


    Ethan and Allira gave Alice dubious glances, but after a moment, Ethan sighed. Then, he nodded... although he looked incredibly reluctant. It was almost like he was gritting his teeth as he agreed.


    ¡°... I don¡¯t like it. But I suppose this is also a kind of learning experience for you, and your words do make sense,¡± said Ethan.


    Alice smiled. She was glad to know that she could share some information with Cendaria here. It might not be the correct choice.


    But a part of her felt like this was the only way forward.


    Humanity was facing the crisis as a whole. They should work to resolve it as a whole.

 Chapter 173

    Chapter 173


    Alice spent the next few hours explaining what she had learned through her experiments.


    Of course, Alice had hidden some information, specifically related to the nature of the System. She didn¡¯t think that was a good idea to share with other people. Telling the [Queen] of Cendaria that there was a physical mainframe for the System somewhere northwest of Illvaria would be a terrible idea. Alice wasn¡¯t even sure that she trusted the [King] of Illvaria with that information, because there was so much potential for abuse in the future. If it hadn¡¯t been for the current crisis, she would never have told another soul about the physical mainframe of the System.


    But she had still told the [Queen] of Cendaria a lot. She had told her everything she had discovered about how Classes could influence people¡¯s minds, how [Willpower] seemed to help people fight off the effects of class-madness, and had given the [Queen] of Cendaria a sample of the ring that corrected [Farmer] Classes. The [Queen] had called in the [Enchanter] of the royal family, who apparently had a rather unique ability... once per week, he was able to replicate an enchantment onto another object. Of course, he still needed the materials to make a copy of an item, and there were a lot of restrictions on what, specifically, he could copy. He couldn¡¯t create an artifact, or any item that was too complicated using his Perk. But it was still an exceptional way to help tamp down on the suffering and chaos in Cendaria.


    Alice didn¡¯t really have a good suggestion for how to handle the monster swarms, unfortunately. Alice had hoped that maybe Ethan or Allira would offer a few suggestions on that front, but the two of them didn¡¯t have any advice for Cendaria. Alice wasn¡¯t sure whether that was because they weren¡¯t interested in helping her, or because they just didn¡¯t have any ideas. Either way, Alice certainly didn¡¯t have any cheap and easy ways to strengthen the military of a nation. Cendaria would just have to figure out the monster swarms on their own.


    After Alice and [Queen] Cendaria finished talking, [Queen] Cendaria promised to make it up to Illvaria and Alice. She had sworn that she would owe them a favor.


    Allira had scoffed at that, but had quietly admitted that, as far as her Perks could detect, [Queen] Cendaria was being completely truthful with that statement.


    When Alice and the others left the capital of Cendaria, she had mixed feelings about everything.


    Allira and Ethan had hinted that they still thought she had made a mistake. On an intellectual level, Alice understood where they were coming from. She was basically handing out important, valuable information to a country that Illvaria was on slightly hostile terms with. From a diplomatic perspective, it might be better if Cendaria suffered greatly during this crisis. Alice was pretty tightly intertwined with Illvaria, and it was the country she felt the most connected to in this world. All the people she cared about here were part of Illvaria, and she had lived there for over a year. Ethan had genuinely done his best to take care of her as his apprentice, Cecilia was her best friend in this world, and Alice had also formed decent bonds with some of her classmates. And if Cendaria vanished off the map tomorrow, Illvaria might be better off for it.


    But Alice still didn¡¯t think that sharing information was wrong. The more stable humanity was as a whole, the better the odds that humanity would overcome this crisis. The wanton slaughter and refugees from villages in Cendaria had opened Alice¡¯s eyes to just how badly other countries were faring during the crisis. Alice was willing to help Illvaria more than other countries... but that didn¡¯t mean she was willing to leave people to die.


    When the group finally left the [Queen] of Cendaria, they didn¡¯t stop at another inn in the city. Instead, they just moved on, putting as much distance as they could between themselves and the palace. As they left the capital, Alice also spent some time filtering mana and tallying up her rewards. The first, and most interesting reward, was a few levels in [Legendary Organic Mage], but she had also gotten a level in [Scholar] and [Courtier].


    You have leveled up!


    Legendary Organic Mage: 1 -> 7, Scholar: 62 -> 63, Courtier: 2 -> 3


    Regrettably, the [Legendary Organic Mage] was a secondary class, instead of a primary class. If it had been a primary Class, Alice suspected that she probably would have immediately jumped to level 13 or 14. Not to mention, if it had been a primary class, she would have gotten new Perk choices. Sadly, that wasn¡¯t how Secondary Classes worked.


    Alice did start wondering whether it was worth ditching [Kinetic Manabinder] for [Legendary Organic Mage] as a primary class, but decided not to try it. She wasn¡¯t sure if that would cause some sort of new, weird system error that might kill her. She could think about it if or when the System was restored, but it just seemed too risky right now. She was happy with her new levels in [Legendary Mage] either way. One more incident like this could get her a new Perk.


    As for the level in [Courtier]... Alice really couldn¡¯t care less about the Class. It was basically just a decorative class in her eyes ¨C the one and only use the Class had was to make sure she didn¡¯t get influenced by [Courtier] mana. She seriously doubted any Perks from the Class would be valuable to her, and figured it was only slightly more useful than [Fisherwoman]. The level in [Scholar] was a bit disappointing as well ¨C Alice had thought that presenting her research in front of a monarch would give her more than just one level. Alice was pretty sure she had already been close to level 63 in [Scholar], so the rewards really felt lacking.


    Maybe people in this world believed that [Scholars] were more inclined to mingle with their own circle, or something? Alice suspected that the reason she only got one level was due to some sort of cultural difference in how people perceived [Scholars] in this world. Unfortunately, it had interfered with her levelling progress this time.


    However, if anything, Alice was even more excited by her final reward. It was much more substantial than her level rewards.


    You have gained an achievement!


    First Steps (I)-> (III) (Rarity: 6 -> 8)


    You have taken the first steps towards resolving the aftermath of the collapse of the System. Even in the face of a seemingly hopeless task, you continue to find ways to mitigate the impact of the catastrophe. And, shockingly, you have started to find success in your actions. Not only that, but you have taken actions to spread your damage control methods far and wide, regardless of nationality or hostility. Few can be as altruistic in the face of a crisis.


    +50% ->100% growth speed for Enchanter classes, +20% ->40% growth speed for all Classes, +50% ->100% growth speed for healing classes.


    You can improve up to five objects by increasing the number of enchanting instructions they can hold by 1. Can be activated up to 5 times a month. To active this Perk, place the item in your storage Perk and then focus on this Achievement.


    You may also ¡®repair¡¯ a magic construct instead of increasing the number enchantment instructions, but this is still subject to the five object limitation. Mana constructs do not need to be placed in storage to be repaired, but you must be in close proximity to them and/or be touching them. (If the mana construct is in another person¡¯s body, you must also obtain permission from the owner before repairing anything).


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    On the third day, one day before Alice could create a new mental map, the group entered the lands of... Superbia.


    And Alice had to admit, she was taken aback by it.


    She had thought that the lands of Cendaria were noticeably greener than Illvaria.


    She had been wrong.


    Superbia was so filled with plants that it was like walking into a jungle. The weather itself seemed to bend to the will of the Immortal who lived here. Even though it was still winter, in Superbia, it felt more like late spring or early summer.


    Giant wheat stalks, nearly twice the height of Alice, rose into the sky like giant pillars. System mana covered every single centimeter of soil, like an omnipresent smog. In the distance, Alice could see giant fruit trees, laden with fruit. The largest tree of all appeared to be an apple tree that rivalled redwood trees in height.


    Alice didn¡¯t know much about apple trees, but she was pretty sure they weren¡¯t supposed to grow over a hundred meters tall. Even more bizarre, the tree was moving. Every few seconds, one of the branches of the apple tree lowered itself towards the ground. If Alice hadn¡¯t seen all of the System mana, she might have thought she had stumbled upon a tree monster of some sort.


    The group set exactly one foot into the field of wheat, before Ethan gestured for the group to stop. At the same time, a ripple of System mana rippled through the field of giant crops.


    ¡°Hello?¡± called someone in the distance. Alice realized a moment later that the person who was speaking had been standing under the apple tree.


    ¡°Jonathan! It¡¯s me!¡± yelled Ethan. His voice carried far into the distance.


    ¡°Ah, Ethan!¡± yelled Jonathan. ¡°Give me just a minute! Let me finish harvesting this apple tree, and then I¡¯ll come over!¡± he said. Alice watched as the apple tree¡¯s branches continued to lower themselves to the ground. Finally, all the apples on the tree were harvested, and Alice saw a cloud of distant mana begin making its way towards them.


    A few moments later, she got her first good look at Jonathan, the Immortal [Farmer] who had founded a five-person country.


    He was a tall man, with broad shoulders, a rather bushy beard, and rich brown hair. He was on the handsome side, just like most Immortals, and had a somewhat mischievous gleam in his eyes that made Alice feel strangely relaxed. It was almost the same expression that a child might make after pulling off a successful prank.


    ¡°Ethan! It¡¯s been... what, three decades since we last met face to face?¡± asked Jonathan. ¡°How have you been?¡±


    ¡°Hmm... it has been a rather... interesting year,¡± said Ethan, frowning. ¡°For both good and bad reasons. On one hand, I have a very promising new apprentice,¡± said Ethan, gesturing towards Alice. ¡°On the other hand, the nastiness with these monster swarms, the messed up status screens, and the other various problems that have recently arisen...¡± Ethan grimaced. ¡°I can¡¯t say I¡¯m happy about those.¡±


    Jonathan also grimaced. ¡°Bad business, that. Can¡¯t say it makes much sense to me, but even the missus has been feeling off recently. And my fool son has been even harder to manage than usual.¡± Jonathan sighed, before he turned towards the others. ¡°Allira,¡± he said. ¡°You¡¯re even more beautiful than you were when I last saw you.¡±


    ¡°That is how stats work, Jonathan,¡± said Allira, rolling her eyes. But Alice noticed that the corner of Allira¡¯s lips were ever so slightly turned upwards when she spoke ¨C which surprised Alice. She hadn¡¯t seen Allira genuinely smile when interacting with people before, so it caught her off guard.


    Jonathan grinned, before he gave Alice and Cecilia a courteous half-bow.


    ¡°Ethan¡¯s apprentice. I believe your name is Alice, right?¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you. While I can¡¯t offer you any sort of assistance, I hope you make it to Immortality. It¡¯s always exciting to get to meet new Immortals, and I always enjoy seeing what new Immortals can do by the time they finish growing.¡±


    Alice nodded. Finally, Jonathan turned towards Cecilia.


    ¡°And I¡¯m not sure who you are, but it¡¯s nice to meet you as well! I¡¯m Jonathan, [King] of Superbia, the greatest nation on the planet,¡± he said. The mischievous quirk in his lips became even more pronounced, and Alice realized why Ethan and Allira were so comfortable poking fun at the nation of Superbia.


    As it turned out, Jonathan, the [King] of Superbia, was the person most comfortable with poking fun at the country. No wonder his acquaintances did the same thing.


    Cecilia chuckled. ¡°Nice to meet you. My name is Cecilia. I¡¯m a [Merchant] and an [Enchanter]. But I¡¯m mostly here as Alice¡¯s friend.¡±


    ¡°Well, welcome to my home, and my country,¡± said Jonathan. A small burst of rainbow mana exited his body, and Alice suddenly felt that Jonathan looked far more dignified than before. ¡°Would you like to come in?¡±

 Chapter 174

    Chapter 174


    The group followed Jonathan through fields of giant crops for a few minutes. Alice noted, with some amusement, that wheat and apples were nowhere near the only crops grown in Jonathan¡¯s country. She spotted some sort of pepper, carrots, and several far more exotic-looking crops as well.


    Finally, after about ten minutes of walking, they reached a large building. It was one of the strangest architectural designs Alice had ever seen. It looked like someone had made a palace-themed farmhouse. The farmhouse was much, much smaller than an actual palace ¨C it was three stories high, and probably had thirty rooms in total. The walls were enchanted with a basic resilience enchantment, as well as a temperature regulation enchantment. The material was nothing special ¨C it almost looked like regular wood, much to Alice¡¯s confusion.


    Jonathan gestured towards the farmhouse, and then winked cheerily at the group.


    ¡°A stupendous palace, wouldn¡¯t you say, Lady Alice and Lady Cecilia?¡± he said, grinning. ¡°It¡¯s the envy of other [Kings] and [Queens]. Truly, a marvel of magical engineering and architecture alike. It¡¯s also the very center of Superbia, the most powerful nation in the Shil Confederacy.¡±


    Cecilia actually giggled at that. Alice also chuckled softly as she looked at the farmhouse. Superbia felt... safe, somehow. The indications of monster attacks and the broken System felt almost nonexistent here, and Alice had never had the [King] of a nation adamantly poking fun at his own nation before. It was a strange, novel experience that pushed the crisis out of Alice¡¯s mind for a few minutes.


    ¡°It¡¯s definitely a mighty palace,¡± Alice said. Then, she raised an eyebrow at Jonathan. ¡°Out of curiosity, you don¡¯t... well...¡±


    ¡°Seem to take my glorious and powerful nation seriously?¡± asked Jonathan, raising an eyebrow at her. He grinned. ¡°I get asked that question a lot, actually. I think a lot of people who come to meet with me expect to see a petty tyrant, lording over my random chunk of wasteland and holding a trumped up opinion of myself. Or something like that.¡± Jonathan shrugged.


    ¡°To be honest... I founded Superbia as a joke. I mean, it isn¡¯t entirely a joke. I do think that [King] and [Farmer] actually have some pretty good synergy for making ludicrously efficient farms. There¡¯s a reason I make so much money as a [Farmer]. Lots of crops that aren¡¯t supposed to grow on this continent flourish here. But at the end of the day, my nation has five people in it. It¡¯s hard to take yourself too seriously when you¡¯re aware that your nation has a weaker military than an average city¡¯s [Guard] station.¡± Jonathan grinned. ¡°Not that I can¡¯t ward of [Bandits] or monsters, mind you. I¡¯m still an Immortal. But... my nation is basically only a nation on technicality.¡± Jonathan shrugged. ¡°Of course, there is one other reason that I founded the nation of Superbia. Besides just the levels in [King] and the synergy between [King] and [Farmer].¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± asked Alice, curious.


    ¡°My children,¡± said Jonathan. ¡°While most [Kings] don¡¯t go around advertising this fact left and right, it is common knowledge that [Princes] and [Princesses] get some rather nice Achievements for growing up. I suspect it¡¯s because most royal children experience a fair number of assassination attempts as they get older. Reaching the age of ten alive might not be an Achievement for most people, but if you¡¯re a royal, sometimes it can be difficult to survive.¡± Jonathan grinned. ¡°So I decided I wanted to lean a little bit into that. My children are technically [Princes] and [Princesses]. They don¡¯t even have their royalty classes as primary classes, because most [Noble] classes require a lot more than this to level up. But even so, it technically qualifies them to receive those Achievements. Those Achievements aren¡¯t anything too special ¨C but a free Achievement for your kids is a free Achievement, right?¡± said Jonathan.


    ¡°Huh.¡± Alice nodded to herself. She had to admit, that wasn¡¯t quite what she had been expecting... but it made sense, given Jonathan¡¯s attitude so far. If he just treated his ¡®glorious nation¡¯ as a way to farm Achievements and levels, it made sense that he was willing to poke fun at it. However, Alice also couldn¡¯t help but wonder if that messed with his levelling progress as a [King]. If everyone perceived his nation to be a joke... would that make it harder for Jonathan to gain levels as a ruler? Alice had a sneaking suspicion that the answer was yes, based on her understanding of the System.Vissit  for updates


    As Alice ruminated on that idea, the group walked into the farmhouse.


    Alice saw two men, one girl, and a woman sitting inside of the house arguing with each other.


    The youngest child was a girl. She had exceptionally pretty blonde hair that resembled molten gold. She was probably eight or nine years old, and level 10 or so. She had bright blue eyes that sparkled with mischief and intelligence. She was sitting by the side as her older brother and her mother argued, and looked positively delighted to watch them yell at each other. When she saw Alice and the others enter, she held up her fingers in a shushing motion before she turned back towards the others.


    The second youngest child was around Alice¡¯s age. He had a very bookish demeanor, and didn¡¯t look like he was particularly strong or handsome. Alice grinned when she recognized a little bit of [Scholar] mana floating around in his body. However, Alice¡¯s attention was quickly drawn to the last child of Jonathan¡¯s family.


    The oldest man looked to be in his early twenties, and he was about level 50. He had dark brown hair and green eyes, and seemed to be at least reasonably attractive. However, the mana inside of his body was... troubling.


    For some reason, there seemed to be a fair amount of [Explorer] mana stuck in his body. However, there didn¡¯t seem to be an [Explorer] Class seed present... meaning that all of the [Explorer] mana was probably eating away at his mind and personality. Alice frowned as she looked at him. She still didn¡¯t know how to create new class seeds. She could fix ones that weren¡¯t filtering mana properly, but creating a new one from scratch was beyond her. She had no way to fix this situation. At least, not yet.


    The final member of the family was the woman herself. She looked to be in her mid forties, and had greying hair and intelligent eyes. When she saw Alice and the others enter the room, she held up her hand towards the others, stopping the argument before Alice could even make out what they had been arguing about. The oldest boy blinked in surprise, before he also turned towards Alice and the others. His eyes passed over Alice, Cecilia, and Ethan... and then became firmly glued to Allira for several seconds, before he realized he was staring.


    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    The little girl gave Alice a disappointed gaze, as if she was sad the show had ended. She got up, dusted herself off, and then walked back over to her mother, who gently picked her back up.


    ¡°#@*$(&@#% @#(*$#@ @#$#@$?¡± the man said, looking at his mother.


    ¡°Illvarian... I think?¡± she said, turning towards Jonathan.


    Jonathan nodded. ¡°The guests speak Illvarian,¡± he said. ¡°Though the two older ones are Immortals, and know most languages in the region.¡±


    The woman relaxed, and nodded. ¡°I speak Illvarian well enough,¡± she said, before shaking her head disapprovingly at her son. ¡°Jacob here should know Illvarian, but whether he actually does is up for debate.¡± Then, she turned towards the bookish-looking boy and the little girl, before she sighed. ¡°As for Mimi and Stuart... Mimi probably won¡¯t understand a word of this. Stuart?¡±


    ¡°I can speak Illvarian quite well,¡± said the bookish-looking boy. ¡°I have the language skill at 80.¡±


    The little girl looked at the group, before she looked at her mother, and then made the most dramatic sigh Alice had ever heard.


    Immediately, a bubble of rainbow mana flickered into existence around the two.


    ¡°What did you want to talk about?¡±


    ¡°I have two things to say. First, I have a question. How much do you trust Immortal Jonathan? Is it all right if I discuss more detailed parts of the collapse of the System, or should we only distribute standard information to him?¡±


    ¡°Immortal Jonathan is pretty trustworthy overall. In his own words, he¡¯s just a simple [Farmer] who happens to be the [King] of the greatest nation on Luliv.¡± Ethan rolled his eyes. ¡°Jokes aside, he¡¯s a good person.¡±


    Alice nodded.


    ¡°Then, second question. Do you think it¡¯s a good idea to tell Immortal Jonathan that his son is flooded with [Explorer] mana, and Jacob does not have a Class seed to handle it?¡±


    Ethan paused. For a brief moment, his expression turned into horror as he looked at Jacob and Jonathan.


    ¡°Really?¡± Ethan asked. ¡°Jacob is...¡± he frowned, and then put a hand on his forehead. ¡°No, I can see how that would have happened. That doesn¡¯t surprise me. Damn.¡± Ethan sighed. ¡°[Explorer], huh. I haven¡¯t visited Jonathan recently, but I did hear that his kid kept trying to leave the country. Why hasn¡¯t he ever picked up the damn class before now?¡±


    Alice shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t know. It does seem like Jacob was arguing with his mother earlier. Maybe we can get some ideas from that? But if I had to guess, I imagine that his parents were afraid of him getting kidnapped by [Bandits] or something. It¡¯s hard to say. Either way, he never got the class, but he has a lot of the mana for it.¡±


    ¡°So how in the world did the kid get access to [Explorer] mana now, after the collapse of the System?¡± Ethan sounded more numb and frustrated than genuinely curious. Then, Ethan sighed. ¡°Nevermind, I guess it doesn¡¯t really matter. Maybe Jacob got the [Thief] class by stealing something from his father and then returning it? That would get him the stealth Perks he would need to slip away, and wouldn¡¯t leave any traces behind if he immediately returned whatever he stole. It still leaves quite a mess behind.¡±


    Then, weirdly enough, Alice saw a hint of.. respect in Ethan¡¯s eyes. ¡°The kid knows what he wants, that¡¯s for sure. Still, kind of foolhardy. I¡¯m willing to bet that if his father caught him, he would be forced to shovel manure for months on end. At least, if that¡¯s indeed the way he started exploring the area. Either way, his timing couldn¡¯t be worse.¡±


    Alice nodded.


    Ethan sighed again.


    ¡°What a mess. Well, I don¡¯t think hiding it from Jonathan is a good idea.¡± Ethan let the Perk dissipate, and then gestured towards Jonathan. ¡°I trust him. Let¡¯s tell him everything about the collapse of the System, and go from there.¡±


    Alice nodded, and the two made their way back towards Jonathan, who was still watching as Cecilia, Allira, and his wife chatted with each other, and the younger boy and the little girl played in the fields.


    ¡°Jonathan...¡± said Ethan, hesitantly.


    ¡°Ethan?¡±


    ¡°I... or rather, my apprentice, has some news to share with you.¡±


    Jonathan looked at Ethan¡¯s face, and then Alice¡¯s, before his gaze hardened. ¡°Not the good kind of news, I take it?¡±


    ¡°Sadly not.¡±


    Jonathan grimaced. ¡°Well, let¡¯s hear it. The sooner I know, the sooner I can get to handling it. Is it a monster swarm heading this way?¡± Jonathan frowned. ¡°If we evacuate my wife and kids to the nearest city, the two of us should be able to face it down, if you¡¯re willing to help out.¡±


    ¡°Jonathan.¡±


    ¡°If it¡¯s a bigger horde, I can abandon the farm for a while and just go somewhere else. My country doesn¡¯t really mean much to me, so I don¡¯t care if it¡¯s razed to the ground. I care about my family, and the country can always be rebuilt later.¡±


    ¡°Jonathan.¡±


    ¡°If there are a lot of problem monsters...¡±


    ¡°Jonathan,¡± said Ethan. ¡°It¡¯s not a monster horde. It¡¯s your son. Jacob. It seems that he¡¯s sick.¡±

 Chapter 175

    Chapter 175


    Immortal Jonathan led Alice and Ethan to a side room, away from everyone else. Allira and Jonathan¡¯s wife remained behind, because neither of them were aware of the System¡¯s inner workings. Cecilia had originally prepared to join them, but Alice had mentioned the discussion was more... personal. The people who were most impacted by this conversation would be Immortal Jonathan and his family. Since Jonathan seemed uncomfortable with the idea of more people hearing about this, Alice and Ethan had told her to stay in the room with the other two for now.


    After the group sat down in a different room, Jonathan gave Alice and Ethan a curious gaze. It was mixed with anxiety and frustration.


    ¡°All right, you have my attention. You said that Jacob is sick?¡± Jonathan¡¯s complicated gaze grew deeper. ¡°He seems fine to me. I don¡¯t understand why you¡¯re claiming that my boy is ill.¡±


    ¡°I should start with my studies of the System,¡± said Alice. She could understand where Jonathan was coming from ¨C outwardly, Jacob didn¡¯t look very sick. ¡°I¡¯ve spent the last year or so using a rather unique blend of Perks and Achievements to investigate the System itself. I¡¯ve been deeply curious about what exactly the System is, and how it works, so I just kept investigating it. I¡¯ve learned a lot about the System ¨C for example, the fact that the System operates off of mana, the same as any other spell or enchantment.¡±


    Jonathan gave Alice a hard look.


    ¡°The System runs on mana? That¡¯s... hard to swallow,¡± said Jonathan. He sounded like he didn¡¯t believe her. Alice sighed. That was about what she had expected.


    ¡°Well, if you use a lie detection Perk you can at least confirm that I believe what I¡¯m saying,¡± said Alice. ¡°From there...¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have any lie-detecting Perks,¡± said Jonathan.


    Huh?


    Alice squinted at Jonathan¡¯s eyes, and noticed, with some surprise, that Jonathan didn¡¯t have a lie-detection Perk running right now. Alice had assumed that most Immortals picked up a lie detection Perk and a privacy Perk pretty soon after reaching Immortality. They were just very convenient Perks to have, and Alice was pretty sure they could be acquired pretty quickly with the right secondary Classes. Seeing an Immortal not have one was actually quite surprising.


    It also made Alice¡¯s job a lot harder, since she was making some hard to verify claims. Normally, the ubiquitous nature of lie-detection Perks in this world made verifying her statements pretty easy, since the other person just knew that she wasn¡¯t lying. But Jonathan didn¡¯t have that kind of ability, which made the situation more complicated.


    ¡°The System is, indeed, magical,¡± said Ethan. ¡°I know it¡¯s hard to believe, but I wouldn¡¯t lie to you about something like this.¡±


    ¡°You might not be willing to lie to me about something like this, but claiming the divine is made of mana is just...¡± Jonathan massaged his temples. ¡°I¡¯ve been a devout believer of the Church of the System for almost two centuries. What you¡¯re saying is... heresy.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not heresy if it¡¯s the truth, Jonathan. And we aren¡¯t claiming that the System isn¡¯t what it appears to be. If anything, the System seems to actively benefit humanity far more than the Church of the System seems aware of...¡± said Ethan. ¡°It¡¯s just that it also runs off of mana.¡±


    ¡°But you¡¯re making claims that sound awfully similar to the Church of Mana¡¯s theological position,¡± said Jonathan. ¡°I guess you¡¯re not denying the divinity of the System, so it¡¯s not totally removed from the Church¡¯s teachings, but...¡±


    Alice tried not to wince. She, at least, had never really believed in the System being ¡®divine.¡¯ It was certainly an admirable enchantment, and one that the human world relied on to avoid collapsing... but it wasn¡¯t even alive. Alice had never been particularly inclined to ascribe agency to non-sentient objects.


    ¡°Jonathan, I know it¡¯s hard to believe, but look at the world around us. The monster swarms are behaving intelligently, monsters are using Perks that they should never have had access to, people are behaving oddly as their classes overtake their reason...¡± Ethan grimaced. ¡°You can clearly see that something is wrong here.¡±


    Jonathan looked at the window to the room for a moment, before he frowned.


    ¡°Damn. You have a point. Things really have been going wrong recently. Heck, I¡¯ve heard that people can¡¯t even see proper descriptions for new Perks,¡± said Jonathan, before sighing. ¡°I¡¯m not one to disbelieve what¡¯s right in front of my eyes. But your story is really hard to swallow... Do you have any kind of proof? I know that the System not showing people their Perks properly does lend your story a bit of weight, but the other two things could be explained in other ways as well. There could be some sort of strange disease going around that causes people to behave oddly. There could also be some sort of mana surge that¡¯s empowering monsters.¡± Jonathan grimaced. ¡°It seems unlikely that those are the explanations for why everything is going wrong. Even so, I¡¯d like something a bit more concrete.¡±


    Alice sighed in relief. She had been expecting much worse when Jonathan had started disagreeing with their story. However, it seemed that Ethan¡¯s judgement was correct. Even though Immortal Jonathan was a devout believer of the church of the System, it seemed that his concern for his family outweighed his belief in the teachings of the System. Alice could very much prove that she had been studying the System and could interact with it on a deeper level, at least.


    ¡°I do have a way to prove that I can interact with the System on a more fundamental level,¡± said Alice, after a moment. ¡°I can¡¯t directly prove it runs on mana, since you don¡¯t seem to have any type of mana sense. But I can prove my abilities. Would that suffice for you?¡±


    ¡°Unfortunately,¡± said Alice. ¡°Although, there might be a real solution in a month or less.¡±


    Jonathan frowned. ¡°I wish I knew how Jacob even got started on an [Explorer] class. It seems so unusual...¡±


    Alice also frowned in thought.


    ¡°Actually, I have a question,¡± said Alice. ¡°What exactly does it mean to ¡®explore¡¯ something? The exact ideas that people associate with ¡®exploring¡¯ could have a pretty big impact on what Jacob did to get into this mess. And it might also be relevant to the process of fixing this.¡± Alice didn¡¯t know how to create class seeds yet, but she suspected that understanding what a class was supposed to ¡®be¡¯ was probably part of it. ¡°What distinguishes an [Explorer] from other, similar professions? After all, Jacob was mostly filled with [Explorer] mana, although he does have other, adjacent types of mana in his body as well.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve spoken with Murim about this a few times, actually,¡± said Ethan. ¡°[Explorers] are usually renowned for exploring unknown regions of territory. If you ¡®explore¡¯ a city that other people have already mapped out, you don¡¯t really get much XP for it. On the other hand, if you explore a region of wilderness that nobody has ever set foot on before, that¡¯s worth a whole lot of XP. Regions that are poorly mapped out count for some growth, but not much. Most of the people who have set foot on the Western Continent and survived were [Explorers]. If you can actually get out alive, the continent is a golden opportunity to level [Explorer] Classes. Of course, most people just become monster chow if they try.¡±


    Alice frowned. ¡°Then how did Jacob pick up the [Explorer] class? I seriously doubt this farm is ¡®uncharted territory.¡¯ And frankly, most of the surrounding area should be pretty well mapped out, right? We aren¡¯t particularly close to the mana wastes right now, and there are nations in every direction. How in the world did Jacob explore a ¡®new¡¯ piece of territory? That makes no sense.¡±


    Jonathan also frowned. ¡°If you want to reach the mana wastes, you would need to travel at least a few days to the south, and you would also need to pass through two different nations during the process. I don¡¯t think Jacob could have possibly been absent for four days without me and my wife noticing, and I also don¡¯t think he could have possibly slipped past so many border patrols unharmed.¡±


    ¡°Are there any other ways to get [Explorer] levels?¡± asked Alice. ¡°Any loopholes, or exceptional circumstances?¡±


    ¡°Hmm... well, I do vaguely recall that there seem to be a few other circumstances where you can get [Explorer] experience points,¡± said Ethan, after a few moments of thought. ¡°I know that people exploring Southern Illvaria recently got [Explorer] levels just fine. And since the area was densely settled less than a century ago, that doesn¡¯t really make sense.¡±


    ¡°So maybe significant terrain alterations ¡®count¡¯ as far as levelling goes?¡± asked Alice. ¡°Or if the knowledge people have of a specific region is incorrect or outadated?¡±


    ¡°Maybe. But even so, I don¡¯t recall there having been any major terrain modifications to my farm. Unless my Perks count as major terrain modifications themselves? But I don¡¯t change up the farm much...¡± Jonathan looked even more confused than before. Alice also felt baffled.


    Where had Jacob gotten so much [Explorer] mana? According to Alice¡¯s estimation, if the System were working properly, he probably had enough [Explorer] XP to gain seven or eight levels immediately. The idea that nobody knew where he had gotten the XP from was... disturbing.


    Then, Jonathan¡¯s gaze started to morph into an expression of horror.


    ¡°No, I know the problem. Two weeks ago, there was a monster horde that tried to run into my farmland. I ended up beating them back with a mixture of my crops and hitting them really hard with my tilling hoe... but one of the two types of monsters used soil manipulation as their main type of magic. It was some sort of giant beetle monster. They kept creating mounds of dirt and trying to swallow me alive. I managed to kill enough of them that they retreated, but I didn¡¯t manage to finish off the swarm. Would that count as an outdated or altered understanding of the terrain?¡±


    Alice grimaced.


    ¡°Probably?¡± she said. She was operating off of pure guesswork here, but maybe that made sense. ¡°I¡¯m honestly not sure. Either way, the situation is the same. We need to get Jacob an anti-mana ring, and I also need to figure out how to make actual class seeds. For that, we need to reach our destination first.¡±


    Jonathan also frowned in thought at Alice¡¯s words. Until he turned towards Ethan.


    ¡°So the only way to fix this is with her?¡± he asked.


    Ethan nodded. ¡°My apprentice seems to be the best positioned person to solve this mess.¡±


    Jonathan grimaced as he looked at his farm, before finally, he sighed. ¡°In that case, can my family come with you as you travel?¡±


    Alice blinked in surprise.

 Chapter 176

    Chapter 176


    ¡°Explain?¡± asked Alice, as she scratched her head. Jonathan¡¯s suggestion had taken her by surprise. The idea of a Immortal family just... joining the group was outside of her expectations.


    ¡°Well... first of all, the monster hordes are a bit of a problem,¡± said Jonathan. ¡°Based on what I¡¯ve heard from a lot of other areas, the damage from the monster hordes is honestly getting pretty bad. Illvaria has been somewhat more sheltered from it... but even Illvaria is still starting to suffer from the monster hordes. And recently, my farm was also attacked by a large swarm of monsters. I managed to drive them back... but I didn¡¯t manage to exterminate them. That¡¯s a bit worrying, in my opinion.¡±Ge?t latest novel chapters on nov(e)lbj/n(.)c/om


    Alice blinked. While Jonathan had mentioned failing to drive off a monster swarm, the sentence before that worried her more. Even Illvaria was starting to suffer from the monster swarms? She had thought that Illvaria was handling it reasonably well, since Ethan hadn¡¯t said much about it to her. She had also been caught up in her research and trying to fix the System collapsing... which, now that Alice thought about it, might have been why Ethan never mentioned it to her. She already had enough on her plate to worry about, and she couldn¡¯t really contribute to the monster swarm problem anyway.


    This was a good reminder that after all of this was over, Alice really did need to develop her own information network. Being able to learn information quickly would make her much more aware of her surroundings. Alice knew that she had a tendency to get distracted by her research, but she should still keep some awareness of the rest of the world.


    But that was something to think about later. The System was far more important right now.


    Ethan winced. ¡°It¡¯s true that some of the outlying villages in Illvaria have been destroyed, but most of them have been evacuated. Although some of the truly southernmost towns in the recolonization area have been lost completely...¡± Ethan sighed. ¡°It¡¯s really a shame that this happened right in the middle of Illvaria¡¯s best chance to reclaim the area. And food production is also starting to look a bit worrying, since most outlying villages are agricultural centers. But that¡¯s a topic for later. It¡¯s not as urgent as it seems.¡±


    Alice thought about it for a moment, and then sighed.


    She really didn¡¯t know much about crops and farming. She knew that on Earth, food production was really high because of modern fertilizer... but she had no idea how to manufacture it. She sighed again, and then turned back towards Jonathan.


    ¡°All right, so monsters are a concern. Still, it sounds like you¡¯ve handled it so far? Also, wouldn¡¯t this mean abandoning your country?¡±


    ¡°My five person country comprised of a strip of wasteland that no one wants?¡± Jonathan rolled his eyes. ¡°I can rebuild this farm anywhere I want in a week or two. Sure, it might not be quite as nice as this house, but the lives of my family are more important. I mean, I¡¯ll obviously have to leave some stuff behind. I don¡¯t have any great storage perks, and I have accumulated quite the amount of gold and luxuries over the decades. But I¡¯m sure my family and I will live. Besides, refounding Superbia isn¡¯t as hard as you might think. All I really need is a strip of wasteland that no one wants and a certain understanding with any nearby countries. Considering the benefits of being my neighbor, I doubt it¡¯ll be that hard to meet both conditions.¡±


    Alice thought about it, and found herself agreeing with him. When one person could manufacture enough food to feed a large town, and grow crops from totally different climates, it was easy to accumulate wealth. He might lose some benefits from his [King] class for a while... but as an Immortal, Jonathan wasn¡¯t really pressed for time. If it took him a few extra years to get his Perks up and running again, he would barely notice a difference.


    ¡°Still, isn¡¯t moving around... dangerous, right now?¡± asked Alice. ¡°With monsters transforming large swathes of land over and over again, there might be a risk of other family members getting [Explorer] mana. And if that happens, I still don¡¯t know how to fix it yet.¡±


    ¡°Well, when it comes to exploration, as long as we trail a bit behind your group, most territory will already be ¡®discovered¡¯ by you. So the [Explorer] mana isn¡¯t that big of a deal. But if I move ahead of the rest of my family, I can get a bit of [Explorer] mana... and I¡¯m counting on that. I¡¯ll have to manage distances very carefully, but that¡¯s the point of all this.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, what?¡± asked Alice. Jonathan sighed.


    ¡°Here¡¯s the thing. My son... really wants to leave. I haven¡¯t let him adventure out into the world yet, because my wife is still firmly against it... but even so, my boy still came to danger just by sitting at home. Based on your descriptions, he¡¯s struggling to fight off the invasion of his class mana, and it¡¯s fundamentally altering his personality. I don¡¯t know what to think about that yet... but I know that I don¡¯t want my son to get hurt. If I end up with a lot of [Explorer] mana... I can let you try to create an [Explorer] Class seed. I¡¯m an Immortal, so it¡¯s much, much harder to hurt me compared to the average test subject you might have.¡± Jonathan¡¯s eyes grew firmer, even as Alice¡¯s eyes grew wider. ¡°I may not have a lie detection Perk or a particularly high [Perception] stat... but I¡¯m not dumb. I can still distinguish people who are or aren¡¯t trustworthy. As a simple [Farmer] who became an Immortal with my own two hands and my hard work, I can at least tell that much. There are a lot of dishonest [Merchants] who try to swindle [Farmers] out of their earnings, and avoiding pitfalls like that is practically a requirement if you want to reach Immortality as a [Farmer] on the central continent. I don¡¯t think you¡¯re the kind of person who will ignore my son¡¯s plight if you travel with him for a while... and I also don¡¯t think that you¡¯ll make much progress without a way to test your results. If you use yourself as a test subject and mess up, you might hurt yourself, or even die, right? I can sidestep a lot of those issues. And for my son, I¡¯m willing to take a bit of a risk.¡±


    Alice actually felt very moved by the man¡¯s statements. Jonathan was an Immortal. He had forever to live, as long as he wasn¡¯t killed by an external force.


    And he was willing to risk that eternal life to save his mortal son. His son wasn¡¯t anything special ¨C at least right now, his odds of reaching Immortality looked slim. So Jonathan was risking his Immortal life to save a family member that would eventually die of old age anyway.


    Which was touching. Alice hadn¡¯t expected Jonathan to be willing to risk so much for his family.


    Still, Alice frowned.


    Jonathan nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll let you think about it. But this is the best way.¡±


    Alice gritted her teeth, and then turned towards Ethan.


    ¡°I believe it¡¯s time to leave,¡± said Ethan thoughtfully. ¡°I, for one, am not opposed to you joining us, Jonathan. You¡¯re a good man, and I¡¯m happy to bring you along.¡±


    Jonathan nodded, and the group went to collect the rest of Jonathan¡¯s family.


    * * *


    Jonathan¡¯s family had not been happy about leaving the farm, apart from Jacob, who looked like someone had given him the best present in the world. The little girl, Mimi, asked why they were leaving their nice house for the dirty wilderness. Jonathan¡¯s wife, Nerissa, felt that the farm was safer, and that they might get hurt while travelling to other lands. As for the middle child, Stuart, he didn¡¯t seem to have much of a reaction either way. He was neither enthusiastic about leaving the farm, nor upset by the fact that they were leaving. He had simply looked at his father and asked whether this was the best decision, and after his father reaffirmed his decision, he had left to go pack his bags.


    However, at the end of the day, Jonathan¡¯s family still decided to leave as one. Without Jonathan to keep the farm safe, the position of this farm was simply too dangerous. Monster swarms were roaming the countryside, and a little bit of bad luck might spell the end for any family members that stayed behind.


    Thus, a considerably larger group left Jonathan¡¯s farm than the one that had entered. As the group started to tromp away from the farm, Alice noticed a rather peculiar reaction from the farm itself.


    The moment Jonathan stepped outside of the farm, it was as though a small tremor of rainbow mana radiated out of his feet. Then, Alice rubbed her eyes, and realized it wasn¡¯t a tremor that left Jonathan¡¯s feet. Instead, it was the reverse. Almost like a vacuum cleaner, all of the rainbow mana in Jonathan¡¯s farm started to move towards his feet. One droplet of rainbow mana after another rushed towards his body, joining the nebulous cloud of mana inside of him... and at the same time, the farm started to wither.


    The verdant green crops started to die. Giant pieces of produce started to decay in real time, as if someone had hit the fast forward button on crop decay. The farmhouse itself wasn¡¯t altered ¨C but every single plant on the farm started to disappear.


    The last to fall was the giant apple tree that had caught Alice¡¯s attention when they first entered the farm. The branches and bark started to shrink and darken, until eventually it collapsed under its own weight. Instead of a magnificent tree, it was now just a pile of ashy bark.


    By the time the group had walked ten minutes away, the verdant farm filled with overripe produce, abundant water, and giant crops had disappeared. In its place was what Alice assumed must have been the farm¡¯s original appearance. It was a flat, gray wasteland with a scraggly, threadbare creek running through it. There were still a few weeds present in the farm¡¯s former territory, showing that it wasn¡¯t impossible to grow crops there ¨C but the land was only a few steps away from looking like barren tundra. Alice winced.


    No wonder nobody wanted to conquer this territory from ¡®Superbia.¡¯ This kind of land was so worthless that most nations would probably forget it was even part of their borders to begin with.


    Mimi looked at the farm with big, sad eyes as the green wonderland vanished, and softly started crying as Jonathan¡¯s wife picked her up and cradled her.


    ¡°Sorry. She¡¯s very attached to our home,¡± said Jonathan¡¯s wife, as the group kept walking.


    ¡°Where are we heading to next, Ethan?¡± asked Alice, trying to distract Jonathan¡¯s family from the collapse of Superbia.


    ¡°This is our final nation that we need to cross before reaching our destination,¡± said Ethan. ¡°It¡¯s a much larger country, although it¡¯s a bit unevenly shaped. It¡¯s called Fendrallia. It¡¯s on the poorer side, since their territory has some pretty bad climate issues ¨C it¡¯s simply too cold, and the rainfall is pretty uneven. A lot of the country is tundra, with weird bits of frozen swamps scattered around. However, it does also have a good amount of iron in some parts of the country, so their military has always had decent supplies. The country is a good one for [Blacksmiths]. And they have a reasonably robust magic scene,¡± said Ethan. ¡°Nowhere near as good as Illvaria¡¯s, of course. But probably somewhere in the top twenty of the Southern Continent.¡±


    Alice nodded thoughtfully, as the group set foot into Fendrallia.

 Chapter 177

    As the group continued walking through Fendrallia, Alice began to notice a little bit of a chill. It wasn¡¯t overwhelming, the way Illvarian winter had been when she first arrived in this world. Instead, it was more of a subtle, creeping chill burrowed into her bones.


    Which surprised Alice. While she didn¡¯t have much cause to think about it these days, she had taken {Extremophile} as one of her Perks, all of those days back in the Illvarian wilderness. Combined with her exceptional [Endurance] stat, she usually didn¡¯t notice major fluctuations in temperature unless she literally stuck her hand in a fire.


    Alice looked behind the party, where Jonathan¡¯s family was trailing behind the rest of the group. Since Jonathan was afraid of his family picking up [Explorer] mana before Alice found a way to treat it, they were well behind the group. They were close enough that the Immortals could rush to their aid if they were attacked... but they were still far enough behind that they weren¡¯t picking up [Explorer] mana.


    Then again, the main group hadn¡¯t picked up any [Explorer] mana yet either. So it was likely that they just hadn¡¯t hit unexplored territory yet.


    Walking alongside Jonathan¡¯s family was also something... different. Something Alice couldn¡¯t quite put her finger on, but made her hair stand on end.


    Allira had sang to a few shadows for several minutes after Jonathan¡¯s family had decided to join them. Then, the shadows had started moving.


    When Alice had seen that, she couldn¡¯t help but think that were as still an awful lot that she hadn¡¯t learned about Allira¡¯s combat abilities. She had felt that Allira¡¯s ability to summon illusions of the past was already powerful enough, but on hindsight, Ethan had revealed a truly mind-numbing number of trump cards when Emilia had tried to assassinate them. It wouldn¡¯t make sense if Allira only had one trick up her sleeve. Still, Alice really wasn¡¯t sure what was up with the shadows moving around. They were... strange.


    ¡°Ethan, could we get a bit of warmth?¡± asked Alice, as she looked at the group of people behind them. ¡°Jonathan¡¯s family might be a bit cold. Even I¡¯m feeling a little chilly, and I have a bunch of stats and Perks that they probably don¡¯t.¡±


    Ethan froze, before he also glanced at Jonathan¡¯s family.


    ¡°I was distracted. Thank you for reminding me, Alice,¡± he said.


    After that, Alice noticed a wave of thermal mana exit Ethan¡¯s magic seeds, and the air around them became noticeably warmer. Another wave of thermal mana also drifted towards Jonathan¡¯s family, and Alice thought she saw Jonathan¡¯s wife sigh in relief.


    ¡°Is that good?¡± yelled Ethan, as he turned towards Jonathan¡¯s family.


    Jonathan¡¯s son gave Ethan a big thumbs up.


    ¡°Good. Let¡¯s keep moving then,¡± said Ethan, as the group continued walking through the Fendrallian countryside.


    The cold wasn¡¯t the only thing that started to change as the group marched further into Fendrallia, however. The next thing that Alice noticed was the water. The land started to become notably wetter and swampier. Apart from that, Alice noticed that there was a light layer of fog that had formed around them. It made it more difficult to see anything in the distance. Even more strange was the fact that the fog made it more difficult to hear things, as well. Alice was fairly certain that the fog wasn¡¯t natural, but some sort of product of people¡¯s beliefs and mana mixing together.


    And even more noticeable than the mud and the fog was the stench.


    She turned towards the other Immortals, and realized that they were also frowning.


    ¡°It stinks,¡± said Ethan, finally.


    Allira frowned, and then closed her eyes and started humming. The group waited patiently while Allira¡¯s music, as well as her rainbow mana, drifted into their surroundings.


    Finally, Allira¡¯s eyes snapped open.


    ¡°Ethan, do you have a good way to filter the air around us?¡± she asked. ¡°It won¡¯t be a problem for us, but it might be a problem for Jonathan¡¯s family. And your apprentice.¡±


    Alice shuddered, and immediately scanned the air around them. She had noticed the stench, but she hadn¡¯t thought it was an actual problem. Was there some sort of dangerous chemical compound in the air? Or some sort of magic poison?


    A burst of rainbow mana extended out of Ethan¡¯s left hand, before it started spreading outwards. Alice saw that wherever the rainbow mana went, it seemed to shred through the air itself, as if it were trying to remove something.


    ¡°The air should be safe to breathe now,¡± said Ethan. Then, he turned towards Alice. ¡°Give me {Patient¡¯s Consent}.¡±


    ¡°Feel free to use organic magic on me,¡± said Alice.


    Ethan immediately grabbed her arm, before sending several pulses of organic magic into her body. A few moments later, Ethan nodded.


    ¡°You¡¯re fine. Let me go check Jonathan¡¯s family,¡± he said, before dropping back towards the other half of the group.


    As Ethan left, Alice turned towards Allira. ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± she asked. Allira was the one that had alerted the rest of the group, and Alice still wasn¡¯t entirely sure what was going on.


    ¡°It seems that some kind of poisonous gas is in the air,¡± said Allira, frowning. ¡°I don¡¯t actually know what it is. I¡¯ve never encountered it before. But one of my Perks alerted me to it. One of my shades also started to meet with problems when I sent it forward. Since they don¡¯t need to breathe, I suspect that it can also harm through skin contact. But breathing it in is much worse,¡± she said, frowning.


    ¡°Is it mana related?¡± asked Alice, before she frowned. If it was mana-related, she should have seen it. Her ability to view mana was considerably better than most other people¡¯s mana vision. At least as far as eyesight went, Alice outclassed even Ethan.


    However, it didn¡¯t seem that there was anything mana-related in the area. Or at least, nothing actively poisonous. Alice did, however, something else.


    ¡°The mana here is pretty dense,¡± commented Alice. ¡°I also notice that the fog here is unusual. I think that the world here is a bit distorted by people¡¯s beliefs.¡±


    All of a sudden, the mana gem inside of Alice¡¯s brain became more. Before, the gem had looked kind of like a multifaceted, cut diamond made out of mana. However, several of the faces of the mana gem had looked... cleaner now. More polished.


    And Alice also noticed that the mana gem also transformed drastically. For a brief moment, rather than a gem, the mana gem seemed almost like a ball of wires and cables. Several of them connected to the rest of her body, almost like a second set of nerves, while another part of the mana gem almost seemed as if it were trying to catch something.


    Alice frowned, and immediately used {Magic Modelling} to create a copy of her ¡®working¡¯ mana gem. Then, she started to poke and prod at the now-obvious center of her mana gem, to try to figure out what was going on.


    A few moments later, some of the fibers between her mana gem and the rest of her body collapsed, almost as if they had never been there to begin with. Alice frowned in confusion.


    Why had the mana gem broken again right after she fixed it?


    Alice spent a few more minutes poking through her Achievements, their effects on her body, and her stats, before she realized something else.


    Her Achievements were working again.


    One of the biggest things that had puzzled Alice after the collapse of the System was why Achievements seemed half-broken. Any Achievement that was supposed to help people do something didn¡¯t operate at full efficiency after the System collapsed ¨C most of them consistently underperformed, by somewhere between 40% and 60%. It was incredibly odd.


    Alice had also observed on another occasion that Achievements seemed to be a massive hodgepodge of different things. Achievements were almost like the ¡®misc¡¯ folder of the System. Anything that didn¡¯t fit into one of the other parts of the System was tossed into the ¡®Achievements¡¯ folder.


    The weird tendrils that had extended out of her mana gem had also fixed her Achievements, and everything seemed to be running at 100% efficiency again.


    Alice felt even more thoughtful as she looked at her Status Screen.


    Perhaps the mana gem hadn¡¯t ¡®broken¡¯ again after she used her Achievement to fix it?


    Perhaps the little tendrils that exited her mana gem were supposed to only exist for a few moments?


    Alice still didn¡¯t quite understand what had just happened, so she continued investigating her body. After a few more moments, Alice realized that all of the ¡®Alice¡¯ mana in her body had been funneled into the mana gem. Thankfully, the biggest looming issue that threatened her personal safety was fixed. But Alice didn¡¯t understand how or why the mana gem had suddenly fixed it. She decided to focus on {Magic Modelling} for now. Hopefully, after she finished reconstructing everything inside of her Perk, she would have more answers.


    Alice started using her mental energy to rebuild the ¡®fixed ¡®version of her mana gem inside of {Magic Modelling}. As the image became clearer, Alice paid particular attention to the structure of the mana gem, as well as the part of the mana gem that seemed like it was supposed to ¡®receive¡¯ something.


    And eventually, Alice actually came up with an answer. It was surprisingly simple, once she knew what she was looking for.


    The part of the mana gem that was supposed to ¡®receive¡¯ something acted as a kind of relay between someone¡¯s mana gem and the System.


    Then, the mana gem seemed to be built to relay the System¡¯s commands to the rest of the body. Alice had no way at all of figuring out what information the System was ¡®supposed¡¯ to relay to the mana gem... but she could at least make a few educated guesses.


    Alice guessed that the mana gem was meant to collect all ¡®unusual¡¯ types of mana within someone¡¯s body, and then send it to the System to deal with.


    In the first place, Achievements were a sort of ¡®misc¡¯ folder for the System. Anything that wasn¡¯t part of a different category of the System got thrown into the Achievements section of the Status Screen.


    Perhaps the local version of the System inside of people¡¯s body just stuffed all of these types of mana into the mana gem. Then, those mana gems sent that information to the System, where the mainframe would process this information. After all, the computing power inside of the mainframe of the System was several orders of magnitude higher than the computing power of the local version of the System.


    Then, the System probably sent back information to people¡¯s mana gem about how to properly use and organize these weird forms of mana.


    If Alice¡¯s theory was correct, the entire point of the mana gem was to collect everything and then ask the mainframe of the System ¡®hey, what do I do with this?¡¯


    This was probably why Achievements all underperformed so much these days, and why her mana gem didn¡¯t absorb and manage all of her ¡®Alice¡¯ mana.


    After her mana gem said ¡®Hey, stuff is weird, what do I do?¡¯ the System had never responded. After all, it had collapsed. So her mana gem just kept asking the mainframe what to do and never getting a response.


    If Alice¡¯s theory was correct, she was more than a little bit baffled by what {First Steps} had just done. Theoretically, if her guess was correct, her mana gem wasn¡¯t actually broken at all ¨C it was just missing access to whatever made it work. Since that was the case, shouldn¡¯t her attempt to ¡®fix¡¯ the mana gem just resulted in nothing happening?


    For her Achievement to still help her mana gem fix all of the broken Achievements she had collected, and absorb all of her Alice mana...


    Either her first theory was totally incorrect...


    Or for a brief moment, her Achievement had somehow simulated the correct responses from the System and helped her mana gem straighten out all of the Achievements in her body.


    Alice thought that the first theory was more likely, and she was just dead wrong about some aspect of how this worked. But even so, if her Achievement had somehow replicated the mainframe of the System and Alice had caught a picture of it with {Magic Modelling}...


    Alice felt a wave of excitement at the thought. She might finally have a key to fix Achievements.

 Chapter 178

    Chapter 178


    Alice spent the rest of the night desperately reconstructing the image of her rebuilt mana gem within {Magic Modelling}. The problem of ¡®Alice¡¯ mana had been solved by her, but that didn¡¯t mean it was solved for everyone. If Alice kept relying on her Achievement to fix people¡¯s mana gems, there was no way she would be able to help everyone who needed it. There were way too people for five restorations a month to cover everyone. Not to mention, Alice was also very interested in learning to fix Achievements.


    However, even though Alice was excited to keep going, come morning, she was still dragged out of her dream library by Allira.


    Alice groaned as something inside of her shadow poked her arm until she woke up. Her sleepiness was rapidly dispelled when she looked around the area.


    The swamp was different. The positions of the trees had shifted subtly from last time she looked at them. The fog that laid over the swamp like a blanket had become thicker and darker in color. The smell of rotting vegetation had grown stronger.


    Alice frowned.


    Whatever conceptual nonsense was applying to the swamp behind the scenes, it hadn¡¯t just made the area as creepy as possible. The trees themselves had subtly rearranged themselves while the group slept.


    Alice eyed Allira with curiosity. Last night, Allira had, theoretically, been keeping watch over the group. Since that was the case, when had the swamp rearranged itself? What had it looked like at the time?


    Before she could express her thoughts, however, Ethan threw her a plate of steaming monster meat and what appeared to be scrambled eggs.


    ¡°Eat up. We¡¯ve got a lot more travelling to do today,¡± said Ethan. ¡°With any luck, we¡¯ll get through the swamp today, but with how much the geography of this area has been... distorted, it¡¯s hard to say if anything else will change. We¡¯re exploring unknown territory here.


    Alice nodded, and tucked into the plate full of meat and eggs. A moment later, Jonathan also pulled out several loaves of baked bread that smelled positively divine. He grinned at Alice.


    ¡°Take some! I can cook basic stuff pretty much anywhere, and the produce from my farm has some of the best taste on the southern continent. I have four different Perks that enhance crop flavor,¡± he said, chuckling.


    Alice took a bite. Then, her eyes widened.


    Four minutes later, Alice looked up from her third bread loaf, and wondered what had just happened. She had eaten... quite a bit of bread. Her stomach also felt like it was packed to the brim with food.


    ¡°I¡¯m stuffed,¡± she said, more than a little surprised. Alice couldn¡¯t remember the last time she had eaten so much in one meal. She usually just crammed food into her mouth and then moved on with her day. She didn¡¯t like eating enough to think very much about it most of the time. One of her friends from Earth had always joked that if nutrition paste from Sci Fi settings really existed, Alice would never eat a real meal again.


    ¡°I probably should have only given you half a loaf of bread, huh,¡± said Jonathan, awkwardly scratching the back of his head. ¡°Well, don¡¯t worry too much about it. The stuffed feeling will disappear pretty quickly, and my bread has some useful boosts if you eat a lot of it.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°It can enhance a few stats. Almost like a very minor System enchantment. It goes away pretty fast, but...¡± Jonathan shrugged. ¡°Every little bit helps, right? My bread gives [Endurance], as well as a bit of [Strength].¡±


    After that, Alice finally remembered her earlier question, and turned to Allira. ¡°Hey Allira, you were on watch last night, right?¡± she asked.


    ¡°I was. Why?¡±


    ¡°What did it look like when the trees moved? I remember that they had a different layout last night.¡±


    ¡°Hmm... it¡¯s actually quite interesting. As an Immortal, I have a lot of senses that help me track my surroundings. What I noticed was that whenever I was watching a group of trees, they wouldn¡¯t move at all. It was as if they were making sure that only things I didn¡¯t pay attention to were shifting around. But, anything that I could track with my more unique sensory abilities would just... walk around a bit,¡± said Allira. ¡°Mind you, the trees made very sure to avoid the five normal human senses. If I could see them, hear them, touch them, et cetera, they stayed as still as a rock. But the moment they were only visible to my more interesting perception types, the trees seemed to grow feet and move.¡± Allira shrugged. ¡°I thought they were monsters at first, so I blasted down a few of them. But the destroyed trees disappeared after I blew them up. First time I¡¯ve seen anything like this.¡± Then, Allira pointed in another direction. ¡°I kept track of the way we came from and our destination. That¡¯s where we need to head, and that¡¯s the way to backtrack, if we need to.¡±


    ¡°Interesting,¡± said Alice, trying to imagine ¡®normal¡¯ trees growing feet and walking around. The idea struck her as absurd... but also totally in line with people¡¯s perception of a ¡®creepy swamp.¡¯


    ¡°All right, everyone ready to keep moving?¡± asked Ethan, as he looked over Alice, Allira, Jonathan, Cecilia, and Jonathan¡¯s family.


    He was greeted with a group of hesitant nods, before he grinned.


    ¡°Splendid. Just like yesterday, try not to wriggle around too much. We have a lot of ground to cover, and the faster we move, the faster we can get to a real city. I¡¯m looking forward to a nicer bed, and I¡¯d prefer if we got there tonight instead of tomorrow,¡± he said.


    Then, just like yesterday, he picked up the group and started flying them towards the capital of Fendrallia.


    As the group lifted off, Alice noticed more changes to the swamp. Today, there were birds. Specifically, ravens.


    Alice saw several flocks of ravens wandering through the swamp. Or at least, they appeared to be ravens. However, the ravens were almost entirely constructed out of mana, which made Alice raise an eyebrow.


    As far as Alice knew, ravens in this world were perfectly normal animals. They had no particular relationship with mana, and while most animals did have a bit of mana in them here, the amounts were usually quite small. The ravens that she saw in the swamp weren¡¯t normal animals.


    It looked almost like they were made out of mana. And not in the way monsters were reliant on mana, either. The ravens had no monster core. If Alice had to categorize them, the Ravens faintly resembled the stronger humans of this world. Their muscles, organs, and every feather on their bodies seemed to be constructed out of mana... almost as if they had been born from mana.


    Alice frowned as that thought wormed into her mind.


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that a major Fendrallian city?¡± asked Jonathan, as he also looked at the giant plume of smoke in the distance.


    ¡°Fuck,¡± said Ethan.


    * * *


    The group spent the next hour flying closer to the plume of smoke. But the closer they got, the more their hearts sank.


    The plume of smoke was, indeed, one of the former major cities of Fendrallia. The city had been burned to ashes a few days ago, and unlike the abandoned villages the group had encountered in Cendaria, the city here clearly hadn¡¯t been evacuated.


    Instead, the group encountered huge numbers of corpses in the city. Tens of thousands of people had died trapped in the city ¨C perhaps even more.


    But even the staggering number of corpses wasn¡¯t the most concerning part of the whole encounter.


    The most concerning thing that Alice saw was the swamp.


    The city looked like the swamp had come to life and then tried to take a giant bite out of the formerly human territory. The city walls had been ripped apart by tree branches, which looked like they had grown unnaturally quickly and deconstructed the city walls. Patches of fetid water had already started to form at the bottom of houses and streets, in places where fetid water had no business existing. Ravens feasted upon the dead, ripping apart their corpses and making the scene even more sickening.


    Alice felt incredibly uneasy when she saw the ruins of the city.


    It wasn¡¯t too hard to figure out what had happened.


    Human beliefs had already obviously influenced the swamp. Normal swamps didn¡¯t rearrange themselves to confuse wanderers. Since human beliefs could even make a swamp rearrange its geography in an actively malicious way... human belief could clearly do much more than that.


    Somehow, human beliefs had caused the swamp itself to expand and engulf the city, killing most of the inhabitants.


    But even more concerning was the way the humans in the city had died.


    Most of the people looked like they had been ripped apart by powerful monsters.


    The monsters the group had seen in the swamp so far seemed more like ambush predators. They were dangerous, but with Ethan¡¯s flight and Allira¡¯s scouting, they didn¡¯t actually pose a threat to the group. The monsters had never existed in the swamp before... but Alice had thought they weren¡¯t that big of a deal, so long people stayed out of the swamp until the System was fixed.


    That was clearly wrong.


    Some people had been literally torn apart by strong, inhuman jaws and limbs inside of the city. Buildings had been flattened. Most troublesome of all, the mana-based smoke still shifted around the city, almost like a living, breathing creature.


    ¡°Let¡¯s keep away from the city,¡± said Ethan, shuddering. ¡°I really don¡¯t like the look of that smoke. It might be more poisonous than the rest of the swamp. I¡¯m not sure if our current measures can keep us safe from it, and I don¡¯t want to spend a lot of organic mana right now. This place... doesn¡¯t feel right.¡±


    Alice had the same feeling. She also had an increasingly strong feeling that something was watching them. And this time, it wasn¡¯t the creepy but largely harmless swamp.


    ¡°The smoke is drifting towards us,¡± said Allira, frowning. ¡°I think it might be some form of monster.¡±


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t have a core, though,¡± said Cecilia.


    ¡°I don¡¯t like it,¡± said Ethan, as the group started to drift further away from the Fendrallia city.


    Luckily, the strange, mana-based smoke didn¡¯t keep moving towards them after they moved a certain distance away. However, the feeling of being watched never disappeared.


    As the group started to shift away from the ruined city, Alice felt the trace of unease in her heart grow stronger.


    After seeing the Fendarllia city laying in ruins, she was sure of one thing.


    People¡¯s beliefs about the danger of the swamp had caused it to expand and destroy an entire city. What if the same thing happened in other parts of the world?


    What if people started thinking about how dangerous the Illvarian south was, and the mana wastes expanded to reach Metsel? Heck, what if people of the central continent happened to talk about how dangerous the southern continent was, causing the southern continent to become dozens of times more dangerous instantly?


    The scary thing about mana influencing reality was that there were no brakes. Once a certain perception started to circulate through the population, the influence of mana would make that perception true. Then, people would realize that their speculation was correct... making that speculation more and more solid and observable. Eventually, there would be no fixing it.


    She had thought she still had a lot of time to learn how to repair the System, and figure out how to piece everything together. But now, Alice knew with cold, clear certainty that time was running out.

 Grandmother Died - No Chapters For A Bit

    Grandmother Died - No Chapters For A Bit


    My grandmother on my father¡¯s side died in her sleep last night. We¡¯re still not sure why, but she¡¯s gone. Half of my grandparents are now dead. I remember a few years ago, when I was just starting to write Budding Scientist, I felt like the months of Covid were particularly bad because every few months another family member went to the hospital. It usually wasn¡¯t even Covid related, it was just random catastrophes falling out of the sky. Last year I thought I beat the curse, since it over 12 months since anyone I cared about had an emergency, but here we are again..VIssi?T  for the best novel reading experience


    I was a lot less close with my family on my father¡¯s side than my mother¡¯s side, but I still don¡¯t feel very good right now. I¡¯m probably going to take the rest of the week off. I¡¯ll see you next week when I¡¯m hopefully in a bit of a better headspace.

 Chapter 179

    Chapter 179


    The group¡¯s mood was solemn as they kept moving east. Seeing a city destroyed by the cataclysm had everyone on edge. Alice also found her thoughts drifting as the group kept moving.


    Would every city they found end up like this? Worse, what if the Immortal that the group was supposed to meet ended up dead? Alice had come all of this way because she needed to figure out how to make artificial class seeds. She was desperately hoping that seeing someone who knew how to make artifacts would help. If the Immortal they were going to meet was dead... Alice would have to find another way. But finding another way forward could take weeks, or months. And with the fact that cities were now collapsing, she didn¡¯t have months to spend messing around with magic seeds. She needed a solution now.


    However, Alice¡¯s thoughts were ruined when Allira suddenly frowned.


    ¡°Ethan, stop moving,¡± she said.


    Ethan halted the group in midair, as Allira squinted at something in the distance.


    Allira started humming, as a look of intense concentration appeared on her face. Her humming grew louder and louder, until she broke off her song. She sighed.


    ¡°We need to head a little south,¡± she said. ¡°There are odd monsters ahead. Normally, I wouldn¡¯t mind giving them a bit of a tussle, but after seeing the ruined city, I am suspicious. They might have special abilities, or something that makes them hard to deal with.¡±


    ¡°How many are there?¡±


    ¡°Around four thousand. They move like a coordinated army, and I feel like they¡¯re watching us. It makes me quite uncomfortable.¡±


    Ethan nodded. ¡°Too many to comfortably deal with,¡± he said. The group changed course, and started flying south, before they started to turn east again.


    However, Allira started to frown more heavily.


    ¡°No good. They¡¯re following us.¡±


    Alice shivered uneasily.


    A large army of monsters following them was not good news.


    Immortals were incredible fighters. Even the weakest Immortal could usually fight several dozen people, and the strongest Immortals could usually fight up to a thousand soldiers and expect to win. But no matter how strong they were, every single Immortal had limits. If they fought against a large enough group of enemies and had no way to escape, they would be encircled and killed. This was a concrete rule about Immortals ¨C they could not, and would never be able to, single-handedly overturn an entire warzone by themselves.


    Alice started looking at the other members of the group and tried to imagine how well they would fare against four thousand monsters.


    Ethan was a combat-focused Immortal, through and through. The trump cards he had revealed when Emilia tried to assassinate her were already impressive enough, and Alice suspected that Emilia hadn¡¯t even forced all of his trump cards out. Allira was a bit less focused on direct combat, but as far as Alice could tell, she was still a powerful fighter. Even if her abilities leaned a bit more towards support than blasting things down, she could hold her own in an intense fight.


    Jonathan was... probably not that powerful. Ethan and Allira had mentioned he could fight dozens of people on his own... but that was way different from most Immortals that could fight hundreds of people on their own. At the very least, however, Jonathan had an exceptional [Endurance] stat, so he should be quite hard to hurt. Still, being sturdy wasn¡¯t good enough to win a battle against four thousand monsters wielding unknown abilities.


    Finally, there were the other members of the group.


    Alice was confident she could fight a dozen monsters or so, but her magic tendrils and awareness of her surroundings just wasn¡¯t sufficient to handle staggering numbers of foes. Alice wasn¡¯t a bad combatant, but she was probably on par with Jonathan, at best.


    Alice knew that Cecilia had a few enchantments on her for self-defense as well. They were nothing as overpowered as Doll¡¯s armor, which Alice was very thankful Ethan had foisted upon her, but Cecilia wasn¡¯t useless in a fight. She wasn¡¯t very powerful either, though.


    Jonathan¡¯s family probably couldn¡¯t be counted on to fight anything at all. Mimi was less than ten years old, and had basically zero combat strength. Jonathan¡¯s two sons might be able to fight a monster or two each, but their power was negligible. Alice didn¡¯t think Jonathan¡¯s wife had any combat Classes, so her strength was also negligible. In short, they weren¡¯t useful in combat. Alice gritted her teeth.


    She didn¡¯t like their odds if the monster army caught up with them.


    If the group was encircled, even with their three Immortal combatants, they would still probably die.


    ¡°Are the monsters gaining on us?¡± asked Alice.


    ¡°They are, but not very quickly,¡± said Allira. ¡°The monster swarm is moving quite quickly, though. If this swarm is the one that destroyed the city we found earlier... I can see why they won. Their speed is incredible.¡±


    Ethan frowned more deeply. ¡°All right, I¡¯m going to increase our flying speed. I¡¯ve been going at a pretty comfortable pace until now, but I don¡¯t want to get into a fight we might not be able to win. Allira, let me know if my actions interfere with any of your scouting abilities ¨C I don¡¯t want to fly into another horde of monsters. That would probably get us encircled until the first swarm caught up.¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡±


    After that, the group¡¯s speed started to increase. Alice saw their surroundings start to melt into an uncomfortable blur, and felt her body ripple uncomfortably as air resistance and other natural forces tried to force her to slow down.


    Ethan¡¯s magic didn¡¯t care about what air resistance wanted.


    The group started to accelerate, faster and faster, until Allira finally yelled at Ethan to slow down a bit, or her scouting would be ruined. Her voice carried bits of rainbow mana that somehow let her words carry to the rest of the group.


    She felt distinctly uncomfortable now. She looked around, and saw that Mimi and the two boys were starting to look rather pale and uncomfortable. Cecilia didn¡¯t look much better. However, at least the monsters were probably being left far behind them.


    Alice¡¯s hopes were shattered a few minutes later, when Allira swore.


    ¡°They¡¯re still gaining on us,¡± she said.


    ¡°System-accursed... How? I nearly tripled our speed?¡± swore Ethan.


    ¡°They¡¯re speeding up as well. Go faster,¡± yelled Allira. ¡°I think they¡¯re using some sort of magic to skip chunks of distance every few seconds. I can see their bodies turning into smoke and then jumping closer to us every so often.¡±


    ¡°Jumping?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s solid now, so stand upon the deck,¡± sang Allira, somehow managing to make a simple song with absurd lyrics sound like a work of art that would make Mozart and Beethoven weep. The group got onto the ship, and then quickly got into one of the cabins, so that they could finally avoid the awful wind resistance.


    Alice felt the ship raise itself upwards, before it started flying through the air, even faster than before. This time, the trip was far less uncomfortable.


    ¡°This is much better,¡± said Alice.


    Allira nodded. ¡°I wish I had thought of this earlier. This really is much nicer.¡±


    Ethan nodded noncomitally as Alice heard the sounds of battle in the far distance.


    The group relaxed for several minutes, before Allira started to frown again.


    ¡°How odd,¡± she said.


    ¡°Something else happen?¡± asked Ethan.


    ¡°No matter how many of the swamp monsters my shadows kill, they reappear after a while. It is almost as if the monsters are returning to life, or...¡±


    ¡°Ah,¡± said Alice. ¡°I wonder if the monsters are like the ravens we found earlier? They might seem to be alive, but in practice, they might be more like enchantments, or limbs of the swamp itself.¡± Alice frowned. If that was the case, the way to deal with the monsters was ¡®destroy the swamp itself.¡¯ However, she had no idea how to even start trying to destroy the swamp. Maybe with some mixture of [Farmers] and [Lumberjacks], the group could reshape the terrain, bringing it back to some degree of normalcy? Or maybe there was some other Class that specialized in manipulating the terrain?


    But doing that would also give any workers an extra dose of ¡®class mana.¡¯ Alice didn¡¯t currently have enough enchantments to keep the workers safe if they helped her.


    ¡°If the monsters are literal parts of the swamp, that makes them harder to deal with,¡± said Jonathan. ¡°Since they will resist any attempts to directly influence them via magic.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll just have to hope that they can¡¯t exit the swamp,¡± said Ethan. ¡°If they can, they will be a very troublesome threat.¡±


    ¡°If they can exit the swamp, I can try to start attacking the swamp itself,¡± said Jonathan. ¡°If Fendrallia is having this much trouble keeping their western border safe, they might not mind me founding a new ¡®Superbia¡¯ in the middle of the swamp. With the land being fully mine, it would be much easier to rebuild my farm... and keep the swamp under control. I can expand my farm quite a lot if I really want to, after all.¡±


    ¡°We could also try to distort people¡¯s perception of the swamp,¡± said Alice, after a few moments. ¡°People¡¯s understanding of the world directly changes it, due to the influence of mana. So if we make people believe the threat of the swamp is handled...¡±


    Ethan grimaced. ¡°Sounds like we need an [Orator], or some similar kind of class to really tamp down on the chaos.¡±


    Allira grinned toothily at Ethan. ¡°Ethan, dear. Have you forgotten who I am? I might specialize in songs that harm... but songs are also a form of storytelling. And a good way to spread information,¡± she said. She turned to Alice. ¡°You¡¯ve been getting more and more overt in your discussions of how mana and the System work behind the scenes. So if I understand your statements correctly... people¡¯s beliefs somehow make mana itself change the world to match those beliefs, right?¡±


    Alice hesitated, before she nodded.


    Allira¡¯s smile widened for the first time.


    ¡°Then I will compose a new song as we fly. It will be about how we destroyed something called the ¡®heart of the swamp.¡¯ We can incorporate some of your research into the song, to make it as logical and realistic as possible. We can also talk about how, now that it¡¯s dead, the swamp will slowly begin to retreat. That should make enough sense for people to believe that the Swamp is weakened, yes? And from there, the situation should at least be controlled to some extent.¡±


    ¡°Will that... work?¡± asked Alice.


    Allira giggled. ¡°Alice. We are Immortals. An Immortal slaying a monster is a nothing new.¡±


    Ethan actually nodded. ¡°Allira is actually right in this case. There are... probably over a hundred stories of my father slaying some sort of powerful monster and making an Illvarian territory safe. Most of them are based on real events, though many of them have been exaggerated over the years. In the first place, my father¡¯s strength was one of the reasons Illvaria as a country was able to be founded in the first place. To hear him talk about it, back when Illvaria was a new country, the entire place was an untamed wilderness filled with monsters and mysteries. So an Immortal fighting off a deadly threat and saving the townsfolk is nothing new. It has a certain... rhythm to it. One that people expect.¡± Ethan¡¯s grin grew wider. ¡°As long as the public hears that a group of three Immortals did something, our words will quite believable. Because that¡¯s just what people expect to happen. Not to mention, when people actually see the swamp retreat, it will prove our words.¡±


    Allira grinned. ¡°It would even be a good way to get in Fendrallia¡¯s good books, at least a little bit. Being able to help out a neighboring country would help prove Illvaria¡¯s friendliness... and, in a twisted sort of way, might also prove that Illvaria is ¡®safe¡¯ during this crisis. After all, if Illvaria can afford to send out two of its Immortals to help its neighbors, it surely isn¡¯t suffering from the crisis as much as other countries, no? That would benefit us as a whole.¡±


    Alice blinked in surprise.


    Now that Allira mentioned it, it made sense... and it also brought up a new aspect of the crisis that Alice hadn¡¯t thought of in concrete terms before.


    Public opinion.


    With the way that mana and people¡¯s understanding of reality interacted with each other... Alice was starting to realize that public opinion was very important.


    It was still a bit hard for Alice to grasp all of the implications of mana being so... reactive to people¡¯s beliefs. Now that Alice thought about it... on Earth, it was entirely possible for people to be mistaken about the world. For a long time, people had believed that the sun revolved around the Earth, for example. No matter what people believed, it wouldn¡¯t change the underlying reality. It just meant those people were wrong.


    But in this world, if people believed something, it would eventually become true, now that the System wasn¡¯t filtering those beliefs.


    With that in mind... people like Allira, who were capable of manipulating public opinion, suddenly became very powerful.


    Alice¡¯s heart sank as she realized that there was yet another dimension of the crisis that she needed to keep a handle on... but on the other hand, there were also some interesting possibilities, if someone tried to use public opinion to handle some parts of the crisis... Alice started running through a few new ideas she could try. A lot of them would need to be implemented by someone who was a more public figure, but Alice still had a good relationship with many members of the Church of the System. They could probably be convinced to help her spread some news...


    Alice got lost in thought, before she heard Allira curse again.


    ¡°There¡¯s another group of the monsters catching up to us. Ethan, set us down. They¡¯re moving faster, but there are a lot less of them. We can fight these ones, but I don¡¯t think we can outrun them. We¡¯ll also need to find a way to contain them without killing them, so that their ability to return to the battlefield after death doesn¡¯t become an issue.¡±


    Ethan paused for a moment, before he nodded. ¡°I have a few ideas for that. How long until they arrive? How many are there?¡±


    ¡°Ten minutes. About two hundred.¡±


    ¡°Should be manageable,¡± he said, as Ethan started to lower the ship. Within thirty seconds, the group was back on the ground, and began to prepare for battle.

 Chapter 180

    Chapter 180


    The group started to set up for a fight. Alice prepared on her own by pulling her enchanted items out of her storage Perk. Normally, Alice wouldn¡¯t have worried very much about it, since there were three Immortals here. That was equivalent to the strength of several hundred [Soldiers], or perhaps even a few thousand.


    But there was still a limit to how much an Immortal could handle, especially when the creatures they were fighting could resurrect themselves. With several hundred undying monsters attacking them, all of unknown strength... Alice felt far more uneasy about the fight than she otherwise might have.


    Alice scanned their surroundings, looking for some sort of clue. Some sort of hint that would make the fight easy, or fix everything, or... or something. She didn¡¯t want to fight a horde of bizarre monsters that had unusual abilities. Alice found herself profoundly wishing that the group had simply managed to outrun the damn creatures. But wishing that reality was different wouldn¡¯t make it so.


    Ethan took his father¡¯s sword out of his storage Perk, while Allira started singing. Just like when Allira had helped Illa¡¯s expeditionary force quell the Vinebear swarm all those months ago back in Cyra, the group¡¯s surroundings started to change.


    Much like before, Alice saw their surroundings transform into a city. Unlike the first time Allira had used this Perk, the city that Alice could see in Allira¡¯s illusory reality was... different this time. It was more populated. The streets were denser, and the city didn¡¯t give off a feeling of being war-torn or under siege. Instead, it was filled with people happily moving about their day, bustling to and from an area in a marketplace as they bought food and supplies. Children played on the side of the street, and workers and Mages hauled supplies. It looked like a prosperous city in the middle of a construction boom.


    Alice frowned. Last time, Alana had set up an illusion that actively attacked monsters. She was sure that Allira was up to something this time, but Alice just wasn¡¯t sure why Allira had set up this peaceful-looking city. It seemed... odd... to her.


    Still, Alice decided not to ask. Immortals didn¡¯t reach Immortality by having no clue what they were doing. If Allira was trying to set up a seemingly peaceful city, she must have some sort of reason for it. With that, Alice turned her attention towards Jonathan, and resisted the urge to grimace.


    Unlike Ethan and Allira, Jonathan wasn¡¯t doing very much. He had taken a few seeds out of his pockets, and started to ¡®till¡¯ the surrounding swamp... but Alice was noticing that there really wasn¡¯t much rainbow mana in his surroundings, unlike Ethan and Allira¡¯s attempts to set up for the battlefield. The crops he planted were growing unnaturally quickly, and it looked almost like he was trying to build a corn palisade. Unfortunately, the crops he was planting didn¡¯t seem particularly unusual, as far as corn went. It might slow the monsters down a bit, but Alice doubted the corn palisade would really stop a determined charge of monsters.


    Alice sighed, and didn¡¯t say anything. Truthfully, she suspected that Jonathan simply couldn¡¯t contribute much to this battlefield. Immortals may be incredibly powerful, but they all had specialties. Jonathan¡¯s clearly wasn¡¯t combat. She just hoped that he could help the rest of the group stay alive.


    Alice laid out all of her own enchantments, pulling them out of her storage Perk one at a time to make sure she couldn¡¯t spot any problems with them. She had manufactured quite a number of her consumable enchantments, and with Doll¡¯s armor, she would also be incredibly hard to kill in a fight. The biggest danger would come from protecting the noncombatants. Jonathan¡¯s family had lived up to Alice¡¯s initial impression of them ¨C they had almost no capacity to fight. Cecilia was also looking distinctly nervous at the prospect of fighting for her life, and had started burying blast crystals around the camp. Alice wasn¡¯t sure how useful those would be when the monsters came, but it was worth a shot.


    Then, she looked at her Status Screen, to remind herself of her options in a battle.


    Name: Alice Verianna


    Age: 16


    Strength: 120(122%)


    Perception: 145 (165%)


    Dexterity: 121 (144%)


    Intelligence: 172 (128%)


    Endurance: 137(141%)


    Willpower: 153(109%)


    Charisma: 133 (107%)


    Magic: 171 (192%)


    Primary Classes: 6/6


    Survivor: 66 -> 67


    Explorer of Magic: 81 -> 85


    Scholar: 62 -> 67


    Scientist: 66 -> 68


    Kinetic Manabinder: 51 -> 52


    Careful Enchanter: 36


    Evolved Classes: 2


    Student of Kinetic Magic: 25Vissit  for updates


    (Apprentice) Enchanter: 25


    Secondary Classes: 4


    Fisherwoman: 3


    Student: 9


    Legendary Organic Mage: 1 -> 7


    Courtier: 1 -> 3


    Secondary Evolved Classes: 1


    Student of Organic Magic: 25


    Perks:


    Survivor Perks:


    Foraging (Survivor 5)


    Microbe Resistance (Survivor 10)


    Extremophile (Survivor 15)


    Enhanced Training (Survivor 30)


    Adrenaline Rush (Survivor 45)


    Enhanced Senses (Tier 2) (Survivor 55)


    Extended Tissues (Tier 2) (Survivor 60)


    Dimensional Camouflage (Tier 2) (Survivor 65)


    Explorer of Magic Perks:


    Enhanced Regeneration (Explorer of Magic 10)


    Seeds of Magic (Explorer of Magic 25)


    Broken Seed (Upgraded) (Explorer of Magic 35)


    Combat Seed (Tier 2) (Explorer of Magic 60)


    System''s Ambition (Tier 3) (Explorer of Magic 80)


    Magic Modelling (Tier 3) (Explorer of Magic 85)


    Scholar Perks:


    Accelerated Thinking (Scholar level 15 (-5))


    Rhetorical Flourish (Scholar level 20)


    Photographic Memory (Scholar level 25)


    Improved Multitasking (Scholar level 30)


    Scholar of Magic (Scholar level 35)


    Lesser Organic Vision (Scholar 40)


    Sleep Reading (Tier 2) (Scholar 55)


    Delve Memories ->Memory Experimentation (Tier 2) (Scholar 60)


    Scientist Perks:


    Precise mana Measurement (Scientist level 5)


    Sample Collection (Scientist level 10)


    Safety Analysis (Scientist Level 20)


    Shared Memory (Scientist Level 25)


    Advanced Mana Measurement (Scientist Level 30)


    For Science! (Scientist 45)


    Speed Experimentation (Tier 2) (Scientist 55)


    No_Mana ->Anti-Magic (Tier 2) (Scientist 60)


    Kinetic Mage Perks:


    Object Control (Student of Kinetic Magic 5)


    Above Average Mana Sight (Student of Kinetic Magic 10)


    Folds of Magic (Student of Kinetic Magic 15)


    Split Mind (Student of Kinetic Magic 20)


    Improved Object Control (Sensory Enhancement) (Student of Kinetic Magic 25)


    Achievements:


    Outworlder (Rarity: 10)


    Seeker of Truth (IV) (Rarity: 10)


    Baptized by Broken Mana (Rarity: 6)


    Survivor of Winter (Rarity: 3)


    Monstrous Encounter (Rarity: 1)


    Monster Slayer (III) (Rarity: 2)


    Well Trained (Rarity: 4)


    Murderer (Rarity: 4)


    Bookworm (Rarity: 3)


    Kinetic Manabinder (Rarity N/A)


    Careful Enchanter (Rarity N/A)


    Capable Enchanter (Rarity: 5)


    Seed Creator (Rarity: 8)


    In Pursuit of Science (Rarity N/A)


    Immortal''s Apprentice at the battle against the Society (Rarity: 4)


    Legendary Healer (Rarity: 7)


    Creative Healer (Rarity: 4)


    System_Teacher (Rarity: 7)


    First Steps (I -> III) (Rarity: 6 -> 8)


    Battle with an Immortal (Rarity: 9)


    Royal Crisis Analyst (Rarity: N/A)


    With her use of {First Steps}, all of her broken Achievements had returned to normal. Alice wasn¡¯t sure how much it would help, but she was grateful for any advantage she could get right now. With her enchantments prepared and her abilities ready, Alice sat down to wait.


    And wait.


    And wait.


    And wait.


    Despite the fact that Allira had made the approaching monster swarm sound imminent, Alice was surprised by how long they were taking to arrive. It almost felt as if they were deliberately approaching more slowly, giving their pretty time to ¨C


    Alice shut down that train of thought before she could continue. She realized, with a thrill of terror, that perceiving the enemy as being stronger would change their strength. Alice focused, and started thinking about how weak the monsters surely were compared to the Immortals. Ethan and Allira didn¡¯t seem very stressed ¨C they looked annoyed, but they didn¡¯t look worried about winning. That meant that they were confident, right?


    Now that Alice knew her thoughts could influence reality, she tried very hard to hypnotize herself to believe that the oncoming fight was about to be easy. She wasn¡¯t sure how much impact a single person¡¯s beliefs would be, but it was surely better than nothing.


    And then, not quickly enough and also far too soon, the first monsters arrived.


    It was a horde of strange, flying creatures that Alice had a hard time understanding. Allira had said that the monsters were odd, and she hadn¡¯t been kidding. They looked almost like someone had taken a patch of fog, cut it into the shape of a monster, and then added in dozens of extra pairs of eyes for no reason. The monsters smelled like fetid swamp water, and Alice had the urge to cover her nose as the creatures drew closer.


    Even more unnerving, Alice could see strands of mana that connected the monsters to the swamp itself, almost like puppeteers wielding strings. She couldn¡¯t help but think of the fact that the swamp had constantly seemed to be watching them, and shuddered. Perhaps these things were the reason that the swamp always seemed to be watching them.


    Allira fired the first shot of the battle. The strangely peaceful city that she had conjured when she had started singing changed instantly. All of the children who were playing in the streets, the merchants clamoring for coins, and the people going about their days took on a strange, dreamlike quality as Allira hummed. As one, the townsfolk all turned towards the monster horde with empty, angry eyes. They grinned eerily, and charged.


    This distracted quite a few of the monsters, but more of them simply ignored Allira¡¯s illusions as they sprinted towards the rest of the group.


    Ethan immediately grabbed every single branch of free material in their surroundings. Dead tree branches, stones, globs of mud ¨C anything that could be thrown was launched towards the first few monsters in a barrage of projectiles.


    It was as if he had launched a whirlwind of trash at the creatures.


    The monsters responded far more quickly than Alice had expected. Dozens of the mana ¡®threads¡¯ connecting them to the rest of the swamp danced and shivered, before the pieces of swamp detritus froze in midair. Alice narrowed her eyes at the creatures.


    Somehow, the monstrous patches of fog were controlling the swamp itself. Perhaps they had swamp-based mana?


    Ethan also grimaced.


    ¡°They have too much control over swamp materials! Don¡¯t bother trying to use them! It¡¯s more likely to backfire!¡± he yelled, as he started ripping out golden-colored ears of corn from Jonathan¡¯s efforts. Just like the tree branches from the swamp, Ethan launched them at the monsters.


    This time, the ears of corn weren¡¯t blocked by the monsters. It seemed that their swamp-manipulation abilities couldn¡¯t block Jonathan¡¯s crops. Alice felt a moment of hope as she wished that the monsters would simply die from Ethan¡¯s barrage... only for their bodies to turn as wispy as smoke.


    Alice saw a wave of purple flashes, as the misty monsters teleported away. A few of them were still caught in Ethan¡¯s barrage, but most of them escaped.


    Many of the ones who were caught by Ethan¡¯s barrage were set upon by frenzied villager illusions. At the same time, the hungry bits of shadows in their surroundings surged onto the battlefield. Alice caught glimpses of eyes and teeth that stretched and twisted unnaturally, and many of the wounded monsters died.


    As the monsters died, Alice finally observed the monsters ¡®reviving,¡¯ as Allira had mentioned they would.


    Each time a monster died, the mana tether connecting them to the swamp brightened up, while the mana from the nearby swamp thinned. It was as if the monsters were drinking the swamp of the mana in order to revive. Within about ten seconds, the creatures would return to life.


    Alice suspected that binding the monsters wasn¡¯t the only way to handle them. If the group just kept killing the monsters, eventually the swamp would probably run out of mana. At least, assuming that nobody started believing the monsters were unkillable ¨C if that happened, the fundamental weakness of the monster¡¯s revivals might disappear shortly afterwards.


    That being said, even if the monsters were theoretically killable if they drained enough mana, Alice seriously doubted they had enough resources to outlast the horde. The rest of the monsters were still on their way, and even fighting off a group this large could be dangerous with the Immortals forced to protect weaker combatants like her and Jonathan¡¯s family.


    Luckily, Alice wasn¡¯t completely helpless against this kind of tactic. Now that Alice had a rough idea how the monsters were revived, she used {Dimensional Camouflage} to start opening up a few windows to attack from. She needed free access to the monsters without getting counterattacked, and she was determined to get it.


    Then, Alice started pulling at her antimagic seed. She chose a nearby monster that she had a good view of, and then flooded it with antimagic mana. The monster didn¡¯t respond at all as Alice flooded it with mana ¨C instead, it kept charging at a nearby illusory ¡®villager.¡¯


    Alice started at the monster she had targeted, and frowned. She had been hoping that the monster would fall dead on the spot. If the monsters were reliant upon their connection with the swamp to stay alive, Alice had thought cutting them off would be instantly fatal. Sadly, the monster she had targeted was still very much alive and kicking.


    A few moments passed, as Alice awkwardly stared at the monster. The creature finally realized that the ¡®villager¡¯ wasn¡¯t real, and turned towards the next nearest target. Alice herself. It charged.


    Alice sent a spray of bracelet beads into the creature... and it dropped dead. Alice waited for the creature to reform, or start reconstructing its body... but nothing happened. Instead, the threads of mana she had messed up using anti-magic mana just sort of... hung there in midair. It was almost as if it was a broken computer cord.


    Alice realized what was happening a moment later. Cutting off the monsters from the swamp might not kill them instantly, but it seemed to create a different problem for them. She waited a few seconds, before she grinned.


    Instead of the monster reforming, the thread of mana she had been messing with started to sink back into the swamp. A few moments later, the thread of mana simply dissipated. Alice got the feeling that the mana hadn¡¯t disappeared ¨C instead, the swamp had turned it into something else. Perhaps it had created a few new trees, or expanded a bit. But Alice didn¡¯t care.


    Regardless of what happened, she had permanently killed one of the monsters, and that was what they needed right now. A way to reduce the numbers of the enemy a bit and give the Immortals more breathing room.


    ¡°Ethan!¡± she yelled. ¡°I have a way to stop them from coming back to life! Hit the ones I point out!¡± Then, Alice started finding the denser clumps of monsters and using her portal/antimagic setup to flood the area with antimagic. Each time she did so, she then started rattling random objects above the monsters, to make sure Ethan knew which ones she had targeted.


    Each group of monsters that Alice cut off was quickly torn to pieces by targeted groups of projectiles. Thanks to Alice¡¯s antimagic setup, the monsters had a hard time even portalling away. A disconcerting number of them still managed to turn their bodies into mist, or dodge Ethan¡¯s projectiles... but the Immortal was an experienced combatant. Anytime an enemy dodged a missile, he simply sent another spray at them. Alice also assisted him from the side by tossing in her own bracelet beads whenever she had the focus for it.


    However, the monsters didn¡¯t just sit back and let the group kill them.


    Once they realized what Alice was doing, parts of the ground underneath her started to twist and shudder. Alice had a fraction of a moment to remember what the city they had found looked like before a tree root ripped its way out of the ground and tried to spear her through her brain.


    Before Alice died, Jonathan appeared by her side. The tree root slammed into his outstretched arm... and bounced off. Jonathan grimaced, and his muscles rippled. Rainbow mana flooded out of his body, and then the man pulled something out of the ground.


    Several nearby trees seemed to liquefy as they were dragged downwards. Rainbow mana arced through the tree root and into several of the nearby trees, rapidly consuming them and leaving behind piles of fertilized, freshly tilled soil.


    ¡°Got it,¡± said Jonathan, panting as he wiped sweat away from his forehead. ¡°Tough ones.¡±


    Alice had no idea how Jonathan had overcome the mana resistance the swamp seemed to have, but decided not to question it. Maybe it was due to the inherent belief most people had that System Perks just... worked? As long as no one questioned the internal mechanics of the whole process, maybe System Perks could totally ignore the problems they should have run into.


    The monsters adapted to the group¡¯s tactics, and rapidly found new ways to survive and fight back. Since Alice could only cover one area at a time with her anti-magic mana, the monsters spread out. Several of them also targeted Jonathan¡¯s family, forcing the Immortals to divert more of their attention to keeping the noncombatants safe. Jonathan was mostly responsible for handling defense. His body was ridiculously sturdy, and his [Farmer] abilities were perfectly suited to handle sneaky attacks from tree roots and terrain manipulation. Meanwhile, Ethan and Allira¡¯s illusions, summons, and projectiles helped swarm and kill every single monster that Alice could splash with antimagic mana. At a few points, Cecilia also detonated her blast crystals to keep the monsters from overrunning the illusions. For a while, the combatants formed an uneasy, tenuous balance.


    And then the balance broke. Alice ran out of Antimagic Mana, and a crushing headache formed behind her eyeballs. It felt like someone was trying to drive nails through her eyeballs with a sledgehammer. Alice grimaced.


    ¡°I¡¯m out of mana!¡± she yelled. She took a few moments to survey her handiwork.


    Nearly a hundred of the monsters had been permanently killed. There were still over two hundred left, but with nearly a third of the combatants taken out, the Immortals were having a much easier time maintaining the situation. She might not have ended the threat, but she had certainly helped.


    ¡°Let us take it from here then!¡± said Ethan, grinning. He and Allira started working together. Ethan constantly used objects to herd the swamp monsters in specific directions, and then the workers in Allira¡¯s city would... change things in their surroundings. Handiwork tools and construction materials would warp on the spot, before they would rapidly construct something totally different.


    After a few repetitions of this, Alice finally realized what Ethan and Allira were planning. Ethan would herd the monsters into a specific area, and kill monsters that weren¡¯t under the two¡¯s control. Then, Allira would use her illusions to build a prison for the monsters on the spot. The two were experimenting with different types of prison, to see which one held monsters the most effectively... but Alice could see that they were getting results. After twelve variations of quickly built prisons, Allira grinned.


    ¡°That one works,¡± she said as she looked at the cube of solid stone and metal. There were no gaps at all in the prison, and the monster trapped inside was having a hard time teleporting out. Alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure what was blocking it, but she could see a thin film of ¡®extra¡¯ rainbow mana covering the outside of the prison.


    ¡°All right, we¡¯re getting there!¡± yelled Ethan. ¡°Just gotta hold out a little longer!¡± After that, he and Allira got to work. Now that they had a working model for a prison, they constantly trapped the monsters in prisons. By the time another fifty of them had been trapped, the monsters were starting to realize the tides had turned against them. Without a moment of hesitation, they broke off their assault, and fled into the nearby woods. Ethan and Allira frowned, but they didn¡¯t really have a way to stop the monsters from fleeing if they decided to escape. They had already wasted too many perks and mana on handling the first wave of attackers ¨C Alice suspected that they might struggle to truly finish off the swarm of advance monsters.


    Ethan sighed. ¡°I wish we¡¯d had more time to deal with all of them. They might harass us during our journey.¡±


    ¡°We did what we could,¡± said Allira, frowning. ¡°I just hope they don¡¯t return with reinforcements. That would be... troublesome.¡±


    Jonathan nodded in silent agreement.


    Alice quickly tallied up the losses of the group, and felt at least a bit of relief. The monsters that had escaped were a hidden threat... but the group hadn¡¯t lost anyone, either. The worst injuries were all from Jonathan, and they were essentially papercuts. Even as Alice watched, the man¡¯s injuries were healing up, and they would probably be gone in a few minutes.


    It wasn¡¯t a perfect conclusion to the battle... but it could have gone much, much worse. Alice just hoped that the monsters wouldn¡¯t be back.


    You have leveled up!


    Survivor: 67 -> 69, Explorer of Magic: 85 -> 86, Kinetic Manabinder: 52 -> 54

 Chapter 181

    Chapter 181


    After the group dealt with the outriders of the horde, Allira couldn¡¯t sing the ship back into existence because she needed to keep the swamp monsters imprisoned. Alice suspected that once they got to another town or city, Ethan would use magic to ¡®permanently¡¯ contain the creatures... but for now, they were being held in place almost exclusively by Allira¡¯s magic. Thus, the group went back to being transported via Ethan¡¯s raw kinetic magic, which was far less comfortable and far less mana-efficient.


    Despite the uncomfortable travel method, the group started making good time again. Jonathan was forced to occasionally plant another line of seeds, and Allira frequently reported the swamp monsters trying to catch up with them. But with the fastest members of the horde wiped out, the group was no longer at risk of being trapped in another battle, much to Alice¡¯s relief. Still, as they continued to travel, hour after hour, Alice started to frown.


    Just how big was this swamp? After over a day of travel through it, during which time they were mostly flying, they still had yet to reach the end of the swamp. Ethan and Allira had said that it might take a day or two of travel to pass through it, but Alice didn¡¯t think they had originally planned to fly through the swamp, either. She started to wonder if they had somehow been steered off track by the swamp. It was clearly built to mislead people and trap them in the swamp forever. Had they somehow gotten turned around while they were travelling? But that... shouldn¡¯t be possible. With three Immortals in the group, the idea of getting lost seemed absurd. But they were also still stuck in the swamp...


    As Alice felt this suspicion start to grow in her heart, she realized that some tiny threads of magic in their surroundings were beginning to stir. Alice stared at these tiny little threads of mana, and noticed that they weren¡¯t directly connected to people. Instead, they looked somewhat similar to the threads of mana that had connected to the monsters they captured, making the creatures seem somewhat similar to puppets or marionettes. After some observation, Alice realized that these threads of mana weren¡¯t actually new. In fact, she had seen similar mana structures before ¨C they just hadn¡¯t been quite so obvious. The reason they were easy to pick out right now was because the Swamp was very... homogenous. Most free-floating mana in the world had a lot of other, smaller types of mana mixed into it, making every single drop of mana hard to break down into smaller components. However, the Swamp was very pure in that it was almost entirely made of swamp-mana. It was like seeing a blue paint in the middle of a tie-dye colored shirt, versus seeing a splotch of blue paint in the middle of white paper.


    Alice spent several minutes observing this thread of mana, and then comparing it to the threads of mana extending out from the monsters that the group had captured. Until finally, Alice started to get a rough idea what she was looking at.


    These tiny little threads of mana... should probably be her beliefs and suspicions interacting with the mana around them to make her beliefs ¡®real.¡¯ At least, that was Alice¡¯s best guess ¨C it could have also been something completely different. Despite looking like a mana structure, the ¡®type¡¯ of mana involved was even weirder than System mana. It felt... wrong somehow. Like looking at a color that was beyond the range that human vision could pick up. Alice knew something was there. She knew it was made of mana. But she just... couldn¡¯t figure out what it was or how it worked.


    While Alice was mostly guessing what the threads of mana did, it did bring another problem to mind. One that was becoming more important with each passing day. How did the System prevent people¡¯s beliefs from influencing reality? Was it a facet of ¡®communication¡¯ mana? Was it a new type of mana entirely? How exactly was this done? Because one thing Alice had realized while they were travelling over the swamp was that this needed to get fixed. It was of higher priority than fixing Achievements. If people¡¯s beliefs kept constantly influencing reality, sooner or later everything would just... snap behind the scenes. And past that point, Alice doubted that the world would remain stable.


    She sighed. There was still so much work to do... and at the end of the day, as far as Alice knew, she was the only one who could do it. If she didn¡¯t solve these problems, nobody would. Not for the first time, Alice wished that Ethan or Cecilia had Perks and Achievements similar to hers. Having a full work colleague who had their own, specialized versions of Alice¡¯s toolkit would have made it thousands of times easier to fix all of this. Instead, all she could do was use {Shared Memories} to try to show other people what she had observed, and then theorize together. It was better than nothing, but far from what she wanted.


    Alice spent a few minutes getting lost in her thoughts and worries, before she finally realized she was wasting time. If she had time to wish for colleagues, she had time to examine her surroundings and learn more. She started observing the threads of mana in their surroundings, trying to map out what they were and how they worked. Then, after several minutes of observation and a few checks with {Safety Analysis}, Alice started experimenting.


    She first tried to use communication mana to cut off the ¡®communication¡¯ between humans and mana. Since she theorized the weird non-threads of mana allowed mana to ¡®respond¡¯ to human beliefs, she wanted to see if she could just shut down the pathway between humans and mana entirely. This had interesting results, but was nowhere near a total success. The communication mana was, indeed, able to mess with the threads of weird mana ¨C but it was not capable of shutting it down or totally cutting it off. It was more like dampening the ¡®volume¡¯ of her beliefs. If Alice used a lot of communication mana to weaken the communication between herself and the threads of mana, it seemed to become less reactive to her ¨C but it still reacted. Just less than before.


    At first, Alice thought that she was on the right path. She figured that with a bit more training, or more inventive use of her mana, maybe it was possible to snap off the communication between humans and mana entirely. Or, barring that, perhaps it could be reduced to some sort of ¡®extreme minimum¡¯ level of communication, which would be almost the same thing. If she could at least figure out how to minimize communication between humans and mana, she could find a way to get the rest of the population on board. Maybe it would be woven into future ¡®class-fixing¡¯ enchantments, or something like that.


    But after some experimentation, Alice realized that there was a certain minimum and maximum level of information exchange between humans and mana. Whatever she was doing with communication mana, it would still fail to change these two values. So either she was missing something, or she needed a different kind of mana.


    Sadly, before she could gather more data, the whole phenomenon collapsed like a soap bubble in a hurricane. Still, Alice had realized that she was heading in the wrong direction when she had tried to stifle the little threads of mana. Clearly, they weren¡¯t something the System suppressed ¨C instead, they were actively used somehow, as a material rather than a problem. She couldn¡¯t help but wish that she could see exactly how the System worked behind the scenes... but she would have to wait until Murim found the System¡¯s mainframe. Until then, she would just have to keep studying the little pieces of the System she could observe.


    While Alice focused on studying the surrounding mana, the group found a nearby village. Alice was surprised to see that the villagers were still present. It didn¡¯t even look like the villagers were getting ready to evacuate ¨C although even from high above the village, she could see the villagers eyeing the swamp nervously. It seemed that they weren¡¯t unaware of the threat of the swamp expanding, but they were simply unwilling to leave their homes and their farms to rot as they fled for the hills. Alice had heard that even back on Earth, some people were unwilling to abandon their homes even when disaster struck. It was probably much worse here, when so much of the average [Farmer] family¡¯s wealth was buried in the ground each season.


    ¡°This is a good place to start,¡± sang Allira, somehow making her totally normal words sound like natural parts of the song she was singing. Alice frowned as she tried to parse the meaning of Allira¡¯s words... before Allira¡¯s previous idea came back to her.


    Allira had suggested spreading various stories related to ¡®defeating the heart of the swamp.¡¯ Despite the fact that the ¡®Heart of the Swamp¡¯ didn¡¯t really exist, if people thought that the expansion of the swamp was slowed or halted, the swamp truly would start to weaken and stop expanding. Alice nodded, and then glanced at the train of cages the group was carrying with them. She grinned.


    ¡°We can use the monsters we captured as props,¡± said Alice. ¡°Hmm... while we¡¯re at it... Allira, do you have a way to make the monsters wriggle around a bit, and perhaps make some odd noises?¡±


    ¡°I... could probably manage that with illusions, but why do you ask?¡± sang Allira.


    ¡°Well, since human belief can influence these monsters, I¡¯m thinking we should also spread a second rumor. We should make people think that the monsters get much weaker outside of the swamp. Right now, it¡¯s entirely possible for the monsters that were created by the swamp to just... stroll out and attack various towns and cities. At least, I think it¡¯s possible. So I¡¯m hoping that you can make it look like the monsters are in pain, it¡¯ll back up that statement.¡± Alice shrugged. ¡°It seems like a good precaution to add in.¡±


    Allira nodded. ¡°I can add that in pretty easily,¡± she sang. ¡°While we¡¯re here, could one of you also get some more solid metal cage? I¡¯m getting pretty tired of singing every single sentence!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll do it,¡± said Cecilia. ¡°I could use a restock on some of my enchanting supplies anyway. I used up a bunch of them during the fight with the monsters.¡±


    After Cecilia¡¯s words, the group alighted on the ground, and ceased speaking. Alice saw several villagers start pointing at them in shock and awe. Ethan, Allira, and Jonathan were getting the most looks. Even though most of the villagers weren¡¯t able to tell that they were Immortals on the spot, the unusual dexterity and grace the three carried themselves must have tipped them off that something was unusual about the three.


    Allira smiled, and took the lead as she stepped towards the village. Meanwhile, Alice tried not to think about what would happen next. Even if she knew it was rather important to control people¡¯s beliefs right now, lying to people didn¡¯t feel very good. Luckily, most of it would be left to Allira, since Allira was the member of the group with the best grasp of social dynamics and information manipulation. Still, Alice felt a faintly sour taste in her mouth as the group stepped into the village.

 Chapter 182

    Chapter 182


    ¡°Umm... @*#$&%?¡± asked one of the villagers, as he observed the group.


    ¡°Hello! @3%*#@ @#*$&#,¡± sang Allira, in fluent in Fendrallian.


    ¡°Illvarian? Not speak... not speak Illvarian good,¡± said the villager. He stumbled over his words as he spoke, and sounded almost... anxious as he spoke with Allira. ¡°@*#$*&# @# %#@ @#$#@ @#$@ @#$#@#$ @#$# #$#@$@?¡±


    ¡°@#*($&#@ @#(*$&#(*@&#$ @#(*$*!¡± sang Allira, smiling brightly at the man.


    Alice started to wish that she spoke Fendrallian. Being unable to participate in the conversation was frustrating.


    ¡°Do you want me to translate?¡± asked Ethan.


    ¡°Yes please,¡± said Alice. ¡°I know Allira said that she was going to talk about killing some ¡®heart of the swamp¡¯ or something, but I want to know exactly what she says. That way I can try to observe how people¡¯s beliefs impact the swamp.¡±


    Ethan nodded thoughtfully as he glanced at the swamp in the distance. Then, he cleared his throat. ¡°The man started out by asking if we were Immortals, since our [Dexterity] and [Charisma] seemed to be so exceptionally high.¡± Ethan seemed a bit amused by that, and shot Allira a glance. Allira rolled her eyes at Ethan while she continued speaking to the villager. ¡°Allira confirmed that three of us were Immortals, and the rest of the group were ordinary people. Then, he asked if the conversation could be conducted in Fendrallian, since he¡¯s not very confident in his Illvarian. Allira said she was happy to speak in Fendrallian,¡± he said. Ethan continued to translate the conversation, and Alice and the others started to get a rough idea what the conversation was about.


    ¡°The others are here for various reasons ¨C although Alice over there is Immortal Ethan¡¯s apprentice,¡± said Allira, as she laughed. Alice took a second to marvel at the fact that Allira somehow wove laughing into her singing, and made it sound natural.


    ¡°So it¡¯s true. Grand Immortals have visited our village,¡± said the villager. His voice was a mixture of awe, and a small, poorly-hidden dose of caution. ¡°May I ask Grand Immortal why you¡¯re here? I don¡¯t think that our village is important enough to receive attention from Grand Immortals. Not to mention, if you¡¯ll forgive me for being blunt, I don¡¯t recognize any of you three. That means that you must not be Fendrallian Immortals. Why are you here, instead of in your own country?¡±


    Alice turned towards Ethan. ¡°Grand Immortal?¡± she whispered.


    Ethan shrugged. ¡°The ¡®official¡¯ titles for Immortals sometimes change from one culture to another. In Illvaria, we¡¯re called ¡®Honored Immortals,¡¯ but that¡¯s not the case everywhere.¡±


    Alice nodded, and her attention returned to the conversation.


    ¡°The three of us came to do some research on the things that have gone wrong recently, both with the terrain and with the System,¡± said Allira. ¡°Surely, by now you¡¯ve noticed that things have become rather... odd in the past month or two?¡±


    The villager glanced uneasily at the swamp in the distance, and then nodded. ¡°There are really a lot of strange things that have happened recently. The expansion of the swamp is unnatural. The swamp is advancing, almost as if it¡¯s alive. I know that sometimes terrain can change a bit from year to year, but... this isn¡¯t natural at all. The swamp might overtake our village in a few weeks if nothing changes.


    ¡°Worse, people are getting sick. There is a strange illness going around that seems to cause people to space out for extended periods of time, or completely lose their minds. [Farmer] Billy and his kids are the most recent victims. [Farmer] Billy¡¯s never been completely right in the head after his wife died, but recently, he isn¡¯t even talking to people. He just farms all day. He isn¡¯t even giving food to his kids! He used to treat them like treasures that might break from a stray breeze! They were his last mementos of his wife, and he cherished them. But now they¡¯re on the edge of starvation!


    ¡°The kids don¡¯t seem to notice that they¡¯re dying, either! They¡¯re clearly starving to death, but they just keep working for some reason! It¡¯s like they haven¡¯t even noticed how skinny they¡¯ve become.¡± The villager shuddered violently, as he gazed into the distance. ¡°Recently, I¡¯ve also started feeling odd as well. Like all I want to do is farm, and farm, and farm...¡± the man seemed to get lost in thought for several seconds, almost as if he had been hypnotized, before he snapped out of it. ¡°I can¡¯t figure it out at all. I¡¯ve been farming all my life, and I¡¯ve never felt this way about farming before. There¡¯s a certain satisfaction in watching your fields grow into fields of lush green and gold, as the wheat ripens... but this is something completely different. It¡¯s almost like farming is taking over my mind!¡± the villager shuddered again. ¡°Recently, some of the villagers have been whispering that these events mean something else. That maybe something broke in the world itself, and this is the herald of the end. I don¡¯t know if I believe them or not, but... times are bad. Hostile terrain expanding outwards, people getting sick from strange diseases left and right, monsters attacking other villages...¡± Alice started to feel alarm bells ring inside of her brain.


    Human beliefs could influence the rest of the world. This was something she was becoming more and more certain of. The way that mana and sapience interacted with each other was incredibly dangerous if something happened. What would happen if a lot of people believed that the world was ending? If that was the case... Alice felt deeply worried about the future. Because mana would definitely pick up on that belief and make it ¡®real.¡¯


    She needed to dispel this belief before it became worse. Luckily, Alice had a good idea of what was actually happening behind the scenes. Humans feared the unknown most of all. If she could just explain it all in terms that other people could accept, hopefully the talk of the ¡®end of the world¡¯ would be silenced before it became a true threat.


    Cecilia tapped Alice on the shoulder, and Alice realized she had gotten lost in her thoughts again. She returned her focus to Ethan¡¯s translations.


    ¡°- the [Innkeeper] keeps losing his train of thought for hours on end while he manages his inn. He¡¯s never been a distracted man, but falling into a routine for hours on end, and not even noticing what he¡¯s doing isn¡¯t right. It¡¯s almost like he¡¯s possessed or something. I¡¯ve never heard of a monster that can slip inside of somebody¡¯s body and control it like a puppet before, but... I can¡¯t think of any other reason why people would be acting this way!¡± The man finally paused, before giving Allira a hopeful look. ¡°Have... have you come to fix everything?¡±


    After getting through nearly two hundred patients, Alice was amused to see a few System notifications pop up.


    You have leveled up!


    Explorer of Magic: 86 -> 87, Legendary Organic Mage 7 -> 8


    Alice... had not used any organic mana during her healing process. Despite that fact, she had still gotten levels in [Legendary Organic Mage]. Of course, most people associated organic magic and healing with each other, which was probably why Alice had gotten a level in [Legendary Organic Mage]. But the idea of getting levels in [Organic Mage] without using organic magic was quite absurd. Alice couldn¡¯t help but wonder if people had encountered similar problems before the System had broken. Had the System originally had some way of ¡®fixing¡¯ issues like this if they were too obviously hinting at the true nature of the System? Alice suspected that might have been the case.


    Of course, the mana that her [Legendary Organic Mage] class seed absorbed seemed to be quite a bit less focused than usual, so Alice lost quite a bit during the filtration and conversion process. However, at the end of the day, it was still not bad to get a few free levels. Alice was actually a bit curious to see what Perks she would get from [Legendary Organic Mage] as well. Surely a class with ¡®legendary¡¯ in its name wouldn¡¯t give her ordinary Perks.


    As Alice took a few moments to look over her new Systme notifications, she saw the [Blacksmith] woman return. She was now carrying a few large, sturdy-looking metal cages, and she was also leading another woman, who seemed almost completely oblivious to her surroundings. The woman was constantly washing a rag she held in her hands. The rag was already spotless, but the woman kept cleaning it over and over again despite her actions having no meaning.


    ¡°@#($ @#*$(#@&$*( @#*$@#*( @#$*#@! @#*$#&$@ @#($#*!¡± said the [Blacksmith], as she handed Allira the cages. Alice looked at the cages, and grinned. Allira wouldn¡¯t have to keep singing anymore. The cages were quite large, so all of the monsters should fit inside of them.


    The [Blacksmith] brought her wife towards Alice. Alice didn¡¯t tarry, and immediately helped fix the woman¡¯s [Laundress] class. Meanwhile, Allira started stuffing the swamp monsters into metal cages, before she finally gave her poor throat a rest and stopped singing. Alice was impressed that the Immortal had kept her singing up for so long. Immortal or not, Alice still suspected that Allira¡¯s throat should have gotten sore eventually, but the woman had simply soldiered on until they finally had cages ready.


    After Alice finished treating all of the people in the village, she got two new surprises.


    First, after she purified her own mana, she had enough to level up [Legendary Organic Mage] one more time.


    You have leveled up!


    Legendary Organic Mage 8 -> 9


    She was only one level away from getting a Perk in [Legendary Organic Mage] now. However, much more interestingly, as Alice healed villagers, she had also observed little threads of belief cycle through her body and towards the little mana gem in her brain. Until finally, the little mana gem shone with rainbow light, and then a new Achievement appeared.


    You have gained an Achievement!


    Distributing the Cure (I) (Rarity: 4)


    You have treated the strange illness in the village of Frostriver. The villagers are grateful for your help!


    +30% Experience for healing and magic-research related classes, +5% magic stat.


    It wasn¡¯t an astounding reward, but Alice wasn¡¯t going to complain about a small XP boost and a minor improvement to her magic stat. Every little bit helped, after all. Unfortunately, the new Achievement was only giving Alice 50% of the benefits it was supposed to give, just like the other Achievements she had received after the System broke. Alice would probably need to use {First Steps} again if she wanted to fix her new Achievement. Alice wasn¡¯t actually that upset about that, though. It meant that even if she needed to observe the process of ¡®fixing¡¯ an Achievement again, she had an easy way to do so.


    It also got Alice thinking. If she treated a few more villages, would she get a few more, similar Achievements, or increase the rank of {Distributing the Cure}? If so, it might be a good way to boost Alice¡¯s levelling speed. Definitely something to think about after they left this village. She would mention it to Ethan later.


    Still, for now she decided to push it to the back of her mind. She let herself smile and relax, as the villages thanked the group for healing them and slowing down the expansion of the swamp. The group made their way into the inn to sleep for the night shortly afterwards, since most of them were tired.


    It was a day where she had made very little actual progress towards fixing the System as a whole... but she found herself in one of the best moods she¡¯d had in weeks. That night, while in her dream library, she threw herself into her use of {Magic Modelling} with renewed energy and hope.

 Chapter 183

    Chapter 183


    The group woke up to a nice breakfast at the inn. Alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure how the [Innkeeper] had done it, but he had made an omelet out of eggs that tasted faintly spicy, and had nice, crispy meat on the inside that tasted somewhat similar to bacon. It wasn¡¯t as good as some of the meals she had eaten from Ethan¡¯s personal chef, but it reminded her of meals she used to eat on Earth, and that made her happy. Even if it wasn¡¯t the ¡®best meal she¡¯d ever had,¡¯ sometimes, the taste of home was superior to high-quality cuisine.


    ¡°Do you like it?¡± asked the [Innkeeper], with the help of Ethan¡¯s translations. ¡°It was quite an odd mix of ingredients, but {Taste of Home} insisted it was the right meal for you. I¡¯ve never tried cooking meat this way before.¡±


    ¡°It was lovely,¡± said Alice, giving the [Innkeeper] a thankful grin.


    The rest of breakfast passed quickly, and the group prepared to depart from the area. When they stepped out of the inn, they were greeted by a pair of elderly villagers. One of them was an older man who looked to be in his sixties, and had a gnarled back and hands. His body resembled the trunk of an old tree that had weathered many storms, but had never broken under their weight. The other was an elderly woman, who had a straight back and bright, clear eyes. Alice faintly remembered healing both of them yesterday, but hadn¡¯t paid very much attention to them. There had just been too many people to treat yesterday.


    Alice stared at the two elderly people awkwardly. They hadn¡¯t spoken yet, but Alice was still confused. Finally, after examining her, the elderly man smiled. He pushed a basket covered with a lovely red cloth into her hands. It was warm. Alice gently unwrapped the basket, and found a few loaves of freshly baked bread.


    ¡°Thank you for help with village, Immortal apprentice,¡± said the man in broken Illvarian. ¡°Helped lots people. Good person. I make tasty bread. Try it!¡±


    Ethan raised a hand first, and then his eyes flashed rainbow as he looked at the bread. He nodded, and lowered his hand. ¡°It¡¯s safe. You can eat it if you want,¡± he said.


    Alice pulled out one of the loaves of bread, and took a hesitant bite, before she nodded in approval. It wasn¡¯t as good as Immortal Jonathan¡¯s bread, but it still tasted nice. The insides were warm and soft, and the outside was crusty and tasted faintly of butter and some sort of herb. Alice had never had it before, but it tasted decent.


    ¡°Thank you, elder,¡± said Alice. The man clearly struggled with Illvarian, but Alice hoped he at least understood her words.


    ¡°No. Thank. Good help.¡± The man gently smiled at her. ¡°Would hug, but you not touch people much? Odd, but some people no like things. I give bread instead.¡±


    As he retreated, the elderly woman stepped up. She handed Alice a little crown of flowers, before patting Alice faintly on her shoulders.


    ¡°@#*$(@ @#(*$#@ @#$*() @#*$(#& @#$(* )@#$*( @)@#($ )(@#$ )@#($@(#)$ @#)()(!@$!@&%@#$ %!(@#$*@!#(@ %&*#@$,¡± she said. Unlike the man, the woman didn¡¯t even have a rudimentary understanding of Illvarian, so Alice had no idea what she had just said. She turned towards Ethan questioningly.


    ¡°She said her granddaughter made it, and thanks you for healing her and her grandchildren,¡± Ethan said. ¡°She also says that her granddaughter insists that you¡¯re the princess of the healing mages, and that every princess needs a crown.¡± Alice felt the urge to awkwardly smile at that. Perhaps it was due to how she had been raised, but Alice had never had the ¡®wanting to be a princess¡¯ phase in her life. Still, she appreciated the sentiment behind the crown of flowers, even if it also made her feel odd. She carefully placed it on her head. The crown of flowers weren¡¯t very sturdy, so Alice had to handle carefully in case it fell apart.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± said Alice, which Ethan translated for her.


    ¡°@#*$(&@#$ @#*$(#! @#*$ @#*$* @(@#($ @#)(*#@$#@$!¡± The woman¡¯s face grew animated, and the wrinkles on her forehead seemed to shrink as she smiled at Alice.


    ¡°She says that she¡¯s grateful for what you¡¯ve done for her daughter and the other villagers, and that she wishes you safe travels.¡± Ethan paused, and then gave the crown of flowers a more careful look. ¡°You could try to preserve the flowers using organic magic, if you want a decent magic practice routine. It might even have some relevance to your current research. Altering things with magic without accidentally killing them is... difficult, and even though Jonathan has volunteered to help you with experiments, flowers might still be a good starting point. It could increase the safety margin a bit for your other experiments. Or you can jump right in if you feel confident. I¡¯ll leave the final decision up to you.¡±


    Alice nodded, but secretly, she vowed to squeeze in as much practice on the flowers as she could get. The old lady and the old man gave the group one more kindly smile before they walked away.


    Cecilia laughed. ¡°You¡¯re the hero of a village, Alice. Just like the Immortals from stories and legends. You came to an unknown village, saved everyone, and then left. If my father was still around, maybe he would have told me stories about you, too.¡± Cecilia¡¯s eyes seemed a little sad when she said that, but also a little happy as she looked at the village. ¡°I¡¯m glad that we came here, even if it wasn¡¯t originally planned.¡±


    Ethan gave Alice a firm pat on the shoulders. ¡°You did a good job here. You made the lives of a lot of people better, and even though it¡¯s only a single village, helping people always has to start somewhere. Spending all of your time researching how to cure the collapse of the System is a good thing, but it¡¯s also important to remember the human element of your actions. In a position of power, you sometimes have to treat people as numbers and statistics ¨C but you also have to remember that everyone is a living, breathing person. Whether they¡¯re short lived or long lived, they have loved ones, people that care about them, and lives they cherish. Some Immortals start to forget that, and that¡¯s why organizations like the Society of Starry Eyes come into existence. It might not be the most ¡®mana efficient¡¯ use of your time, but I¡¯m still glad you healed the people here.¡± He gave Alice a lopsided grin. ¡°If we¡¯re lucky, the swamp problem might have been resolved through Allira¡¯s hard work, too. Or at the very least, some experimental data can be gathered.¡±


    Alice surmised that the time it had spent in a near-comatose state probably had left some kind of permanent damage behind. Perhaps its nerves weren¡¯t working perfectly anymore, or perhaps the monster core had stopped pumping mana around its body as needed. Either way, the monster had minor, seemingly permanent problems now.


    Equally interesting was the fact that the monster was still alive, despite spending nearly half an hour in a manaless zone. Alice knew for a fact that monsters typically died if they were cut off from mana for long enough, and half an hour was enough to wipe out almost every monster on the planet. It was almost the same as suffocation for a human ¨C monsters needed mana to live. But for some reason, even though they were born from mana, manaborn creatures were actually less reliant on mana to survive. This struck Alice as incredibly unusual, although she wasn¡¯t quite sure what that meant yet, if it meant anything at all.


    After that, Alice had a lovely idea, for a much more interesting test.


    Instead of creating a zone with no mana at all, Alice tried doing something a bit more complicated.


    The first thing she did was to create a thin layer of anti-mana shielding around an area where she and a monster were located. This meant that within the room, there was a small, bubble-shaped area that was perfectly clear of mana. Then, Alice almost immediately began filling up that bubble with ¡®pure mana¡¯ from her own magic seed, while maintaining a thin layer of separation between the inside and outside of the bubble.


    Alice wasn¡¯t quite sure if this would work at all... but she was very curious to know what happened if she isolated the monster from the rest of the world¡¯s mana, but didn¡¯t cut off its supply of mana entirely.


    The results were... interesting. The monster started to adopt similar problems to before. Its limbs grew clumsy and unresponsive, and it eventually collapsed... but its collapse wasn¡¯t total. The monster was unconscious, but not completely so. It kept reaching out some of its limbs towards Alice, in a hopeless attempt to bite or tear at her flesh. However, its movements were almost wholly uncoordinated.


    At the same time, Alice started to get an even better idea of how the ¡®strings¡¯ of belief connected her and the monster worked. The strings of belief seemed to almost use mana as a sort of medium to exist... but what Alice considered ¡®threads¡¯ were more like a web than anything else. They connected the monster to the rest of the world, and simultaneously, connected the monster to the swamp. The swamp, in turn, was connected to people¡¯s beliefs about the swamp. Since the swamp acted as a sort of coordinator for the monster¡¯s actions, without it, the manaborn monster didn¡¯t have the information necessary to fulfill its role.


    Then, Alice started to wonder something. Was the monster only moving the same way it had in the swamps because of her beliefs about how it moved and acted? Alice¡¯s threads of ¡®belief¡¯ were clearly tied to the monster somehow, so it was obviously interacting with her beliefs in some way, shape, or form. What would happen if Alice left the bubble, and then someone with a completely different set of beliefs about how the monsters would act stepped into the bubble instead? Would that change the way the monster worked? And if it worked, how far could she take those beliefs? What if she believed that the monster would grand anyone who ate its flesh total immortality and godhood? What if she believed that the monster was capable of destroying the world in seconds?


    Alice kind of doubted that either of those beliefs would actually work. There was probably some sort of mana requirement for what kinds of beliefs could be manifested, and how they interacted with reality. But Alice also found the possibilities both fascinating and horrifying. She had no idea how some beliefs would interact with reality, but she suspected there were dozens of ways to end the world if she tried to ¡®cleverly¡¯ manipulate the interaction between beliefs and reality. At the same time, Alice needed to a better idea how the interaction worked in the first place, so that she knew what to guard against and how to fix everything.


    Alice got an idea. She left the room, and walked around until she found Cecilia.


    ¡°Cecilia!¡± She yelled. ¡°I want to show you an interesting experiment! I managed to reprogram the manaborn monster a bit!¡±


    ¡°Reprogram?¡± asked Ceclia, blinking in surprise. ¡°What does that mean? I don¡¯t know that word.¡±


    Alice blushed, as she realized that in her excitement, she had used the English word for reprogram, since there was no corresponding word in Illvarian. She cleared her throat.


    ¡°I managed to get a really interesting result when I was messing with one of the manaborn monsters. I¡¯ve been tinkering with it, and I¡¯ve realized that they¡¯re kind of like wind up dolls. You can manipulate the way they behave and act, based on the way they interact with the mana in their surroundings. Just like the tether between the swamp and the monsters sustained them and made them move, you can also feed them a bunch of data to make them do totally different things. This monster is now trying to dance like a ballerina. Could you tell me what it looks like to you? I¡¯m curious to see what your thoughts as an [Enchanter] are,¡± said Alice.


    Cecilia gave Alice a dubious look, but shrugged and followed Alice back to the experimental room. Alice made sure to remain outside of her isolated mana bubble, but ushered Cecilia into it. She noticed that in her absence, the monster had stopped moving around, and had flopped over like a doll with no batteries again. But the moment Cecilia stepped into the mana bubble, that changed. The manaborn monster¡¯s legs started twitching again. The creature still looked kind of like it was suffering from serious nerve damage... but as Cecilia stared at the monster, it started to creakily stand back up. Half of the monster¡¯s body started to coil like a spring, as if it were about to pounce at Cecilia... but two of its limbs, rather than trying to kill Cecilia, instead lifted the rest of the monster¡¯s body up. Just like a ballerina spinning on one leg, the monster tried and spectacularly failed to do a spin. After crashing to the ground, the monster leapt towards the edge of its cage, before slamming into the iron bars. Two of its legs helplessly tried to lift the monster around and dance, while its other legs tried to propel its body through the cage so that it could rip Cecilia¡¯s limbs apart.


    While it made less of an impact than Alice had been expecting, it still clearly showed the impact of Cecilia¡¯s beliefs, and how they changed the monster¡¯s behavior.


    Alice smiled.

 Chapter 184

    Chapter 184


    The next day was spent poking at the manaborn monsters more, as Alice tried to figure out what made them tick. Since ¡®manaborn¡¯ creatures were so new to this world, Alice still had a lot of head-scratching to do when it came to these odd organisms. After her test with Cecilia, she explained what she had actually been testing, and then enlisted the help of a Jonathan¡¯s children to test out other things.


    The next thing she tried to figure out was how much, exactly, one person¡¯s beliefs could change the physical shape and behavior of a manaborn monster. If someone believed that a manaborn monster was supposed to have forty legs, would it sprout extra legs the moment it came into contact with their beliefs? Or was its form fixed the moment it was born?


    She quickly confirmed was that the forms of manaborn were not malleable. Even when Alice told Mimi, Jonathan¡¯s youngest daughter, all about the interesting one-eyed manaborn monster she had been experimenting with, and how the monster did funny hops when there was a carrot placed in front of it, the monster¡¯s form remained unchanged. It still looked like a monstrous patch of fog with dozens of eyes and eight legs.


    This spurred Alice¡¯s curiosity even further. After all, Alice had always thought of fog as being... well... malleable. It would have made perfect sense, in her mind, for the monster to shapeshift into a one-eyed patch of fetid swamp gas after Mimi¡¯s beliefs were led in a certain direction. But the monster¡¯s form remained the same.


    It seemed likely that manaborn monsters would not change shape after they were born, regardless of what beliefs were fed into them. Once they were born, their forms were final, unless something physically amputated their limbs. While this contradicted Alice¡¯s expectations, it was nice to confirm.


    The second thing she confirmed was that, no matter what, none of the strings of mana that Alice suspected represented ¡®belief¡¯ ever penetrated through a fully enclosed layer of space with no mana in it. However, even if she totally blocked these strings of mana from directly touching a test subject, somehow, some amount of belief was still leaking through. This was very subtle, and hard to notice ¨C but when Alice was feeding Jonathan¡¯s children information about her ¡®interesting test subjects,¡¯ she noticed that some of the manaborn monsters had small behavioral changes, even when they were ¡®isolated.¡¯ Since they looked like they were half-dead after a certain period of time either way, it was barely noticeable.


    Interestingly enough, this was not true if Alice removed all mana from the area. In this case, nobody¡¯s beliefs about the manaborn monsters mattered in any way, shape, or form. This implied that mana itself was somehow connected in a subtle, hard to notice way, regardless of whether Alice isolated a bubble of mana from the rest of the world. This was interesting, but it was also a major pain in the neck for her.


    Afterwards, Alice started focusing on a few other experiments she wanted to run.


    The monster Alice had used to test Cecilia¡¯s beliefs still had a body that was trying to do different things at the same time. Six of its legs were trying to lunge at Alice¡¯s face and eat her, and the other two legs were trying to dance like a ballerina. Based on this, Alice had a new question. It was obvious that beliefs, aided by mana, could distort reality. But what happened if these ¡®beliefs¡¯ were removed from an area? Would the area revert back to its ¡®natural¡¯ form, or would the influence of other beliefs remain in place? This was a question she hadn¡¯t considered before, but it could be very relevant. Thus, Alice decided to test how ¡®sticky¡¯ beliefs were in the face of anti-mana.


    To test this, Alice got all of Jonathan¡¯s children to believe that one of the manaborn monsters was jumping up and down for no reason, and also got Ethan and Jonathan into the mixture as well. Then, she set up a bubble of isolated mana that extended just outside of the testing room ¨C that way, people¡¯s beliefs would influence the monster before they saw it. When they entered the room, Alice was more than slightly relived to find that the monster she had set on display was jumping up and down.


    After that, Alice shooed everyone out of the room, and tried throwing a bunch of anti-mana into the area, to see if the monster kept doing jumping jacks after all of the mana in its area was purged. Even after Alice removed any traces of the mana-strings of belief from the area, the monster returned to doing jumping jacks once it had enough mana to start functioning again.


    In other words, beliefs permanently altered things. They would not return to normal once the presence of mana was removed from the area ¨C anything that was changed by mana would remain changed. This presented a bit of a headache for Alice, since she had been kind of hoping that the warped swamps and forests of the continent, messed up monsters, and manaborn would return to normal if she fixed the System. Sadly, it looked like that wasn¡¯t likely to happen, unless she was missing something.


    Alice spent a while trying to figure out how to scrub people¡¯s beliefs out of an area of reality, just to see if there was still an easy way to fix everything. Unfortunately, her attempts proved fruitless. She might find a solution later, but Alice suspected that what she was hoping for just didn¡¯t exist.


    The only thing Alice found herself thankful for after finishing up those tests was the fact that they had brought Jonathan¡¯s family along. Mimi, being rather young, was quite easy to trick for the purposes of Alice¡¯s ¡®belief-testing¡¯ experiments... although for most of those experiments, Alice had to get Jonathan¡¯s permission to lie to Mimi yet again.


    On the bright side, it seemed like Mimi got some sort of Achievement for helping out, although she clammed up when Alice asked her about it. Alice assumed it was probably some sort of benefit for assisting in her research, and decided not to ask any more about it. After all, it might have some sort of edge-case use in combat, and Alice didn¡¯t want to be rude.


    Eventually, Alice was pulled out of the quagmire of fruitless experiments when Ethan flew the ship into a town. This one was quite a bit larger than the village of Frostriver, and had a population of about ten thousand people, according to Alice¡¯s rough estimate. After the group touched down, it split into a few smaller groups. Ethan and Jonathan went to assess any horses that were available for purchase, to finally cut down on the frivolous use of Ethan¡¯s mana and attention. Allira started singing and chatting at the most popular tavern in town, in order to spread word about the ¡®Heart of the Swamp,¡¯ and how a few Illvarian Immortals had killed it and quelled the advance of the swamp.


    Cecilia decided to stick around and help maintain order while Alice did another healing session. There were far, far too many people in this town for Alice to heal everyone ¨C that was just an impossibility. However, she managed to fix up the people who were the most influenced by their mana before she bottomed out her mana reserves. It was nowhere near enough, and this time she didn¡¯t get quite enough done to get new System rewards ¨C however, it still felt good to help out. Alice suspected that she was close to her next level in [Legendary Organic Mage], at least.


    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Fine then. Let¡¯s go help the damn Fendrallians manage their monster crisis. Unless you object?¡± he asked, as he turned towards Allira.


    ¡°No, I¡¯m fine with helping out. I don¡¯t think we should wade directly into the thick of things, but as long as we sit near the edges of the battlefield I don¡¯t mind wiping out some monsters. Could build some goodwill with Fendrallia, and it does seem like that might be needed, with how Lady Alice¡¯s plans are shaping up,¡± she said.


    ¡°Entirely acceptable,¡± said Ethan. ¡°Let¡¯s lend a hand near the edge of the battlefield, and see how things go.¡±


    With that, the group sped up their gallop as they moved towards the capital. As they drew closer and closer, Alice started to see what Ethan and Allira had been talking about. The capital was a mess.


    It looked like the capital city had originally been divided into two sections ¨C the inner city and the outer city. Alice could barely see into the inner city, since it was blocked off by the wall surrounding the city. However, the outer city, oddly enough, had grown outside of the wall. Many portions of the outer city looked like they were made from poor materials, such as straw and bricks, and the construction was nearly as shoddy. Some of the houses didn¡¯t even have Perks to support them, which was an unusual sight in this world.


    The houses made of straw and mud bricks were, almost without exception, ruined. It looked like monsters had broken into them and eaten the inhabitants ¨C there were bloodstains and messy corpses strewn about everywhere in the outer city region, and the entire area was unusually low on mana. Monsters had eaten their fill there.


    However, while the outer city seemed nearly deserted, Alice still saw evidence of a few scattered groups of people managing to stay afloat in the area outside of the city walls. There weren¡¯t any signs of mana there ¨C but Alice could see doors that looked like they had been lock picked open, and windows that had been carefully propped open instead of broken into. If Alice had to guess, they had either been left behind before everyone died, or there were survivors with unusual classes that let them hide from monsters better.


    The inner city was still intact... for now. However, it was under siege. Some ant-based monsters were trying to climb over the walls, while simultaneously manipulating nearby stone to throw chunks of the wall at the defenders. Meanwhile, a swarm of vinebears was helping them out by causing moss and flowers to bloom in between the stones of the wall, weakening the mortar that had originally held the whole thing together.


    Defenders at the top of the wall were desperately trying to keep the situation under control by shooting down the ant monsters and the vinebears with bows and kinetic projectiles, but some type of winged monster was harassing them with volleys of icy shrapnel. Meanwhile, Mages from inside of the city were trying to take out the flying monsters, with mixed success.


    To round out the picture, there were groups of people pouring cauldrons of hot substances onto the monsters at the base of the wall. At first, Alice thought that they were pouring boiling oil onto the monsters, but quickly realized that they weren¡¯t using oil. Of course, on further reflection, Alice also realized that people pouring boiling oil onto an invading monster or army was so utterly ridiculous that it made no sense at all. Oil was expensive. Who would be dumb enough to pour boiling oil onto invaders? That was almost as logical as pouring boiling gold onto them ¨C there were many, many better substances to use.


    Instead, the defenders were pouring what seemed to be hot sand and boiling water onto the invading monsters.


    The pourers were wearing considerably less sturdy armor than the [Archers] and the Mages, and Alice could see some of them using Perks to heat up water and keep the wall from collapsing under its own weight. They were clearly civilians, such as [Cooks] and [Masons], who had been dragged to the walls once things got bad.


    The Mages were wearing solid steel armor, and the [Archers] looked to be wearing iron or steel as well. Meanwhile, the pourers were usually wearing armor that was half-put together and half regular clothing, or wearing thick, padded cloth. It looked more like the kind of clothing that could help someone avoid being burned while carrying something hot, rather than proper armor to protect them from dying on the battlefield. For the drafted civilians to be wearing this into battle made Alice realize just how bad things really were.


    Alice grimaced as the group crept closer to the city under siege.


    It wasn¡¯t long before the monsters spotted them. When some of the vinebears near the edge of the battlefield spotted them, the greedy eyes of the bears lit up. The creatures seemed to grow in size, as Alice felt the barest trace of fear start to settle in her bones ¨C before she immediately flooded the area with a little bit of anti-magic mana, totally shutting off the magical component of the anxiety and fear that had just started to slither its way into her mind.


    Ethan snorted, and before Allira could do anything, he sent a spray of wooden debris into the clump of Vinebears. They went down in a swathe of gurgling, dying monsters, and Ethan stepped over their corpses and into the edge of the battlefield.


    Alice swallowed nervously, before she followed suit.

 Chapter 185

    Chapter 185


    It wasn¡¯t long before the rest of the monster horde still noticed their presence. The stone-controlling ants paid no heed to them ¨C they continued swarming the wall, where the defenders desperately tried to fight them off. The nearest Vinebears proved to be the most immediate threat. Several of them broken off from the wall entirely, and whirled towards the group with hungry expressions.


    Allira started singing of a lost city, and of rocks that fell from the sky as an army ruined everything bright and happy in the world. The air around them rippled, and buildings and corpses started to appear in the midst of the battlefield. Children and adults huddled in broken buildings, as Sigmusi Mages rained death upon the town from outside the walls.


    The vinebears seemed stunned by the disappearance of the natural plant life in the area ¨C and much to Alice¡¯s surprise, some of the started to retreat. This wasn¡¯t behavior that she was used to. Most monsters simply charged until they were dead.


    For a moment, Alice was relieved. If the monsters started fleeing from this battlefield, it would be a good enough outcome. The city would be saved, and the group would be free to continue on their journey. However, it only took a few moments for her to realize she had been too optimistic.


    The Vinebears were fleeing from the battlefield. They were just regrouping. The Vinebears had clearly realized that Allira¡¯s illusion nullified their strongest weapon, so they were trying to find a way to get their advantage back. A moment later, the first Vinebear awkwardly clambered over to one of the non-illusory ruined houses.


    Then, as if it were an Olympic champion winding up, it grabbed one of the rocks and awkwardly threw it at the group. A moment later, one of Ethan¡¯s shrapnel pieces ripped through its throat, killing it instantly.


    Alice resisted the urge to swear.


    The damn creatures hadn¡¯t even used a Perk, but they had somehow figured out a way to counter Allira¡¯s illusions.


    Luckily, it meant almost nothing to the group. The moment the rock was close enough, Alice reached out with a magic tendril and stopped the rock. It was surprisingly difficult ¨C while bears didn¡¯t have thumbs, making their grip on the stones awkward, their limbs had an awful lot of power behind them. That meant she needed to sink a lot of mana into the rock to stop its motion again. Alice also noticed a small cluster of moss on the side of the rock that felt oddly... sticky.


    It must have been how the bear-liked monster had managed to throw it in the first place.


    Alice grimaced as she thought of how much smarter and more dangerous monsters were getting. It was all because they were so intelligent now.


    Intelligent... Alice blinked, and then took a closer look at the Vinebears. Were the vinebears themselves intelligent, or were the alpha monsters the only ones that were more intelligent than usual? If it was the Vinebear alpha that was more intelligent, perhaps there was something she could do about this...


    A few weeks ago, she had watched a monstrous glimmerspren evolve from a regular monster into a monster alpha. During that time, it looked almost as if the monster had formed a sort of... paired enchantment between the monster alpha and all nearby glimmerspren.


    Alice had also spent several hours on Allira¡¯s conjured ships, analyzing the ¡®strings¡¯ of mana that seemed to connect monsters to other monsters.


    How had she... never connected the dots before? They didn¡¯t quite look the same, sure... but at the end of the day, both types of mana connection were fundamentally ¡®connections¡¯ formed by mana. They might not be exactly the same, but Alice would be shocked if there was no similarity at all in how both types of connection were constructed. In fact, it was obvious that she should have been analyzing the similarities and differences between both types of connection.


    Alice grinned as she realized she might have a much better way to contribute to this fight. If monsters were more dangerous because the alpha was intelligent, the solution was simple. Cut off the connection between the monsters and the alphas.


    Alice used {Dimensional Camouflage} in tandem with three of her magic tendrils, to maximize the range and coverage she could manage with her anti-magic mana. Each portal was positioned right next to the vinebears, but thanks to {Dimensional Camouflage}, she didn¡¯t need to worry about getting counterattacked through the portals. Then, Alice stuck her mana tendrils through the portals she had opened. Once the tips of her mana tendrils were as far away from her portals as she could get them, she started flooding the battlefield with anti-magic mana.


    The vinebears near her targeted area lost any semblance of cohesion and intelligence. They seemed almost like they had gone crazy ¨C they started desperately running in different directions, trying and failing to use their magic on Allira¡¯s illusory city, and a few of them simply charged the group again. They had a strange appearance ¨C as if they were truly desperate to escape the area.


    Alice remembered that monsters usually suffocated in minutes if they were cut off from mana. It was similar to an army suddenly lost contact with their commander, and at the same time they started suffocating. Panic was natural.


    This tactic... was surprisingly effective.


    Some of the Vinebears pounced towards the group, trying to rend their flesh from their bones, and Ethan killed them all with a spray of shrapnel. Many of the other panicking Vinebears were drawn over to the area, and Ethan quickly finished them off. Now that their commander wasn¡¯t feeding them hints and commands, the creatures were like headless flies. They were still dangerous, but nowhere near as threatening as before.


    Alice was somewhat satisfied with the result, but she quickly noticed another problem. This tactic required flooding an area with anti-magic mana, and Alice didn¡¯t have that much anti-magic mana to spare. With 171 Magic stat, 192% Stat effectiveness, and 40% mana conversion ratio, she had about 131 Mariums of anti-magic mana available to her. Not a terrible amount, but not enough that she could just flood the battlefield like this and hope for the best. Just to break down the intelligence and strength of about fifty vinebears, she had spent nearly thirty Mariums. At this rate, she would run out of mana long before she made a noticeable impact on the battlefield. Not to mention, Ethan was a terror on the battlefield already ¨C most of the things Alice had done so far, Ethan could have managed on his own anyway.


    Alice glanced towards the front of the group, where Ethan and Jonathan had blocked off a different group of vinebears and swiftly eradicated them.


    Also, Alice noticed that Jonathan was surprisingly effective in combat, despite how much he had downplayed his combat abilities when they first met. He had none of the grace of a proper [Swordsman], but he had sheer [Strength] and [Endurance]. Alice suspected that the man would seriously struggle against some types of enemies ¨C fast, nimble opponents could probably dance circles around him. People with ranged attacks probably wouldn¡¯t have a hard time dealing with him either, as long as they stayed out of range and whittled him down. However, when it came to these Vinebears, after Allira had stripped away their most direct combat magic?


    The man could almost ignore the scratches and bites of the monsters, and each wild haymaker punch was enough to shatter Vinebear bones like they were brittle glass. Even if his aim could use some work, he still killed a good number of vinebears within two or three punches, and each punch left vinebears reeling.


    With three Immortals, the vinebears had almost no chance to turn the battle around. The ones still under the command of their alpha retreated, while the ones who got caught by the group were eradicated in seconds.


    She could understand that... but she wasn¡¯t happy about it. The idea of leaving the city to die if the defenders failed didn¡¯t sit right with her. She wanted the people of this city to survive while she searched for a final solution to this world¡¯s problems.


    She turned back towards the approaching army of monsters. Above them, ice birds soared through the skies like kites in the wind, preparing to unleash frozen hell upon the group. Vinebears tramped through the illusory city of Allira¡¯s creation, their vine control magic weakened but their massive forms still providing cover for their allies. Stone-manipulating ants strolled towards the group like death on six legs.


    And then Alice seized upon a new idea. Something that might actually let her help. She wasn¡¯t sure if it would work or not... but it was her best idea.


    Anti-magic mana was useful, but it chewed through her mana reserves too quickly. But a big part of her anti-magic mana was wasted. After all, she was flooding an area with anti-magic mana ¨C that meant that a lot of the anti-magic mana just ended up floating around in midair, not hitting anything important.


    There were far too many monsters for Alice to target each individual monster with anti-magic mana and sever their connection to their alpha. That was totally unrealistic.


    But what Alice did have was Communication mana. Mana that, when used in the System, was capable of making other types of mana ¡®share information¡¯ with each other. And pure mana, which seemed like it was capable of manipulating other types of mana, at least to some extent.


    Maybe... it was possible to make her anti-magic mana itself find the targets she wanted to hit?


    Alice closed her eyes, and tried to push the invading monsters out of her thoughts. Ethan could keep her safe for a few seconds, or even a few minutes. She couldn¡¯t just stand around with her eyes closed forever, but she had time to concentrate, at least.


    Then, she put three magic tendrils in front of her face, and started to experiment. What she wanted was simple ¨C she wanted to use communication mana and pure mana to create a sort of ¡®monster-seeking¡¯ missile. This missile would be composed of anti-magic mana, and would hopefully only target the connection between monster alphas and their subordinates. If she succeeded, she would have a way to seriously weaken most of the approaching monsters, and with any luck, they might start fighting each other instead of the group. After all, monsters working together was a very new thing, and only happened with monster alphas were controlling their subordinates. Alice suspected that cooperation would fall apart the moment the alphas lost control of their minions.


    She activated {Speed Experimentation}, since this was one of the few scenarios where it was incredibly useful. Instantly, Alice felt time start to pass more quickly for her compared to her surroundings. She paid all of the mana out of her half-build System seed ¨C she had a mana conversion ratio of 182% for that seed. It was far more mana than she needed right now.


    Then, she started rapidly assembling and disassembling different types of ¡®anti-magic homing bullets.¡¯


    At first, the anti-magic mana simply outright deleted the pure mana during her attempts to make everything work. It was as if the communication mana were an unwelcome visitor being kicked out by security.


    But Alice kept trying. After a few failed experiments, she started creating ¡®communication-disrupting projectiles¡¯ that had multiple layers to them. One layer of mana was made of anti-magic mana, and the other was made of communication mana and pure mana. The pure mana ¡®commanded¡¯ the entire projectile, sort of like a homing device, while the communication mana relayed information between the pure mana and anti-magic mana. It wasn¡¯t perfect ¨C the anti-magic mana still ate through the communication mana, so each projectile would break down after about five seconds.


    Alice tossed in some math mana, and tossed in a few more specific ¡®targeting¡¯ specifications. It wasn¡¯t perfect, since she wasn¡¯t as familiar with math mana as she wished she were ¨C but it was at least good enough to clearly define targets. Alice quickly ¡®programmed¡¯ in roughly what a monster core looked like. It was a bit of a mess ¨C but it was good enough.


    Alice held her breath, and then released her monster-core seeking anti-magic bullet.


    The little speck of mana lazily sailed away from her face, before it locked onto the nearest vinebear. In a flash, it sped towards the creature, and then burst into a small cloud of anti-magic mana a few meters in front of its face.


    Alice winced.


    The projectile hadn¡¯t quite made it before it imploded.


    However, she was on the right path.


    Alice spent the next few minutes refining her idea, trying to make the whole mess more stable, while the three Immortals and the others kept the monsters off of her. Until, finally, on her sixteenth try, another communication-sealing bullet flew out of her hands and hit a Vinebear.


    This time, the missile worked as intended. Right after the anti-magic mana reached the creature, it found the little part of the monster core that resembled a dual-enchantment, and then it simply... sealed it off.


    The vinebear froze, as if it had been struck by lightning. It raised its eyes towards a nearby stone ant, its expression still radiating confusion... and then it sank its teeth into its fellow monster.


    The stone ant reeled back in shock, before it ripped a cobblestone out of the ground with its stone manipulation magic and then crushed the vinebears skull. It didn¡¯t seem to think much about the odd incident, perhaps because it had realized Alice had done something to the vinebear first.


    But even though it didn¡¯t cause a sudden collapse of the monster alliance, Alice still grinned.


    It had worked.

 Chapter 186

    Chapter 186


    The next few minutes were a slog. Every single ¡®communication disruption¡¯ bullet took a huge amount of effort to make. She was getting faster every time she did it, because she was getting used to the way the different types of mana needed to feed into each other... but it was a very concentration-intensive process that made Alice wonder if this was really the most efficient use of her time. After creating her third, Alice was starting to question if she was having a big impact on the battlefield at all.


    The biggest benefit of her ¡®disruption bullets,¡¯ as far as she could tell, was that it created infighting in the monstrous horde. The monsters acting as an organized army created a big problem for the humans trying to fend them off. However, this wasn¡¯t the ¡®natural¡¯ state of affairs for monsters. In normal cases, monsters just attacked anything with mana ¨C including other monsters. If Alice could create widespread chaos, making all of the monsters attack each other, that probably would have ended the siege of monsters in a single attack.


    But she couldn¡¯t do that. Maybe it was possible, but it definitely wasn¡¯t something she could accomplish right now. Right now, it took Alice almost ten seconds to craft a single disruption bullet.


    Despite her worries, she kept working at it... and started to worry less as she observed the effects of her actions. She started to realize that she wasn¡¯t just disrupting a monster or two. With the help of Ethan, Allira, and Jonathan, their group was already firmly wedged at the edge of the battlefield, taking pressure off of the defenders. With the help of Alice¡¯s disruption bullets, if she aimed them at the right monsters, she could create small areas of disorder at exactly the right times in the monster horde. Perhaps more importantly... she could also target dangerous monsters. Specifically, those that had assimilated some System mana and had started creating Perks.


    Alice had a massive number of advantages when it came to identifying some types of mana. She had a ridiculous number of Perks and Achievements dedicated explicitly to helping her identify magic abnormalities, after all. This made it easier for Alice to identify potential threats. Then, she could turn those problems into wildcards that attacked their allies.


    After she started targeting Perk-wielding monsters, she started to really notice how impactful her actions were. The disruption a monster¡¯s Perk could provide was much greater than simply killing a monster. Many monsters had more passive Perks, which meant that they didn¡¯t display an overwhelming difference between them and their monstrous kin. However, there were also a good number of Monsters with active Perks, where they had some sort of major upside in exchange for a long cooldown. If Alice managed to get those monsters to turn on the others, and the monster¡¯s Perk wasn¡¯t on cooldown, the entire battle formation of monsters in the area would get thrown into chaos. It was an easy way to inflict the maximum amount of damage with the minimum amount of mana. She wasn¡¯t eliminating threats anywhere near as quickly as Ethan or Allira, but she was spending far less mana and Perks to do so.


    Alice started to lose herself in the flow of the fight, constantly sniping problematic monsters, and the group kept slowly moving forward as they cut down a larger and larger number of monsters.


    Until finally, the group arrived at the wall itself.


    Alice glanced at the defenders, and saw that most parts of the wall were still struggling to keep things completely under control. However, things hadn¡¯t reached a breaking point. More importantly, it seemed like the monsters were starting to run out of steam.


    While it hadn¡¯t originally occurred to her, Alice realized that monsters actually had a major shortcoming in protracted battles. Monsters were utterly reliant on magic to keep functioning as effective combatants... and magic didn¡¯t regenerate very quickly. They were enemies that could do a terrifying amount of damage quickly, but once they ran out of mana, the tables started to turn.


    The group¡¯s impact on the battlefield was also noticeable. The defenders on the wall nearest to them were actually having moments where they could take breaks, resupply things, and reinforce other sections of the wall. As Alice observed the rest of the wall, she smiled. The battle was winnable.


    ¡°@#*$()#@! @*#$(# @#*$(#@?¡± Called one of the defenders, from the top of the wall, startling Alice out of her thoughts.


    ¡°@#*$#@ @#(*$@#)(!# !@#()%#@$*(!¡± yelled Allira. ¡°But Illvarian would be better!¡±


    ¡°Illvarian?¡± asked the defender. ¡°I speak semi-fluently! I don¡¯t know some complicated words though. Thank you for assisting us! Who are you?¡±


    ¡°We are Immortal Ethan, Immortal Allira, and Immortal Jonathan. Allira and I should have been expected to pass by here sometime this month!¡± yelled Ethan, as he sent another wave of shrapnel into the nearby monsters. ¡°We¡¯re also bringing along my apprentice and one of her friends. We also picked up Immortal Jonathan along the way, as well as his family.¡±


    The man frowned, as if he was trying to scour his memory for any mention of their group, and his eyes settled on Jonathan for a particularly long period of time. It was rather unusual for a group of travelers to ¡®pick up¡¯ an Immortal. Finally, his eyes lit up.


    ¡°I remember now! A week ago, former [Commander] Hadlock mentioned an Illvarian Immortal might pass through our country, and that we needed to be alert. Sorry, with all of the chaos in the country, it has been hard to keep track of things recently.¡± The man tried to smile at the group, although he ended up looking more exhausted than happy. ¡°It¡¯s good to see friendly faces here. Especially Immortals! System knows that if there was ever a time we needed Immortals, it¡¯s now.¡±


    ¡°Former [Commander]?¡± asked Alice.


    ¡°He died yesterday fighting on the wall. I got promoted this morning.¡± The man grimaced. ¡°He was a good man.¡±


    Ethan frowned as he glanced at the monsters again. ¡°Sorry to hear that. Losing good people always feels bad.¡± He paused for a moment, giving the man a few seconds to school his expression back to normal. Then, Ethan continued. ¡°Any information you can share about the horde of monsters here?¡±


    ¡°Not much beyond what you can see. We first caught sight of them three days ago. They attacked two days ago. Luckily, they get just as tired as we do during a fight, if not more so. They usually break off the attack whenever about half of them are running low on mana. That way they can still retaliate if we try to take advantage of their exhaustion. We still try every night. So during daytime, they attack us, and during night time, we attack them.¡± The man grimaced. ¡°The last few days have been hell, Honored Immortals.¡±


    ¡°I can imagine,¡± said Ethan. ¡°The three of us, as well as our travelling companions, will hold down this corner of the battlefield. Is there anything your troops need that we could help with?¡±


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t suppose you can find the actual alphas and assassinate them?¡± asked the man.


    Allira laughed. ¡°If we could track them down and assassinate them, we would have done so already. They seem to be hidden behind their other monsters, and they¡¯re unlikely to be weak in combat themselves. We¡¯re Immortals, not miracle workers.¡±


    As the group stepped into the city, the [Commander] who had been communicating with them from the top of the wall ran over to them. His sides heaved unsteadily as he ran closer, until he arrived in front of them.


    ¡°Honored Immortals and their travelling companions. It¡¯s a pleasure to see you in the city, and...¡± he trailed off, and Alice got the distinct impression he was trying to remember what he was supposed to say. After pausing for an awkward period of silence, the man sighed, and rubbed his forehead. ¡°The [King] would like to see you. If you¡¯re interested in meeting him, he is available now. If you wish to rest for the day, you may instead see him tomorrow after breakfast.¡±


    ¡°Now is fine,¡± said Ethan.


    The group moved towards the palace. The first few times Alice had been inside of a palace, she had been a lot more interested and intimidated, but this time, she found herself feeling oddly tired. There wasn¡¯t much to Fendrallia¡¯s capital that she hadn¡¯t already seen elsewhere. The palace looked like it was styled after Illvaria¡¯s palace, but with a considerably lower budget and less skilled [Enchanters] and [Architects]. The enchantments were weaker and lower in quantity, the building was supported by less System mana, and the decorations were simpler in design.


    Alice found herself bemused by the fact that she was now comparing palace architecture between countries. Most people never entered even one palace, but Alice had now seen enough of them to start comparing them to each other.


    When the group met the [King], Alice realized that the other party was a balding man who seemed to be in his late forties. He had a somewhat dignified appearance, despite the light reflecting off of his bald head, and he had a firm look in his eyes.


    When the group entered, the man gave them a deep bow.


    ¡°Thank you for assisting the city during its siege, Immortals of Illvaria. You didn¡¯t have any obligation to help, but you did anyway. I appreciate that.¡±


    ¡°It was no problem. Helping other humans fend off monster swarms is natural during times of crisis,¡± said Ethan.


    The [King] simply sighed. ¡°I wish that I had more information, but... well, things have been complicated recently. May I ask how long you intend to stay?¡±


    Alice frowned. Why was the [King] asking how long the group could stay? That was an odd question. Based on the off-handed remarks Ethan had made while they travelled, the group was expected to stay a few days, at most, in each territory before moving on. Alice had honestly gotten the impression that Ethan intended to move on that night, or perhaps the next morning. The [King] had obviously communicated with them when he gave them permission to move through the country. Why was he...?


    He¡¯s hoping we¡¯ll stay longer, so that we¡¯ll work as a deterrent for the monster swarm, Alice realized, with a start. The [King] was hoping that the group would stay inside of his city and help him keep his subjects safe during this chaotic time.


    That made Alice think.


    The group needed to keep moving. If Alice was ever going to have any hope of defusing this crisis and fixing it at its root, she needed to have access to every scrap of teaching and information she could access. That meant getting to their original destination, so that she could learn how to make artificial magic seeds and thus finally learn how to make Class seeds.


    But on the other hand... was it right to tell a [King] no when he was asking them to help preserve the lives of his people? At the very least, it seemed incredibly cold to do so. Sure, Alice¡¯s actions might help save people later, and on a much larger scale ¨C but at the same time, leaving now might doom the current inhabitants of this city. That made the decision far less clear-cut than she would have liked. It wasn¡¯t a case with an obvious ¡®no,¡¯ the way it was for human experimentation. It also wasn¡¯t an obvious ¡®yes,¡¯ the way healing the village on the way to Fendrallia¡¯s capital had been. That had cost relatively little time, and the group had been preparing to rest for the night anyway.


    This was... ambiguous.


    Before Alice could continue to ponder the matter, however, Ethan sighed, and shook his head.


    ¡°My apologies, but we only intend to stay the night. We eliminated several hundred monsters already, and our mission is of utmost importance. However, we can fight again tomorrow as we¡¯re heading out, and we can carry messages to any other nearby cities. Do you have a message you wish to give?¡±


    The [King] hesitated for a few moments, as he looked at Ethan¡¯s face. It looked as if he was searching for a way to change Ethan¡¯s decision. However, he didn¡¯t seem to find what he was searching for.


    Finally, the [King] sighed. He looked disappointed, but he nodded his head.


    ¡°Very well. I will have someone deliver a message to you tomorrow morning, which I request you carry to the nearest city with a functioning garrison or military. Would that be possible?¡±


    ¡°Of course. After all, we¡¯re all still humans. While we need to keep going, our group can at least help while we move along.¡±


    Ethan smiled, while the [King]¡¯s forehead creased in worry. Less than a minute later, the group was dismissed from the palace to return to their inn for the night.

 Chapter 187

    Chapter 187


    The next morning, Alice¡¯s mana had regenerated enough for her to start doing things again. The first thing she did was filter all of her class mana, and then finally start looking through her System messages. She was no longer as exhausted as before, so it was a good time to pick new Perks and see what levels she had gained during the battle.


    You have leveled up!


    Scientist: 68 -> 70, Scholar 67 -> 68, Explorer of Magic 87 -> 88, Kinetic Manabinder 54 -> 57, Careful Enchanter 36 -> 38


    Her rewards for participating in the fight had been quite generous this time. Most likely, it was because Alice had experimented with different ways to use her mana during the fight, giving her a lot of experience points for all of her related classes. She didn¡¯t get a new Achievement, which was a little sad, but she was still happy with her progress during the fight. More importantly, she had two new Perks to choose. One for [Scientist] and one for [Kinetic Manabinder]. Alice scanned her Status Screen again, and fell into thought.


    If she had enough time, she might be able to get three new Perks, instead of two. [Legendary Organic Mage] was probably pretty close to level 10 by now, and she was very interested in seeing what Perks came out of that class. She was currently in the middle of a city, so it was certainly possible to find and heal injured people. She had recovered a good chunk of her mana while working on her Magic image at night, so she could spare a bit of mana to finish pushing the class to level 10.


    The other exciting thing to think about was the magic image she had been working on in [Magic Modelling]. She wasn¡¯t quite done with it yet, but she could probably finish it in three or four hours of work. In other words, as long as she didn¡¯t need to pay attention to the road as the group travelled, she would finish it today.


    Two new Perks, followed by finishing the next step in a research project, and also unlocking a third Perk. Today promised to be a very exciting day. After she finished scanning her improvements, she started looking through her [Scientist] Perks. The first thing to check was whether she wanted to combine Perks, or make a completely new Perk.


    {Mana Measurement} doesn¡¯t really need to be evolved into a new skill. It does exactly what it¡¯s supposed to. {Sample Collection} is basically just a storage Perk... but it¡¯s totally fine if it remains as a storage Perk. Having a portable inventory I can bring with me is far too convenient to give up. {Safety Analysis} is far too useful to give up. {Shared Memory}... isn¡¯t the most useful of Perks, but I still do get occasional use out of it. I wouldn¡¯t mind combining it with another Perk, but I am also not sure if it would impact my mental health. Being able to share my memories of Earth with Cecilia and chat with her does wonders for my mood. {Advanced Mana Measurement} is just an upgraded version of {Mana Measurement}, but I very much appreciate being able to measure mana near me. As for {For Science}, the Perk is far, far too useful to give up.


    Alice started scratching her head as she looked through her Perks.


    The problem with [Scientist] Perks was that she wasn¡¯t willing to give up any of them. Perk combination usually made Perks better, but they also usually changed some of how a Perk worked. At least for her [Scientist] Perks, she wasn¡¯t willing to give up her current ability repertoire. This wasn¡¯t a problem she had with most of her other Class Perks, since most Classes had at least a few Perks she ended up taking and then stopped using later on. But all of her [Scientist] Perks had remained relevant, making it difficult to combine any of them into anything.


    Eventually, Alice sighed, and decided to grab a new Perk instead.


    There were only two Perk options, which was a bit low, so Alice gave both of them a careful read before she made a choice.


    The first one was rather odd, but interesting.


    Experimental Duplication


    Requirements: Scientist level 70 or higher, Intelligence 150 or higher, Enchanter Class at level 35 or higher, Have experimented on at least 100 different types of material, have some interest in continued experiments on some form of physical object.


    You may spend mana to create copies of materials that you are currently experimenting on. This mana may be paid from any magic seed, but the closer the mana seed is to in concept to whatever you are trying to duplicate, the lower the mana cost. (Cost of created material is based on weight and magical compatibility of item ¨C items, such as iron that can hold dozens of enchantment-related instructions, costs far more per gram of matter than, ordinary iron).


    Note: creation of physical matter using mana is expensive! Proceed with caution!


    The Perk literally let her create matter out of mana. Considering the fact that Alice was still pretty sure mana obviated the laws of thermodynamics, that meant that she could theoretically create infinite matter. At least, if she had infinite time. Alice was more than a little amused by that idea, but at the same time, she suspected it wasn¡¯t that relevant to her current situation. She started trying to analyze the pros and cons of the Perk.


    The Perk had some risk to it, because Alice had no idea how expensive matter creation actually was. If it took thousands of Mariums to create one gram of ordinary physical matter, the Perk would be basically useless. Alice was getting up there in stats and mana total, but she was nowhere near someone like Ethan¡¯s total mana capacity. However, if the cost was even semi-reasonable, it gave Alice another way to address some of the material shortage problems that Illvaria had run into after the crisis started. For now, enchanting materials were being shipped north from Cyra, giving the country a source to draw System-enchantment materials from... but there was no guarantee that Cyra would remain stable and that the shipping line wouldn¡¯t be harmed. In addition, there was a distinct possibility that some sort of rare material might be involved in creating artificial magic seeds ¨C in which case, having a way to duplicate more might be a matter of life or death once Alice reached that point.


    Alice was actually pretty interested in the Perk when she thought of it like that, but it was also a very narrow use-case for a scenario that might not happen.


    The other one was even more odd, but also considerably more interesting.


    Experimental Magic


    Requirements: Scientist level 70 or higher, Intelligence 150 or higher, At least 3 different Primary Classes are magic-related and above level 30, Magic stat of 150 or higher, At least 3 Achievements of rarity 8 or greater


    You gain a magic seed which is ¡®experimental.¡¯ It is always at 100% mana conversion ratio, and this total cannot be influenced by any other Perks, Achievements, etc.


    After that, Alice started figuring out which Perks to exclude. {Overclock} boosted the speed at which she made enchantments, but that wasn¡¯t relevant to the quality of her work. It affected quantity far more. Right now, Alice wanted to focus on quality. {Kinetic Enchanting} was more of a way to buff whatever materials she was working on, rather than a direct boost to her enchanting, so it was also ignored. That left {Speed Analysis}, which let her do things with enchantments that weren¡¯t normally available to her, such as allowing her enchantments to detect velocity, and {Enhanced Focus}, which let her focus better while working on an enchantment. {Enhanced Focus} was more of a production speed boost than a quality boost... but since it also helped her focus while working, it was also sort of a quality boost, in a sense. After all, someone who was focused on their work made less mistakes and made better products.


    Alice thought about it for a few more minutes, to make sure she was happy with her choice, and then decided to use {Speed Analysis} as the second component of her new Perk. It just seemed to fit what she wanted much better.


    Speed Analysis


    Requirements: Kinetic Manabinder level 40, Intelligence 150 or Greater, Perception 100 or Greater, Great amount of time spent trying to manipulate object speeds using Enchantments


    You may attach an additional ¡®sensing¡¯ function to any Enchantments you make. This allows you to make objects sense how quickly or slowly an object is moving, and use this to trigger other, more conditional components of enchantments.


    Alice didn¡¯t hesitate for long before she combined the two Perks.


    Speed Analysis and Manipulation (Tier 2 Perk, level 55 Kinetic Manabinder) (Level 40 Kinetic Manabinder Perk + Level 5 Kinetic Manabinder Perk)


    Perk Costs: Speed Analysis + Mana¡¯s Binding


    All of your enchantments become slightly connected to the concept of ¡®kinetic energy.¡¯ This allows them do detect any kinetic energy in nearby objects and use that detection as trigger conditions for other parts of the Perk, or directly warp the kinetic energy of nearby objects.


    Alice blinked in surprise.


    That... was not quite what she had expected.


    Alice had been hoping that the Perk combination would somehow make her general enchanting abilities stronger, or perhaps add in a few more things that let her close the distance between her enchantments and the enchantments of an Immortal.


    Instead, her enchantments were now innately connected to the concept of ¡®kinetic energy,¡¯ apparently. Which was a term she had never seen before, and she had no idea what it actually meant. The System¡¯s description for her new Perk was less than helpful.


    Alice frowned, before she decided that if the System description was vague, she would just have to test it out herself.


    She left the inn and grabbed a few raw enchanting materials from a nearby enchanting shop, and then started tinkering with them. After some tinkering, she confirmed that it was now possible to do a few things that were interesting with her enchantments.


    Before, it had been somewhat difficult to make her enchantments sense the speed of other objects. Now, however, it was much, much easier to get the whole setup working. It also didn¡¯t cost any instruction slots anymore, meaning that she could add in far more detailed if/then statements into her enchantments without needing to improve the quality of her materials.


    However, that wasn¡¯t the interesting part. The interesting part was that some of the enchantments she could make were... different than before. Specifically, it was as the Perk noted ¨C her enchanted objects could now interfere with the way velocity worked... or at least, that was what Alice thought was happening.


    When she tried out an enchantment that slowed down objects in its area, rather than just spending mana to slow things down, it felt more like the enchantment created a small field of space where velocity itself was slowed down. Or something. Alice had a hard time putting it into more precise words than that, because it was hard to evaluate exactly what was happening. Alice wasn¡¯t even sure if this was better or worse than just targeting specific objects and then slowing them down by spending mana. She was, at least, intrigued by the change. She would need to experiment more to figure out how to actually use this ¨C or if there was any use for it at all.


    Eventually, Alice sighed and put it aside for now. Perhaps when she met the Immortal [Enchanter] she would have a better idea what to do with her new Perk. They were pretty close to their destination now, after all.


    After that, Alice found a few people in town and healed them up. She cured problems of both the class-mana variety, and more mundane injuries. By the time she was low on mana, Alice had gotten the other thing she was hoping for.


    You have leveled up!


    Legendary Organic Mage: 9 -> 10


    Alice grinned to herself. It was time to see what her new Perk did. And right after that, she would finally finish her second image of a mana gem, and she could start doing some comparisons.

 Chapter 188

    Chapter 188


    Alice started scanning through the list of Perks for [Legendary Organic Mage], and was pleasantly surprised.


    She hadn¡¯t been entirely sure what difference it would make that the class was ¡®legendary¡¯ compared to normal, but the Perks the class offered were pretty good. They weren¡¯t anything revolutionary for her current level... but then again, this was a level 5 Perk, and her best class was currently approaching level 90. At this point, most level 5 Perks she got were totally irrelevant, but the options here still offered her some utility. For a level 5 Perk, this could already be considered impressive.


    The first Perk had something rather unusual as part of its description.


    Legendary Efficiency


    Requirements: Legendary Organic Mage level 5 or higher, Intelligence 150 or higher, Magic 150 or higher, have a Class at least partially related to combat at level 50 or higher.


    When using Organic Magic for any purpose (including feeding it to Perks that transform mana into other effects), gain a 10% mana cost reduction (multiplicative with any other cost reduction effects). Any attempt to mobilize and manipulate Organic Magic also becomes 10% faster. Any internal injuries or problems that would result from healing people with organic magic are mildly reduced in size and severity. (This effect will not occur if you are deliberately trying to harm someone with organic magic).


    The second and last parts of the Perk weren¡¯t that unusual. Perks that made it easier to heal people were pretty normal, and Perks that made it faster and easier to manipulate organic mana also weren¡¯t that uncommon. If the Perk had only consisted of those two things, Alice wouldn¡¯t have found [Legendary Efficiency] to be a very interesting Perk.


    However, in addition to those two effects, the perk also had a mana cost reduction. This was an effect Alice had never seen before. There were plenty of Perks that made Alice use mana more efficiently, but they never actually reduced the cost of an action outright. They were just helping her make better use of any mana spent in the process of doing something. This didn¡¯t seem like it was improving her efficiency. It just... made her capable of doing the same thing, but with lower costs.


    At first glance, this might not seem that impressive, but when one actually thought about how energy conservation was supposed to work, it was obvious that this Perk was bizarre in a way that was hard to put into words. What if she got, say, twenty of these kinds of Perks? Even if all of them were multiplicative and not additive, that still meant that she might be paying something like 12% of the mana cost to do the same thing. By that time, she would be outright breaking people¡¯s understanding of how much one Marium of mana could accomplish. That was an incredible effect.


    Not to mention, this Perk also applied for Perks that converted her organic mana into completely different effects, such as her Perk that allowed her to convert mana into time dilation. Alice couldn¡¯t help but wonder what would happen if she just... stacked a bunch of similar effects together. Could she get things so low that, if she got another Perk like {Experimental Efficiency}, it would be practically free? The idea seemed far fetched, given how long it took to regenerate mana. But anything was possible if she got enough perks working together.


    Alice was already pretty happy with her first Perk, but her second Perk was even more interesting.


    Legendary Muscle Enhancement


    Requirements: Legendary Organic Mage level 5 or higher, have a class related to experimenting with mana at level 75 or higher, Magic stat 100 or higher, Have used magic in combat at least 10 times, have used weapons in combat at least 10 times


    You gain the ability to spend organic mana in order to perform a sort of ¡®muscle massage.¡¯ This will slowly, but permanently, enhance the strength of the target. (This will increase the Strength stat of the target. Higher stats mean that it¡¯s harder and takes longer to raise the same stat further).


    Healing Reserve


    Requirements: Legendary Organic Mage level 5 or higher, Intelligence greater than 150, have healed at least 30 people, have cured at least 5 different types of illness or injury


    You create a secondary energy storage, this one with no theoretical upper limit on how much mana can be contained. This secondary ¡®energy reserve¡¯ can ONLY store organic mana, and upon being stored in this ¡®energy reserve,¡¯ the energy will become far less malleable than ¡®normal¡¯ organic mana. It may only be used to heal others. Any attempt to misconstrue this ¡®healing¡¯ into a harmful form of ¡®healing¡¯ will simply fail, wasting the mana without accomplishing anything.


    May only store 250 Mariums of organic mana before it runs out of storage capacity.


    This one was a simple, no nonsense increase in the storage capacity of her organic magic seed. Specifically, it gave her an extra 250 Mariums of mana to work with. This mana would be incapable of doing many of the things that regular organic mana could do, such as enhancing muscles or harming enemies. In that sense, the Perk was incredibly limiting and unipressive. However, that was only when one didn¡¯t think carefully about it.


    Alice¡¯s organic magic seed had increased to 85% recently, as a result of [Scholar of Magic] still kicking in. Combined with her [Magic] stat of 171 and her Stat effectiveness of 192%, that meant her organic seed stored about 277 Mariums of Organic mana. This was with her unusually high Magic stat, and a stat effectiveness ordinary people could only dream of. Even if it wouldn¡¯t impact her regeneration, and the extra Mariums of mana would be very limited in what they could do... this was still nearly tripling her organic mana storage. In a weird way, it was almost like adding 100% mana conversion ratio to her organic seed, even though a good chunk of that mana would be limited in what it could do. For a level 5 Perk, that was absolutely insane. It was the kind of numbers that Alice would expect to see on a level 50 Perk, not something she got a level 5.


    Sure, the Perk didn¡¯t scale as well as a ¡®real¡¯ mana conversion ratio increase. After all, it wouldn¡¯t scale with her at all. Even if Alice managed to triple her [Magic] stat in the future, this Perk would still only give her 250 Mariums of storage. It also didn¡¯t increase her mana regeneration at all, unlike a real increase to her [Magic] stat. But that was a problem that would only matter in the far, far future. Even a monster like Ethan couldn¡¯t just treat two hundred and fifty Mariums of mana like nothing. He might not care that much about an increase of only 250 Mariums of storage... but it still gave Alice a number that even an Immortal would notice, albeit barely.


    Alice didn¡¯t hesitate for long before deciding what she wanted. {Legendary Muscle Enhancement} and {Legendary Efficiency} were both excellent Perks. They were so good that Alice wished she could take all three of them. But {Healing Reserve} was just too good to pass up. Any level 5 Perk that would give an Immortal a noticeable boost in strength was an excellent use of a Perk slot. So Alice grabbed {Healing Reserve}. A moment later, Alice felt a sort of... extra space open up inside of her mana core. It was attached to her organic seed, sort of like an inflatable sack of air.


    Alice spent a few moments feeling it out, before realizing she didn¡¯t need to ¡®do¡¯ anything with it. If her magic seed was full, her excess organic mana would just funnel itself into the extra space. Of course, Alice could also manually funnel her organic mana into the extra space, although she probably wouldn¡¯t bother most of the time.


    She did funnel a little bit of mana into it as a test, though. What she found was that the mana inside of the extra storage space was a bit... different than normal mana. She suspected that ¡®difference¡¯ was the reason that she could only use the organic mana in her extra storage for healing. It felt almost like the organic mana had turned into some strange hybrid of healing and organic mana. After inspecting it for a few more minutes, Alice shrugged, and stopped paying attention to it. The Perk worked as intended, and she didn¡¯t think she would learn how to do anything terribly interesting with the System by inspecting her new extra storage further.


    After that, Alice finally exited her room for good. She had done what she needed to for the day, and the group still wasn¡¯t ready to leave. So she got a meal from the [Innkeeper], and waited. Half an hour later, Jonathan¡¯s family was ready to go, so the group hopped back on their horses and left the city. Alice felt a bit nervous, as she wondered whether the nearby monsters would attack them ¨C but it seemed like the monsters had given up on attacking the city, or at least were waiting until the group moved on. She felt a weird mixture of thankfulness and disgust as she realized that the monsters might actually be waiting for them to leave. She didn¡¯t want to fight, but... not killing all of the monsters attacking this city felt wrong.


    However, Ethan¡¯s words also made sense. Showing some compassion and helping people was fine when it was within their abilities, and didn¡¯t take up too much time. However, delaying too long was also problematic, because it would weaken her ability to solve the crisis as a whole. Thus, they could only leave the rest of the monster swarm be for now, and hope the people here could hold out until other areas reinforced them.


    With that sliver of uneasiness and resignation in her mind, the group rode out of the city. They had nearly reached their destination.

 Chapter 189

    As the group rode forward, Alice went back to working on her mana gem. Her image of a fully functioning mana gem was nearly complete, and by her estimation, it would only take three or four hours before she totally finished it. Now that there was nothing else to do, Alice was eager to get to work.


    The next three and a half hours were spent in a daze, as she worked on the image of a mana gem contained inside of her mind. But once it was completed, Alice grinned. She had spent several days working on this image, and she was excited now that it was finally done. It was time to see what distinguished a broken mana gem from a working one!


    The first thing Alice noticed upon comparing the two images was that the working mana gem had incorporated her Alice mana in a rather odd way.


    Alice had already known that the mana gem in her brain was somehow intrinsically linked to Achievements. After all, every single one of her Achievements seemed to be stored in her mana gem, and using her Achievement to fix her mana gem had immediately restored all of her Achievements from working at 50% efficiency to 100%.


    It was also already obvious that a working mana gem did something with ¡®person¡¯ mana, the strange type of mana that appeared after someone reached level 75. After all, Alice mana had appeared inside of her body around that time, and had only disappeared completely once she used her Achievement to ¡®fix¡¯ her mana gem. After that, the mana gem had absorbed all of her Alice mana, and as far as she could tell, it had then disappeared completely from her body.


    However, the working mana gem hadn¡¯t just absorbed all of the Alice mana, nor had it simply tossed her Alice mana into a new facet of the mana gem, the way Alice had expected. Now that she could see all of the intricate details of her Alice mana via {Magic Modelling}, she could see several details that she had missed the first time she had looked into her fixed mana gem.


    Instead, it seemed almost like the Alice mana was core to the mana gem itself. It was as if there was now a resplendent little glowing core of mana in the center of her mana gem, as tiny as a star in the night sky, but dimly glowing as the rest of the mana gem orbited it.


    Alice frowned.


    The Alice mana in this image was very, very tiny. Without the ability to zoom in that {Magic Modelling} had, Alice would have had a very hard time seeing in. In fact, if she tried to use her regular types of vision and Perks to investigate her own mana gem, she still had a hard time seeing the Alice-mana core in her mana gem. However, it was clear as day when she zoomed in enough using {Magic Modelling}.


    Alice was very glad that she had taken {Mana Modelling} for this reason alone. It solved a lot of problems when it came to image resolution and zooming in and out of pictures she needed good copies of. However, that wasn¡¯t the only thing that caught her attention.


    Much more interesting was the connection between Alice mana and the rest of her mana gem. Not only did Alice mana look like it was working as some sort of mini-core for her mana gem, but it also had a lot of little threads of mana connecting it to the rest of her mana gem. Those threads strongly resembled the belief mana that Alice had analyzed while looking at Manaborn monsters. That implied that somehow, belief mana was connecting Alice-mana and the rest of the mana core.


    Alice had no idea what to make of that. It was information she didn¡¯t have enough context to actually do anything with. However... it did make her think about something.


    Alice mana was probably a form of belief mana. After all, Alice distinctly remembered that Alice mana tried to make her behave the way people expected her to behave. When Alice mana had a stronger influence on her personality, Alice had a strong urge to act in ways that sort of mimicked her own behavior, but totally lacked the internal context she had for her own actions. She felt a stronger urge to research things that didn¡¯t actually interest her, less desire to socialize, and a stronger urge to obsess over things.


    Belief mana made things behave the way people thought they should behave, even if that overrode physics or the laws of reality. Class mana was very similar ¨C if one had [Fisherman] mana and didn¡¯t have a Class seed to absorb it, they would behave more and more like a stereotypical [Fisherman]. They would lose any other aspects of their personality in the process, essentially becoming a walking stereotype with no actual personality or sense of self.


    All of these things behaved similarly.


    Alice had also realized, at an earlier point in time, that Achievements were inherently linked to beliefs. There was no other way to explain why her Achievement, {Immortal¡¯s Apprentice at the battle against the Society}, described her as a combat-oriented mage, even though she clearly wasn¡¯t. In fact, last time she had looked at her mana gem, she had theorized that Achievements were like a dumping ground, where the System tossed weird chunks of mana that it didn¡¯t know what to do with.


    Now, she realized that this theory was only part of the whole picture.


    Looking at the way the threads of belief mana connected Alice mana to the rest of the mana gem... it seemed almost like the mana gem was built exclusively to regulate beliefs and how they interacted with people. Alice noticed, after some further observation, that the mana gem in her brain was almost like a nexus of different people¡¯s beliefs about her. All of them were stored in slightly different ways, and all of them had slightly different forms... but they were all kind of the same thing. Achievements were a representation of people¡¯s beliefs about her, and so was Alice mana.


    Class seeds were similar. They were essentially built to absorb mana, which had people¡¯s beliefs mixed into it, and then turn those harmful forms of mana into something useful that didn¡¯t harm the host.


    Why was there a division between the two? What made a mana gem different from a Class gem?


    Alice started thinking about this question as she analyzed the images of mana gems, but it didn¡¯t take her long before she started to notice something. It was right in front of her, staring her in the eye.


    Standardization.


    Based on her understanding of the System, as well as what historical records Alice had of ¡®updates¡¯ the System had made over the centuries from back when she was scouring the academy library, the System added new Classes every so often. These Classes were probably built whenever enough people recognized the existence of a new ¡®job,¡¯ after which the System took those beliefs, standardized them, and created a new set of Perks to suit that Class¡¯s needs.


    The ¡®Achievements¡¯ section of the mana gem seemed to be a place to toss ¡®belief mana¡¯ that didn¡¯t have a ¡®job¡¯ associated with it. Or a place for belief mana that didn¡¯t quite match with the identity of a ¡®normal¡¯ user of a Class seed. For example, a healer that found the cure for an incurable disease, as compared to a regular healer. They were both healers, but people would still think more highly of the former, adding a certain ¡®distinction¡¯ to that person that set them apart without wholly changing their identity. That was probably how the System determined what was an Achievement versus more mana for class levels.


    Now that she looked at her mana gem, and then thought about how she had arrived here, it seemed abundantly obvious.


    Humans probably weren¡¯t native to this planet. Every single fact she knew about Natural Selection, biology, and probability stated that it was totally impossible for humanity to have been born here.


    Sometime in the distant past, a tribe or village of humans had probably been spirited away to this dimension, much like she was. That tribe had managed to survive and reproduce, and perhaps with the help of new interdimensional migrants, they had managed to scrape out some form of existence on this world ¨C fragile though it may have been. After that, for reasons Alice still didn¡¯t understand, the System popped into existence, and the ¡®golden age¡¯ for humanity in this world started. But humanity was probably not native to this place.


    Alice sighed, and put her thoughts aside for now. Today, she had made one interesting discovery, and had two new theories she wanted to verify. However, she had no good way to test her new guesses, so she would just have to keep an eye out for further clues and evidence for or against her guesses. The most important thing in science was to keep an open mind, and discard your hypotheses if it became obvious you were wrong. The hardest thing to do was admit one was incorrect and then improve, after all.


    After that, Alice returned to the image of her working mana gem. There was one other thing she had wanted to check, and now was the perfect time to do so.


    Alice knew that at least for a few seconds, right after using her Achievement to ¡®fix¡¯ her mana gem, her mana gem had somehow categorized and ¡®fixed¡¯ all of her Achievements. Alice was hoping that her image of a ¡®working¡¯ mana gem had captured this image ¨C if so, she might have a good idea how to fix Achievements manually, without relying on her Achievement to do it for her. So she started scouring the image of a working mana gem again.


    It took a lot more searching and analyzing, but after a while, Alice did find a little chunk of rainbow mana working on ¡®straightening out¡¯ one of the facets of her mana gem. Since every single facet of her mana gem was an Achievement, that meant one thing.


    Alice had, indeed, captured an image of the System ¡®at work¡¯ fixing an Achievement. She grinned.


    She spent several more minutes trying to figure out what the System was doing with her mana gem facet, and after some analysis, she came to a rough understanding of how the process worked. She wasn¡¯t sure if she could replicate it yet, but she was pretty sure she at least understood what was happening.


    In order to ¡®fix¡¯ an Achievement, it looked like she had to do more than just properly ¡®categorize¡¯ it. As far as she could tell, what the System was doing was some sort of... surgical alteration to the Achievement. This surgical alteration was done using a mixture of math mana, pure mana, filtration mana, and at least one other type of mana she was less familiar with. Somehow, these types of mana were straightening out the Achievement, turning it from a chunk of partially-controlled belief mana into something a bit more... standard? Controlled?


    Alice didn¡¯t have a good word for it, but it was obvious that something had been done to make the mana more controlled and stable. It wouldn¡¯t totally change the nature of the mana, but Alice suspected it would make it ¡®fit in¡¯ more with the other types of Achievements present in her mana gem.


    Alice frowned, and rubbed her chin thoughtfully.


    She still only had a rough idea what was going on, but she could sort of see what the process was going for. The System probably had some sort of ¡®standard framework¡¯ for how Achievements were supposed to work. The surgical alteration process was taking the Achievement and converting it from raw, unprocessed mana into something usable by making it fit that template. Alice still wasn¡¯t entirely sure what that template was, but if she kept analyzing her image of a working mana gem, she could probably make some guesses. From there, she would just need to do some trial and error to get a real idea what the System needed an Achievement to look like. Once that happened... Alice would finally be able to fix Achievements. She found herself smiling at the thought.


    The two components of the System she still couldn¡¯t fix were Achievements and Class seeds. Now, she had a glimpse of how to fix Achievements. There was still work to be done, but she had a foot in the door.


    Sadly, there wasn¡¯t much she could do to experiment with Achievements here. She would have to wait until later before she tried messing with Achievements more. Instead, Alice pulled herself out of the mental images created by her Perks, and turned her attention towards Ethan.


    ¡°Ethan... do you mind if I take a look at your mana gem later,¡± asked Alice, after signaling for him to move closer and dropping her voice to a whisper.


    Ethan quickly set up his privacy Perk, and then gave Alice a glance. ¡°Did you finally finish looking at your own mana gem, in both a working and broken condition?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I did,¡± said Alice. ¡°Do you want to see?¡±


    Ethan nodded, so Alice used {Shared Memory} to give Ethan a full view of what she had looked at during her use of {Magic Modelling}. She spent several minutes going over the two images, as well as explaining her own guesses about the origins of humanity on this world, the nature of ¡®person¡¯ mana, and what she had found out about Achievements so far. After listening to her theories, Ethan nodded.


    ¡°What you say about the origins of humans in this dimension is very speculative. I¡¯m not familiar with ¡®natural selection,¡¯ as you put it... but I can understand the logic behind it. Honestly, though? I¡¯m not sure if it matters much. Even if humans all originally come from Earth, as you theorize, we live here now.¡± Ethan shrugged. ¡°But I think you might be on to something with the nature and importance of mana gems and ¡®person¡¯ mana.¡± Ethan looked a bit nervous. ¡°If so, reaching Immortality will be harder for you...¡± then he relaxed, and actually laughed. ¡°But I suppose it¡¯s lucky that my apprentice this time is perhaps the only person who can solve this problem. If I were to place an issue like this in front of Sujia, she would definitely struggle to fix it even if she had an extra two centuries to work with.¡± Ethan grinned. ¡°As for Achievements, it seems like you¡¯ll need access to people who have dysfunctional Achievements so that you can start trying to find the ¡®template¡¯ the System uses for Achievements. I¡¯ll try to see if there¡¯s a way to get willing test subjects ¨C or see if there¡¯s a different way to get information without putting people at risk. We¡¯ll think about it later. But for now, keep your eyes on the road. We¡¯ve finally reached our destination.¡±


    Alice blinked in surprise as Ethan spoke, before she looked around.


    While she had been lost in her thoughts, the swamps and tundras had started to fade away. That meant that they had left Fendrallia. Perhaps a few hours of travel away, Alice could just make out the outline of another large city.


    After several weeks of travel, the group had finally arrived at Morendia, the homeland of Demor. And the place where Alice would hopefully learn to make proper Artifacts, and with that, learn to replicate class seeds and create enchantments that let people use critically useful Perks like {Broken Seed}.

 Chapter 190

    The lands of Morendia were rather similar to Fendrallia, if considerably less extreme. After all, Fendrallia bordered Morendia. However, Alice couldn¡¯t help but notice that the lands were a little bit warmer now. Even though her body was largely immune to moderate temperature differentials after the effects of all of her Perks and [Endurance] were layered together, she still appreciated the warmer temperature. At the very least, Cecilia and Jonathan¡¯s family would stop looking so miserable.


    The second thing Alice noticed was that, thankfully, the mana in this region wasn¡¯t overly dense. The mana in Fendrallia had been slightly denser than average ¨C although the mana density had also spiked considerably near the swamp that had grown all sorts of new dangers and characteristics after the collapse of the System.


    By contrast, Morendia actually had a marked decrease in the amount of mana inside of its borders. Unlike with climate and terrain, which had more of a gradual drop off the closer they got to the border, the difference between¡¯ Morendia¡¯s mana and Fendrallia¡¯s mana was very noticeable exactly on the border between the two countries. Alice used her mana-measuring Perks, and roughly estimated that five centimeters into Morendia, the mana dropped by about 20% compared to five centimeters past the border of Fendrallia. The mana was clearly ¡®ambient¡¯ mana, and didn¡¯t have any of the rainbow coloration associated with Perks and such... which made Alice feel curious.


    It was obviously unnatural for such a massive decrease in mana to happen in the span of a few centimeters of space. There was no way that geographical features would perfectly conform to political borders, unless the humans used those features to draw the borders in the first place. But Alice knew that Fendrallia and Morendia had lost and gained some ground in wars over the past few centuries. So why was the difference in mana so obvious?


    Alice suspected one of two reasons. First of all, Morendia or Fendrallia might have some sort of artifact interfering with the quantity of mana available in their surroundings. Morendia was already the known home of an Immortal specialized in enchantments, so it made perfect sense that they might have set up an artifact that consumed all of the country¡¯s excess mana to do something. They might have also intentionally lowered the quantity of mana for whatever reason ¨C maybe they were trying to make it harder to undergo a mana baptism, or they were trying to weaken the monsters in their borders.


    Second, it could be a perception thing. If, for whatever reason, people believed that Fendrallia had more mana available in it than Morendia, the collapse of the System might have created a runaway reaction where people¡¯s beliefs influenced reality, heightening the absurd mana quantities in Morendia, which then in turn made that reality more inherently obvious and ¡®correct.¡¯ This would lead to runaway inflation of mana quantity... or deflation, if people focused on how ¡®scarce¡¯ mana was in Morendia¡¯s borders.


    Alice wasn¡¯t sure which was true, or if there was a third option she hadn¡¯t thought of. Either way, the difference in mana was very noticeable. Alice was, at the very least, relieved that she probably wouldn¡¯t have to fight her way through another magically amplified swamp of doom. The first one had been surprisingly stressful for a party with three Immortals in it, and Alice wasn¡¯t eager to repeat the experience.


    ¡°Are there any cities we need to stop by on the way?¡± asked Alice, glancing around nervously. Even if there weren¡¯t any odd monster swarms or other problems here, that might not be the case for long.


    ¡°No, the capital of Morendia is right next to the border of Fendrallia,¡± said Ethan, grimacing. ¡°It used to be further away, but Morendia and Fendrallia got into a conflict about a century ago, and Morendia ended up losing a large chunk of territory.¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t Morendia have an Immortal [Enchanter]? I thought that would give them a rather large advantage in the war,¡± said Alice, frowning.


    Ethan shrugged. ¡°Immortals do influence wars, but as I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve heard before, Immortals are nowhere near the biggest influencers on a battlefield. If Morendia had the resources to constantly churn out more Artifacts, maybe it would be a different story... but no country has the resources for that.¡±


    Alice felt the urge to knead her forehead in worry. Did Artifacts require highly expensive materials to make? If so, that might be a problem exclusive to artifacts... or it might be a problem that would influence the production of Class seeds. Alice wasn¡¯t quite sure which was going to be the case, but she seriously hoped it was the former. If not, she was about to need to finally visit a [Priest of the System] and swap around her Perks, and go back to take that matter creation Perk she had passed over. Alice was hoping it wouldn¡¯t come to that, but if she got desperate, the option was there.


    Alice sighed, and tried to put the worry out of her mind. The System clearly didn¡¯t have an endless supply of rare, highly valuable materials laying around. The very notion that the System somehow used a nigh-infinite number of rare, expensive materials to make class seeds for every human alive seemed... implausible. So there must be some way to do it without an infinite supply of expensive materials. The question was how... and whether it was realistic for Alice to replicate it in a reasonable timeframe, given how absurdly complex most functions of the System seemed to be.


    Alice sighed, and put her worries out of her mind. Then, another thought crossed her mind.


    ¡°Are there still problems between Fendrallia and Morendia? If so, the Immortal we¡¯re seeking might make problems for us if we helped Fendrallia with the monster swarm situation. Also, we did promise to deliver their request for reinforcements to a nearby town...¡± said Alice.


    ¡°Relax. Morendia and Fendrallia had issues a century ago, but about thirty years ago they made up. They have a new powerful competitor to the south that threatens both of them, so both nations put aside their differences.¡± Ethan chuckled. ¡°To the south they are now bordered by Conderria. That country had two Immortals pop up at nearly the same time. They were childhood friends. One of them is an excellent [Drill Master] who trains soldiers, and the other is a [Bowyer] who makes exceptional quality bows and arrows. With both of them aiding the military, Conderria has become a fairly powerful ¨C if overly militarized ¨C country. Their [Archers], in particular, are nothing to sneeze at.¡± Alice relaxed. As long as the two sides had solved their issues, other internal politics within the Shil Confederacy didn¡¯t concern her. As long as it didn¡¯t get in her way, she was much more worried about the System crisis than who invaded who a century ago. She breathed a sigh of relief as the group continued to approach the town. Finally, they reached the gates.


    Just like many of the other cities, there was a constant stream of refugees trickling towards the town. Alice had seen enough other refugees to know the signs by now. Many of them were overburdened by class mana, and many others had injuries that were likely inflicted by monsters as they fled their villages. It was a depressing sight, and it once again reminded Alice of the stark reality of the world right now.


    ¡°Nice to meet you. Are you Demor?¡± asked Alice.


    ¡°My name is indeed Demor,¡± he said, extending his hand for Alice to shake. ¡±You don¡¯t look like much physically, so I guess you aren¡¯t a [Swordsman], or anything of the sort. I guess that¡¯s to be expected from Ethan¡¯s apprentices. Most of you tend to be spellcasters of some sort or another. Still, your physical stats seem a bit low, even for a Mage. At least for a potential Immortal, they¡¯re rather unimpressive. Even a magic-focused Immortal should have decent [Endurance], but you don¡¯t look like yours is very impressive. You look like you¡¯re wearing some of Doll¡¯s armor, too.¡± The man scoffed at Ethan. ¡°What, did you just have Doll throw as many points of [Endurance] as she could onto the armor and call it a day?¡±


    Ethan rolled his eyes. ¡°That was, indeed, the idea. I would like my apprentice to live to Immortality. It¡¯s not like she¡¯s combat oriented anyway. All she really needs to do is handle small fries and live until I can rescue her. Once she reaches Immortality, the stat bonuses and other boosts from Immortality will make her harder to kill anyway. She might not be an impressive fighter, but she isn¡¯t bad, either. She¡¯s doing fine for her age and level.¡±


    ¡°Real Immortals don¡¯t grow like that, Ethan.¡± Demor gave Ethan a wide, toothy grin. ¡°Even Allira can tell you about that, can¡¯t she? She had a rather violent and brutal ascension to Immortality, and if she had remained a mere [Bard] who sang at the local tavern, she would never have properly ascended. How many people did she kill during her path? Hundreds? Thousands? A Class built around providing beauty and happiness was twisted into a nightmare that drowned battlefields in illusions and shadows. That is how an Immortal is born.¡± He cackled. ¡°Why, even as an Immortal, I can pull off feats that can turn around smaller battlefields.¡±


    Alice saw Allira¡¯s fists ball up, as if she were about to punch Demor. A flash of rage passed through Allira¡¯s eyes, and for a very brief moment, Alice felt scared of Allira.


    Then, the moment passed.


    Allira snorted.


    ¡°Cut the shit, Demor. We¡¯re here to ask you to help her learn enchanting. We already mentioned that in the letter. Help. Or don¡¯t.¡± Allira rolled her eyes. ¡°And there are plenty of noncombat Immortals. Just look at the central continent. Half of the Immortals there can barely fight off the average level 70 [Assassin]. They seem to be doing just fine.¡±


    ¡°Those knockoff Immortals never really live forever anyway,¡± said Demor, rolling his eyes. ¡°If an Immortal can¡¯t even fight off a level 70 [Assassin], they aren¡¯t going to live a very long life. Immortals are just too valuable to countries, especially production and research oriented Immortals. If an Immortal can¡¯t defend themselves, someday, a rival nation will kill them to protect their own country. If an Immortal wants to enjoy their Immortality, they must be able to fight.¡± Then, the man sighed. ¡°But I digress. I suppose it isn¡¯t my place to lecture you about how to raise your apprentice, even if I find your actions short sighted.¡± Then, he turned towards Alice. ¡°You came here to learn about Artifacts, yes?¡±


    Alice hesitated. This man... wasn¡¯t quite what she expected. Alice would be lying if she said she had the best impression of him after his little speech, as well. Demor wasn¡¯t quite what she had been thinking of when she had heard of an Immortal specialized in enchantments. Even though Ethan had encouraged her to pick up some self-defense abilities, he had never gone anywhere near this far. But Alice pushed down her feelings. Regardless of her thoughts on Demor¡¯s personality, she was here to learn about Artifacts. Legendary items that would, hopefully, give her a clue about how to replicate Class seeds. She had wasted several weeks travelling. Time that she could have spent healing other people. Alice couldn¡¯t let all of that travel time go to waste. She needed to find a solution to the collapse of the System as quickly as possible.


    ¡°Yes. I¡¯m here to learn about Artifacts. You can make them?¡± asked Alice.


    ¡°Of course. An immortal [Enchanter] who can¡¯t make Artifacts is just a failed [Enchanter],¡± said Demor, before snorting. ¡°However, I suggest you give up. The only way to make an Artifact is to be an [Enchanter] who has reached Immortality. It isn¡¯t a matter of stats, or Perks, or anything of the sort... the Achievement that lets you step into Immortality as an [Enchanter] is, in and of itself, what grants you the ability to make Artifacts. Even ascending to Immortality with a different Class makes it very hard to learn how to make Artifacts, since you need to get a lot of replacement Achievements. I suppose it¡¯s theoretically possible to get the replacement Achievements before reaching Immortality... but probably only in theory. Studying artifacts will probably be a waste of time for you right now.¡±


    Alice frowned, before shrugging.


    In the first place, she wasn¡¯t actually here to learn how to make Artifacts. She just intended to use them as inspiration for making Class seeds. What did it matter if she couldn¡¯t make an Artifact after learning about them? That wasn¡¯t her actual goal anyway. She needed to learn how to make artificial magic seeds. That was a component of Artifact creation, but with any luck, it would be possible to learn artificial magic seed creation without the ¡®complete¡¯ artifact creation package.


    ¡°I just need to observe the process and try to learn something from it. There¡¯s some other information I want to get from observing the process itself. With any luck, I won¡¯t need to actually make artifacts,¡± said Alice. ¡°So failing to create them isn¡¯t a big deal. Hopefully, it won¡¯t matter too much.¡±


    Demor¡¯s eyes sparkled with curiosity. ¡°Is that so? Well, in that case, I¡¯m glad to help. Please, come in to my home.¡±

 Chapter 191

    The group made their way into Demor¡¯s manor. True to Ethan¡¯s words, many of the enchantments in the mansion seemed to be focused on containing things in the basement. Alice ignored those as Demor showed the group upstairs.


    ¡°There are some rooms available here for all of you,¡± he said, nodding at them. ¡°The two rooms closest to the stars are for Immortal Ethan and Allira ¨C I had time to prepare for your arrival, and since I know many of your hobbies, I set them up in advance. Allira, you will find a variety of instruments in the room with black paint.¡± Allira didn¡¯t say a word to Demor in response. It looked like she was still debating whether she wanted to punch him. Her facial expression had transitioned out of the near-murderous rage from earlier, but she still looked irritable. Demor ignored her irritable expression.


    ¡°Ethan, your room is the one with the dark green paint. I have procured a set of books you will likely find interesting, as well as some rather interesting enchanted items. If you try training your organic and kinetic magic with them, you will get some interesting results.¡± Immortal Demor grinned turned towards Jonathan. ¡°I was not aware that a third Immortal would be coming, so I apologize in not having a room set up for you. You¡¯re Immortal Jonathan, yes? Ruler of Superbia? I believe you specialize in farming?¡±


    Jonathan gazed at Demor, as if debating whether or not he actually wanted to answer. Finally, he nodded, although his expression looked slightly stiff. Alice realized that Demor¡¯s little speech hadn¡¯t exactly made Jonathan into a fanatical supporter of the man either. After all, Jonathan was practically the epitome of a non-combatant Immortal. The man basically only had raw stats to go off of when it came to a fight. He was capable of handling stray bandits or monsters, but not high level [Assassin].


    ¡°Well, if you wish, you may use my gardens as you wish. Please stay away from the potted plants, though. I have been trying to raise plants that grow monster cores as a type of fruit. I doubt that it will work, but leave them be anyway. As for your room, you may use the dark brown room at the end of this hallway for now. I will prepare something a bit more specialized for you later.¡± Allira glanced at the potted plants, and Alice found herself wondering if the potted plants in the hallway would soon find themselves ¡®accidentally¡¯ eaten by a giant shadowy maw. She also found herself more than a little curious about Demor¡¯s actions. Surely Demor wasn¡¯t dumb. He had reached Immortality, after all. It would be hard to reach Immortality if one was stupid. What did he gain from antagonizing Allira and possibly Jonathan like this? His actions were... odd. Or perhaps he simply had an abrasive personality, and that hadn¡¯t changed after he became an Immortal?


    Heedless of Alice¡¯s thoughts, Demor¡¯s voice continued ringing through the hall. ¡°As for the rest of you, I have not prepared specific rooms to suit your tastes, but you may choose from any of the other rooms in this hall. There are more than enough of them, and they will suit your needs well enough.¡± With that, Demor gave the group one final nod, before he turned towards Alice. ¡°As for you... you may contact me after dinner. I should be set up by then. I intend to show you the process of artifact creation, step by step. Please wait until after dinner, though. I am still in the midst of preparing a batch of materials that will be helpful for you. Dinner is already in the cookpot, and it will be done in an hour or two.¡±


    With that, the group broke up. Alice saw Allira deposit her things in her room, before almost immediately exiting again ¨C likely, she was off to hand over the request for aid that Fendrallia¡¯s capital had requested they deliver.


    Alice picked one of the other rooms in the hallway. Cecilia chose a room right next to her. Jonathan¡¯s family organized themselves into other rooms, although Alice noticed that the youngest girl, Mimi, didn¡¯t get a room of her own. Instead, Jonathan¡¯s wife dragged her into Jonathan¡¯s room, along with her own luggage.


    When Alice entered her own room, she didn¡¯t think much of it at first. It seemed just like an ordinary, if somewhat spacious, room. However, there was a certain... lack of abnormalities in the room. Every other room that Alice had slept in over the past year had clearly been under the influence of the System. There were always little signs of perks being used here and there. Corners that were too clean for ordinary human hands to have cleaned them. Beds that were a bit too comfortable for the materials they were made of. Other, subtle oddities that weren¡¯t obvious at first, but started to stick out like sore thumbs once one paid attention to them.


    For some reason, those little touches were absent in the room.


    In fact, she hadn¡¯t thought much about it before, but there was a distinct lack of... [Servants] in this manor. Which was something Alice wasn¡¯t that used to, at least when dealing with Immortals. The beds that she had seen all had a certain level of normalcy to them that beds in this world just didn¡¯t usually have. And yet, everything was still obviously clean and well-taken care of.


    How... odd. And concerning.


    Normally, Alice would have assumed that this was just a lifestyle choice from Demor. However, the mansion did seem a little bit unnerving in how quiet it was. Now, people¡¯s beliefs were also starting to shape reality. If things got a little out of hand...


    Alice¡¯s mind started spinning in circles as she wondered why Demor didn¡¯t hire any [Servants]. It obviously wasn¡¯t a money issue ¨C the man was an Immortal [Enchanter]. He could make money quite easily if he wanted to. The cost of hiring a few [Butlers] and [Maids] should be negligible to him. It also made her wonder who was making the soup. If Demor didn¡¯t have any other servants... did he have a [Chef]? That suddenly seemed less likely to her than before. If Demor didn¡¯t have a [Chef]... was he cooking the food himself?


    Alice found herself overwhelmed by a mix of curiosity and worry, so she went to Ethan¡¯s door and knocked on it.


    ¡°Come in.¡±


    Alice entered the room, and scanned it. It was a bit barebones, but there were a small pile of metal balls in one corner of the room. Alice wasn¡¯t quite sure what they did, but she could clearly see that they were enchanted. She wondered how Ethan was supposed to practice Organic magic with a pile of metal balls. Kinetic magic made sense, but... organic?


    Alice decided not to worry about it now. Instead, she wanted to know why such a large manor seemed to only be inhabited by one person.


    ¡°Alice. May I ask why you¡¯re here? I expected that you would either start doing some dream experimentation, or perhaps messing with the manaborn monsters again. Do you need something?¡±


    ¡°Why are there no [Servants] in the manor? I¡¯m just curious. It seems odd to me.¡±


    ¡°Ah. That¡¯s your question.¡± Ethan glanced around the room, before he shrugged. ¡°Honestly, I don¡¯t know either. I¡¯ve asked him the same question myself in the past, but he refused to answer. My best guess is that he¡¯s afraid of assassination. [Servants] in a manor can make life far more convenient and nicer, since the [Servant] class gets so many Perks that make cleaning and such more convenient. But [Servants] also introduce spots where a [Spy] or [Assassin] can slip in and kill you, or steal valuable information. If you don¡¯t have any [Servants] at all, that becomes more difficult.¡± Ethan sighed. ¡°I actually had an incident about two centuries ago where a [Spy] managed to steal several papers from my private lab.¡± Ethan chuckled. ¡°I always wondered why that [Spy] even bothered. I may be an Immortal, but I¡¯m not exactly focused on research. Do I even have research documents worth stealing? I mean, the spy must have thought that I had something worth targeting, but... I wonder how disappointed they were when they stole the documents. The employer must have been furious. Most of my research projects go nowhere.¡± Ethan chuckled at those words.


    ¡°Of course. I created many enchantments to feed myself before I became Immortal Ethan¡¯s apprentice.¡±


    ¡°Good. In that case, this is the biggest difference between Artifacts and regular enchantments. Artifacts do not need you to restock their fuel source. Do you see that giant glob of mana over there? That is the basis for an Artifact. It is also something that, as far as I know, only Immortals can create. Upon reaching Immortality with a focus as an [Enchanter], the System will always give you the ability to solidify mana and a special type of raw ingredient into one of the orbs you see before you. Without an Immortal Achievement, you cannot create these orbs of raw materials, and you also can¡¯t manipulate them very well. They resist the touch of non-Immortals. Without an Immortal Achievement, manipulating one of these glowing orbs is possible, but very difficult. Does that make sense?¡±


    Alice frowned at the glowing orb of mana as she nodded. She could see the problem, although she was still hoping that she could find a solution.


    Demor shrugged. ¡°This is what an Immortal [Enchanter] uses to create an artificial magic seed. It¡¯s essentially the replacement for monster cores. As long as you have one of these, you can create an artificial magic seed. Of course, one of these globs of mana isn¡¯t just created from mana alone ¨C as I mentioned, you also need a material that work as a sort of ¡®core¡¯ for the artificial seed. Otherwise, the whole thing falls apart before it finishes taking shape. However, the material can¡¯t be too stable, either. Interestingly enough, the final step of creating one of these artificial seeds is the destruction of the ¡®core¡¯ material. Once the mana is solidified enough, it starts to devour its origin material, until it becomes pure mana. This makes it much harder to get core materials, because if the material is too stable, the mana can¡¯t consume it.¡± Demor grimaced. ¡°And so you need to find a material that is stable enough to hold on to the shape of the pure mana, while also being unstable enough that the magic seed will absorb it later and create a finished product. Materials that hit these requirements are rare, which is why it¡¯s so difficult to create Artifacts.¡±


    Alice sighed. That... wasn¡¯t good news. However, it also raised the question she had already thought of. The System clearly wasn¡¯t using rare materials to create everyone¡¯s class seeds... so how was the System doing all of this? Alice strongly suspected that it wasn¡¯t by consuming rare materials. Most people had five primary classes, and a few random secondary classes. If the System needed 5-8 rare materials per human on this planet, there was no way it could ever keep up with consumption. There must be some trick that could sidestep this cost.


    Heedless of Alice¡¯s doubts, Demor continued with his lesson.


    ¡°Apart from that, Artificial magic seeds need to have specific shapes. I brought this vinebear over because I intend to create a healing artifact. Ethan said that¡¯s what you¡¯re looking into healing and the human body recently?¡± Demor shrugged. ¡°Vinebears only have control over plant life and the feeling of ¡®fear,¡¯ so they aren¡¯t really ideal for this kind of purpose. However, you aren¡¯t actually going to be using this monster as a material at all. I just want you to see how similar artificial seeds and monster cores are to each other, and that¡¯s easier with a live monster for comparison. All right?¡±


    Alice nodded again.


    ¡°Good. Finally, we have this sheet of metal. This is a type of material that you also need for creating an Artifact. You see, Artifacts usually do things far more complex than a regular enchantment. How does that work? As an [Enchanter], I¡¯m sure you¡¯re aware of how ¡®dumb¡¯ enchantments are. Anytime they hit something that isn¡¯t in their coding, they just... stop working. This type of metal is a solution to that. Most [Enchanters] call it a concept material. It started out its life as a relatively rare enchanting material. Specifically, it was able to hold eight instructions on its own ¨C which is pretty good. Then, an Immortal [Blacksmith] takes the material and processes it into ¡®concept-metal,¡¯ giving it much broader ability to respond to things. The way this works is... complicated, and I think it would be easier to just show you in practice. It¡¯s worth noting that metal isn¡¯t the only material that works for this purpose. The base material need to be able to hold 8 instructions or more, and then needs to be worked by a high level Craftsmen to turn it into a concept material. However, those are the only requirements. If you use plant fiber, animal products, metal... anything works. It just needs to hold 8 instructions and be worked by a high level craftsman.¡±


    Alice nodded thoughtfully.


    ¡°I see. Why eight?¡±


    ¡°With seven, the material breaks down during the final stages of processing, or so I¡¯m told. I admit, my [Blacksmith] level isn¡¯t quite high enough to interact with it myself. Yet.¡±


    Alice frowned. The requirements to make an Artifact were truly quite expensive and difficult to replicate. In that case... how was the System doing this?


    A few moments later, Alice had an idea. It was a questionable idea, but it was her first guess for how this might work.


    ¡°In that case, I have another question ¨C or perhaps an idea. Would it be possible to create an artifact that helps stabilize the ¡®mana globs¡¯ for other artifacts? Like... an artifact that helps optimize the process for creating artifacts? It sounds like the biggest problem with artifact creation is the creation of these large globs of pure mana. Is it possible to make an artifact that can substitute the ¡®core material¡¯ for these?¡±


    Demor blinked, and rubbed his chin.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so. I¡¯ve tried something similar a few times in the past, but I¡¯ve never had any degree of success. I¡¯m sure others have tried it before, but I¡¯ve never heard of anyone succeeding.¡±


    Alice drooped in disappointment. It did seem like a good idea, but perhaps she was thinking in directions that were too obvious. Naturally, Immortals would have tried all sorts of ways to overcome their material limitations. However, the System was cheating those same limits without problems. What did the System have that these Immortals didn¡¯t? Was it just System mana? Was there something special there that fixed this problem? Alice rubbed her forehead in thought, but couldn¡¯t come to a conclusion. She just didn¡¯t know enough about the artifact creation process to guess yet.


    Demor grinned. ¡°Naturally, I didn¡¯t bring you here just to show you the finished products. Ethan was pretty specific about emphasizing that you needed to see most of the parts of the Artifact creation process. So I plan to show you how I work all of these materials into a finished product, then I¡¯ll show you how the materials for an Artifact are made .Does that work for you?¡±


    Alice nodded.


    ¡°Good. Then let¡¯s start with the process of creating an artifact itself.¡± Demor picked up the materials, and with a relaxed grin, got to work.

 Chapter 192

    The process of squishing all of the materials into an artifact was... complicated.


    Alice watched in mute fascination as Demor started weaving together the three materials in front of her.


    Alice had always vaguely felt that enchanting resembled coding from her previous world. Most enchantments resembled if/then statements from a code. Of course, there were plenty of differences between writing a code in a computer and making an enchantment, but Alice had always felt that they were outweighed by the similarities.


    However, if creating an enchantment resembled the creation of a set of if/then statements, creating an Artifact was more like trying to create a human brain using metal instead of organic matter. Alice had assumed that Artifacts were nearly as rigid and ¡®dumb¡¯ as regular enchantments, but as she watched Demor work, she realized that wasn¡¯t the case.


    In fact, indications of this had already been right in front of her, she just hadn¡¯t connected the dots. In Illvaria, the Artifact that controlled the canals of Southern Illvaria was comprised of ten different artificial magic seeds. Based on Demor¡¯s description of how all of this worked, that meant that the Artifact had 10 mana globs and 10 ¡®concept materials.¡¯ In theory, that meant the Artifact could only have 10 if/then statements programmed into it. Demor had also mentioned that Artifacts often had supplementary materials in them... but even so, there was no way Illvaria¡¯s canal artifact ran off of if/then statements.


    The Artifact in Illvaria responded fairly intelligently to a wide range of scenarios. Based on historical records from the academy Library, Alice knew that the Artifact in Illvaria could handle most ¡®normal¡¯ disasters. If there was too much rainfall one year, the Artifact would handle some of the water and keep it from damaging towns. If there wasn¡¯t enough rainfall, the Artifact would add in some more water to supplement the lacking rainfall for the year. The Artifact also controlled water erosion, to keep new river channels from forming, and did dozens of other things to keep the canals stable. The Artifact did hundreds of different things... and it responded to each change in real-time, without any need for further input from users or further information.


    If every single one of those actions was broken down into if/then statements, how many instructions would that take? Tens of thousands? Millions? Alice had no idea, but she was sure that there was no way any material in this world could hold that many instructions. Materials that could hold eight instructions were already rarities. Finding a material that could hold millions of instructions would obviously be a pipe dream.


    So obviously, Artifacts worked differently. After watching Demor create an Artifact, Alice had a better idea how Artifacts sidestepped this problem.


    Artifacts didn¡¯t use ¡®if/then¡¯ statements at all. Or at least, not in the same way a regular enchantment did. Based on Demor¡¯s instructions and demonstration, Alice realized that Demor was essentially molding an Artifact into a concept. It was actually somewhat similar to the manaborn swamp the group had encountered on the way here. The Artifact had some sort of specific ¡®instruction,¡¯ and then it had a specific ¡®concept¡¯ that it followed. Alice suspected that the Artifact in Illvaria, for example had the instruction of ¡®maintain¡¯ or ¡®stabilize,¡¯ followed by an image of the canal network it was supposed to keep stable.


    This was surprising for Alice, because it also seemed to point directly at the ¡®true¡¯ nature of mana. Mana seemed to respond to people¡¯s beliefs and ideas, taking any idea that people ¡®believed¡¯ in and then turning that into a real, physical part of the world. The System operated off of a similar net of background operations. It took people¡¯s beliefs about what certain ¡®jobs¡¯ did for a living, and then made those into Classes, plus or minus several dozen details that Alice still needed to figure out. Artifacts also took a specific concept, and then turned that into reality.


    Of course, there were also differences between the way Artifacts interacted with the world and the true nature of mana. Artifacts didn¡¯t seem to interact with the belief mana in their surroundings at all.


    Instead, as Alice watched Demor weave the materials of his organic concept metal and the glob of pure mana together, she eventually realized where the Artifact was getting its ¡®concept¡¯ from. Instead of hooking up to the beliefs of everyone in the world, it looked like Demor was somehow infusing his beliefs into the artifact as he created it.


    Alice couldn¡¯t see exactly what was going on, but from what she could observe, Demor wasn¡¯t just adding mana and instructions to the Artifact as he created it. He was also tossing into some beliefs about what ¡®healing¡¯ was as he created the healing Artifact. This meant that rather than a bunch of tiny, if/then statements, there was a specific ¡®pattern¡¯ that the Artifact pulled from in order to figure out how it was supposed to behave. Alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure how ¡®specific¡¯ this pattern was. After all, Demor was the one creating the artifact, not her. However, Alice still found the perceived resemblance between AI and the Artifact to be interesting, since it seemed almost like the Artifact was creating an artificial version of Demor¡¯s brain to emulate his beliefs and use them to function.


    ¡°All right, that¡¯s the Artifact creation process in a nutshell,¡± said Demor, after a while. He looked at the massive glob of interwoven mana and dream metal, and smiled contentedly at it. ¡°It¡¯s a little bit faster than usual, because I¡¯m cutting some corners here. It¡¯s a pretty shoddy healing artifact, honestly. It can heal someone completely once a day, sort of like the second life most Immortals get. As far as Artifacts go, it¡¯s on the weaker end... but it¡¯s far from worthless.¡± He turned towards Alice. ¡°Are you learning anything from this?¡± Rather than sounding like a teacher, Demor sounded more curious. It was as if he didn¡¯t really think Alice would learn anything from watching, but was willing to be proven wrong.


    ¡°I learned a few things about the innate functions of an artifact,¡± said Alice, nodding. ¡°But... I don¡¯t think this is the part I need to pay attention to.¡±


    As sad as Alice was to admit it, her first glimpse of Artifact creation was fascinating... and it was also probably not the most important part of this whole process. Which meant she probably wouldn¡¯t get to see more artifacts being created, at least not for a while.


    Right now, Alice needed to find a way to create artificial magic seeds. Then, she needed to figure out how the System turned those artificial magic seeds into Class seeds. As much as it stung to give up the opportunity to see an Immortal with centuries of practice work on their specialty, right now Alice had other needs she needed to focus on.


    ¡°I see,¡± said Demor. ¡°It sounds like you have a better idea what you want now. Which material do you want to observe the creation process for?¡±


    ¡°Could you show me the process of creating an Artificial magic seed?¡± asked Alice. ¡°I think that¡¯s most relevant to my current research. Anything else I can pick up is a nice bonus, but that¡¯s the important bit.¡±


    Alice sighed, but nodded. ¡°Understandable,¡± she said.


    ¡°Did you get anything useful out of your observations?¡± asked Demor, for the second time that day.


    Alice frowned. ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯ll have to think some more, and run everything through some Perks.¡±


    Demor nodded. ¡°Well, I wish you the best of luck.¡± With that, Demor led Alice back out of his enchanting room, and the two returned to the dining room.


    Alice noticed that a few shadows moved next to Allira as they stepped into the room, almost as if they were reporting everything that had happened to Allira. Allira didn¡¯t say a word, although she and Ethan did glance at Alice. After scanning her for a few moments, they both relaxed.


    Jonathan, as well as his family, gave Alice and Demor more casual looks, before they returned to what they had previously been doing. It looked like they were playing a card game, although Alice had no clue what the rules for the game were. Alice found herself a bit surprised that this world had developed their own version of playing cards, but shrugged afterwards. It didn¡¯t seem that relevant either way..


    ¡°How did it go?¡± asked Ethan, after Alice returned to her seat. As he spoke, a rainbow bubble appeared around the two, isolating them from any potential eavesdropping.


    ¡°I observed a few things, although I¡¯m not sure how to piece it all together yet,¡± said Alice. ¡°I can see that the first thing I need to do is condense my mana. A lot. The mana that Demor used when creating an artificial magic seed looked like sludge. I have never condensed my mana to that level, but I suspect it¡¯s necessary for Artifact creation, even if I find a way to get around the other needs. I can tell that the ¡®core material¡¯ for an artificial magic seed just acts as a kind of stabilizer, as well. So I need to figure out how to stabilize mana without it. That sounds difficult... but maybe there¡¯s a way,¡± said Alice, thoughtfully. ¡°I don¡¯t know how the System avoids this step. I¡¯ll have to think about it more, and maybe test a few things out. Maybe the System just uses pure mana manipulation to keep everything from falling apart until it¡¯s done?¡± Alice frowned. ¡°I wish I could see how the System creates a Class seed. Maybe I can get lucky, and one of those spurts of rainbow mana will appear again and build a class seed in front of my eyes?¡±


    Ethan snorted. ¡°If only life were that easy. Well, I suppose it¡¯s not impossible, but...¡±


    Alice sighed. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s pretty unlikely. All I can do is work with the memories I have. At least I did get to observe my [Fisherwoman] class seed being reconstructed, even if I wasn¡¯t paying attention to some of the right details at the time. Maybe I can figure something out from that. But my observational skills were also much less precise and detailed back that, since I had far fewer Perks to work with.¡± Alice resisted the urge to sigh again. As much as photographic memory was helpful, there were still some obvious limitations to what she could do, even with near-perfect memory.


    ¡°Well, don¡¯t be discouraged. You managed to get this far, so you¡¯re clearly doing something right,¡± said Ethan. ¡°Anyway, let me know if there are any supplies you need. I¡¯ll get them for you. Just focus on your research.¡± Ethan¡¯s lips tightened into a grimace, before he nodded at her.


    Alice she nodded. Since the food Demor had made was still sitting in the cook pot, she got another bowl of food. After she finished eating, she was about to return to her room, when Jonathan stopped her.


    ¡°Miss Alice?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°Do you have any ideas on artificial magic seeds that I can help with?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Not quite yet. However, would you do me a favor? I need you to do some fishing,¡± said Alice, after a few moments of thought. ¡°I have seen my own fishing class seed get constructed by the System. I missed a bunch of details, but maybe I can put something together if I learn more...¡±


    Jonathan nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll start fishing tonight then. Do you just need me to hit the base unlock requirements for the [Fisherman] class?¡±


    ¡°Probably. At the very least, I don¡¯t think it would hurt. And if I can¡¯t figure out how to turn it into a class seed, it still shouldn¡¯t prove much of a problem for you to suppress one level of mental interference, right?¡±


    ¡°It should be fine,¡± said Jonathan. ¡°In that case, I¡¯ll see you later. Have a good night.¡± Alice moved up the stairs to her room, before she collapsed onto her bed. It had been a long day. She had a lot to think about, and she would probably think carefully once she entered her dream library... but for now, Alice just enjoyed the process of relaxing as she laid in bed, waiting to fall asleep.

 Chapter 193

    The next few days were mostly repetition of the same thing. Alice woke up, had breakfast, and then watched Demor create Artifacts. Then, she experimented with the few remaining manaborn monsters, or returned to her Dream Library to review Demor¡¯s actions. Alice kept hoping for some kind of revolutionary change to take place, illuminating the way forward. However, after three days, Alice had yet to find the revolutionary breakthrough she needed.


    Even when she was in her dream library, Alice felt stressed out. The days where she could spend a few hours relaxing with a book or two were long gone. Every moment she spent awake, she observed Demor¡¯s artifact creation process or observed the manaborn monsters. Every day she was asleep, she went back through her memories, trying to find any sort of key to figure out how the System created magic seeds without a core material.


    Alice didn¡¯t think she was an impatient person. However, with the crisis unfolding outside, it was hard to be patient. While Ethan didn¡¯t tell her much about what was going on outside, Alice still knew that things would be getting worse every day. The few conversations that Alice had with Jonathan and his family confirmed it.


    Manaborn monsters were starting to crop up anywhere people ¡®believed¡¯ that there were unusual phenomena. With people¡¯s beliefs constantly being validated, people became more prone to believing in dangerous rumors. These, in turn, created more monsters. Panic and fear were like diseases, spreading from person to person and bringing hordes of monsters and natural catastrophes in their wake. With this dangerous cycle, things were hitting a threshold of danger that was hard to fix. People were afraid, and people around the world were dying. If something didn¡¯t change soon, Alice doubted anyone besides the Immortals would survive the next few months.


    The only thing that somewhat relieved Alice¡¯s anxiety was the fact that she wasn¡¯t alone. Allira had started to go to various taverns and public areas, to sing and talk about the amount of influence the Immortals and various countries were exerting to quell the spread of disaster. It helped keep things stable in the capital, but with how fast things were going wrong, her influence was limited. Alice could only imagine how much worse things were in areas without [Charisma] based Immortals to stabilize things.


    Even more bizarre, Ethan mentioned a few whispers from some high level Mage circles he had made contact with. They had noticed that the mana levels in the country were dropping. It was as if a siphon had appeared in the middle of the country, and was now working on devouring all of the nearby mana. After asking Demor, he mentioned that people had always noticed that mana was a little less abundant in this country compared to other nearby regions. Nobody had ever looked into it ¨C after all, a bit of variation in mana density was pretty normal. Demor didn¡¯t seem to think much about people¡¯s observation that mana levels were dropping ¨C when Alice asked more explicitly about it, he just shrugged. Mana levels increasing or decreasing a bit was nothing new, after all.


    Combined with Alice¡¯s initial observation that the country¡¯s mana levels were lower than Fendrallia¡¯s, Alice wondered if there was more to it. And if there was... was it actually a bad thing? Less mana in the air meant that other disasters would start to slow down over time. Sure, it also meant that it was harder for valuable enchanting materials to appear. It also made it harder for Mages to get the raw mana needed to form magic seeds. It also meant that there wouldn¡¯t be any mana for people to process and turn into levels ... but at the same time, it meant that monsters wouldn¡¯t be able to exist in the country. After all, monsters would rapidly die if they didn¡¯t have enough mana to sustain themselves. People¡¯s beliefs would also have a lower impact on their surroundings, meaning that the country would start to stabilize. In the midst of all the other chaos around the world, losing most of the mana in the country might prove surprisingly beneficial.


    Of course, that was only if the decrease in mana level wasn¡¯t the result of some other crisis brewing the background. Alice was prepared for anything at this point. With so many other things going on, she didn¡¯t even have time to investigate the weird decrease in mana levels. Luckily, this piqued Cecilia and Ethan¡¯s interest. Since Cecilia couldn¡¯t help with a lot of the other projects Alice was working on, she offered to do some investigation and see if she could learn more. Ethan hooked her up with a bunch of extra enchanted items, to make sure she could stay safe, and hired a few [Guards] to follow her around and a translator who was fluent in most nearby languages. Then, Cecilia and Ethan both left to investigate.


    With so many different things going on at once, Alice felt even more rushed. Especially because she just couldn¡¯t figure out how the System handled class seeds. The one time she had observed the System create a class seed had been when she re-constructed her [Fisherwoman] class, after destroying the class seed. Alice suspected that the System had skipped some sort of obvious step that it ¡®usually¡¯ took when it rebuilt her seed. After all, Alice had already possessed the class before ¨C it was entirely possible that some sort of remnant object or type of mana was already in her body, making the whole process smoother. This was because her memories of the process just didn¡¯t seem like they should be very hard to replicate... but when she tried to put it into practice, it failed miserably. Her failures, the constant eruptions of small catastrophes, and the fear of what the rest of the world looked like pushed Alice to move faster and faster.


    On the fourth day of observation, Alice finally had a small breakthrough. It wasn¡¯t in terms of actual research progress ¨C Alice was still stuck on that front. However, she had a breakthrough in terms of ideas.


    Alice was still pretty sure that the System was doing something special to stabilize class seeds while it was constructing them. However, Alice had no way at all to observe this process. The system was down, and while it did occasionally return for a few minutes, things were getting worse every day. Alice didn¡¯t have time to sit around, hoping for a miracle to grant her the information she needed. There wasn¡¯t enough time to find and copy the System anymore.


    But that didn¡¯t mean Alice had to do things the same way the System did. What Alice needed to do was find any solution that worked. Alice had never tried doing something totally on her own before. Usually, she observed the System, and then tried to replicate it. But with the growing crisis and her strained time, Alice decided to do something different. She had a problem in front of her, and she knew that she needed to solve it now. So she settled on trying out a new type of mana.


    Normally, Alice might have hesitated to try a completely made up kind of mana. After all, she could only create four magic seeds a month, and she was still some time away from the cooldown for her magic-seed producing Perk. But recently, Alice had gotten a perfect Perk for testing out new types of mana. She just needed to dump all of her ¡®old¡¯ mana, and then start filling it in with a new kind.


    That, naturally, was {Experimental Magic}.


    The purpose Alice had been using the Perk for, at least so far, was to create more mana that she needed. Some of her magic seeds, such as dimensional magic, were simply too small for use in emergencies.


    However, {Experimental Magic} had another, much more notable ability. One that Alice hadn¡¯t taken advantage of yet, but that she had confirmed worked after a bit of testing.


    This time, the mana didn¡¯t dissipate on the spot. Making things into a stable block with a few holes in it seemed to work much better than a cocoon. However, as Alice inspected her work, she realized that it was far from a success. The mana didn¡¯t fall apart on the spot, but it was still slowly unraveling. It started out in the holes she had tried to drill into her block of mana. Moments after those holes started to unravel, the other parts of the block of mana followed suit.


    Alice frowned as she watched her second test disappear into thin air.


    Maybe shape wasn¡¯t the issue here at all.


    Alice thought back to what she had observed about Demor¡¯s Artifact creation process. She remembered that Demor¡¯s mana had been incredibly compact and thick ¨C almost like sludge. Maybe mana density was the problem?


    But how was she supposed to make her mana denser? It was a problem Alice had never thought about. It wasn¡¯t anything she remembered reading about, either. It was unexplored territory. She started thinking about what she wanted, before Alice grinned.


    If she didn¡¯t know how to do something, maybe she could invent a new mana to do it for her?


    Alice swapped her magic seed to start making ¡®compression¡¯ mana, to see if that would fix her problem. Another few hours passed by, as Alice read through a few supplementary reading materials and diagrams Demor had made for her. Time passed by, and after a few hours of waiting, she had enough mana to start.


    This time, she got much better results. Her compression mana turned her stabilization mana into a much sturdier layer of mana. It wasn¡¯t anywhere near perfect, but at the very least, it didn¡¯t collapse within seconds this time. Instead, the layer of mana she had created lasted for nearly ten minutes before collapsing. Furthermore, Alice suspected that it was possible for the condensed mana to last longer. It was still missing something... but it was on the path to success, at least.


    Alice spent several hours trying to figure out what part of the equation she was missing, but she couldn¡¯t think of any new clues. Her best idea was to create a stabilization mana that stabilized her other stabilization mana... but she suspected that wouldn¡¯t actually solve the problem. Instead, the new layer of stabilization mana would just fall apart, before the original layer of mana unraveled. Frustrated, Alice moved to the little garden that Immortal Jonathan had taken over, before blinking in surprise.


    A while ago, Alice had requested that Jonathan generate some [Fisherman] mana, so that she would have a base material to work with once she started trying to make a class seed. Jonathan had clearly taken her words to heart, and had used some of his Perks to establish a little pond in the farming area, before having some fish imported into it. Alice was a bit surprised that still counted for acquiring the [Fisherman] class, but apparently, it was a tried and true method that some [Nobles] used if they felt like pursuing fishing as a hobby.


    But seeing all of the fisherman mana gave Alice an idea. Maybe the issue was that she needed some other kind of mana to stabilize the whole mess? If she tried using already-present mana as a binding agent, maybe it would help stabilize her unstable artificial magic seed foundations. Alice felt like she was grasping at straws, but she felt stuck. There was always a chance it would work, right?


    Alice ran her idea through {Safety Analysis}, and the Perk informed her that her idea wasn¡¯t dangerous. Combined with Alice¡¯s ability to remove magic seeds, she didn¡¯t feel that things would lead to permanent injuries if she tried experimenting a bit with Jonathan. It still didn¡¯t feel great... but Alice needed to move faster.


    So she swallowed nervously, and walked over to Jonathan.


    ¡°Immortal Jonathan,¡± she said, trying not to hesitate. ¡°Do you mind if I try an experiment with the mana in your body?¡±


    Jonathan smiled at her. He seemed a bit uneasy, but he also seemed prepared. ¡°I¡¯m willing to try. What do you need me to do?¡±

 Chapter 194

    Alice¡¯s new plan was simple. She knew for a fact that the System was somehow helping people create artificial magic seeds. She couldn¡¯t imagine any other way that Class Seeds could have plausibly come into existence. Furthermore, unless she was seriously misinformed about the rarity of materials, there was no freaking way the System used them for class seeds. Not only had Alice seen zero evidence of core materials being used, and it made no logistical sense at all. The System had a workaround.


    After using this idea to develop stabilization mana and failing, Alice had also realized that ¡®stabilization¡¯ mana alone wasn¡¯t enough. Compressing the mana seemed to help... but it didn¡¯t seem to resolve the fundamental issue she was running into. The mana needed something to keep it structured. Otherwise, the whole thing fell apart, like a puff of air blown away by the wind.


    Stabilization mana didn¡¯t work. Compressing that mana also didn¡¯t fix the problem, at least not completely. So how did the System create Class seeds?


    Alice was hoping that it used ¡®class mana¡¯ as a binding agent. That would make class seeds a bit different from her original ¡®image¡¯ of how they worked... but Alice could at least imagine how it might fit together. Alice had set out to repair the System, or find a replacement for it, before everyone on this planet died. While Alice had mostly been working towards ¡®repair¡¯ so far, she had no problem finding a different solution. As long as it worked, and helped people, that was good enough.


    ¡°What do you need me to do?¡± Jonathan asked, as he laid down on the table Alice had prepared for him..


    ¡°Just lay down. Oh, and could you give me {Patient¡¯s Consent}?¡± asked Alice, after a moment of thought.


    ¡°Of course. If you need to send mana into my body for the purpose of this experiment, you can do so, provided that you believe it is likely to work and unlikely to endanger my life. I¡¯m sturdy, but I¡¯d still prefer some amount of caution,¡± said Jonathan.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± said Alice, as she saw the rainbow mana for {Patient¡¯s Consent} light. Then, she got to work.


    She started out by trying to drill a bit of mana into Jonathan¡¯s chest. Her first idea was just to try mixing a bit of stabilization mana together with the unbound [Fisherman] mana that was stuck floating around Jonathan¡¯s body. Once she saw how stabilization mana and [Fisherman] mana interacted with each other, she would have a better idea how to proceed further.


    Unfortunately, Alice immediately ran into a problem.


    Immortal Jonathan¡¯s body was incredibly resistant to foreign mana. Even after Alice obtained {Patient¡¯s Consent}, and used only organic mana, she still felt like she had slammed her mana into a steel wall. It didn¡¯t even feel like there was any ¡®give¡¯ to Jonathan¡¯s mana at all. With {Patient¡¯s Consent}, and Alice¡¯s entire mana pool, she still doubted she would make any progress in pushing her mana into Jonathan¡¯s body.


    How was she supposed to solve this problem? It was a problem that Alice had forgotten to take into account. Most [Organic Mages] just relied on {Patient¡¯s Consent} or some variation of the Perk to let them freely operate on patients. After all, most people weren¡¯t Immortals. However, it was obvious that wouldn¡¯t work here. Alice felt a headache start to form as she tried to find a solution to this problem. Was there a way to sidestep the innate mana resistance all living beings had towards foreign mana?


    What was mana resistance?


    People resisted external mana based on how much mana was already in their body. Every single level was essentially mana. In other words... Immortals were almost impossible to influence externally. {Patient¡¯s Consent} would definitely help with that, but it was nowhere near enough to let Alice push through the most mana-resistant type of human on the planet.


    Alice spent a few seconds thinking, before she sighed. If there was an easy way around mana resistance, wouldn¡¯t people already be using it left and right? It would let [Organic Mages] heal dozens of times more people per day. It would also let [Organic Mages] become truly horrifying monsters on the battlefield. Right now, [Organic Mages] tended to act as healers or incredibly strong melee fighters on a battlefield. If they could sidestep mana resistance, they wouldn¡¯t need to screw around with weapons. They would just turn the brains of hostile combatants into nutrient slurries, and that would end battles instantly. Alice couldn¡¯t think of a single way her odd Perks and assorted other abilities would let her solve this problem.


    In short, she was stuck.


    ¡°Do you know of a way to let my mana infiltrate your body a bit more easily? Your resistance to external mana is just too high,¡± said Alice. She didn¡¯t really think Jonathan had a solution, but she was hoping for one anyway. At the same time, Alice started to wonder how the System solved this problem. Did the System just brute-force it using mana quantity?


    Unlike core materials, Alice had little problem believing that the System actually could brute force this problem. Before it had collapsed, the System had emitted so much rainbow mana onto the planet that it had filled every single square centimeter of the globe. At its height, it had probably commanded millions of Mariums of mana... or maybe far more than that. If it wanted to brute force something, it probably could. But that didn¡¯t help Alice.


    Jonathan frowned. ¡°Do you not have a way to do so with your Perks?¡±


    ¡°I thought {Patient¡¯s Consent} would be enough,¡± said Alice, resisting a wave of embarrassment.


    Jonathan frowned. ¡°Ask Ethan. He might have a way to fix the problem... or possibly a way to brute-force the situation somehow.¡± Jonathan sounded both relieved and worried. Alice didn¡¯t find that odd ¨C even if Jonathan loved his family enough to put his life on the line for them, being used as a guinea pig probably didn¡¯t feel great. Alice nodded, before an idea struck her. She hadn¡¯t actually messed with her levels in a while ¨C she had gotten wrapped up in her experiment, and thus hadn¡¯t purified her mana. But even though she hadn¡¯t succeeded in her experiment... the process of doing research should have still netted her a few levels. Maybe a new Perk would help fix this problem?


    ¡°Hold on a second,¡± said Alice. ¡°I¡¯m going to see if I have any perks waiting for me. I haven¡¯t bothered looking at my System notifications since I started this line of experiments. There might be something useful.¡±


    ¡°Sure. Let me know when you¡¯re done looking, and we can make plans from there.¡±


    The result didn¡¯t disappoint her.


    Burst of Multitasking (Tier 2 Scholar Perk) (Level 30 + Level 40 Perk)


    Perk Costs: Lesser Organic Vision + Improved Multitasking


    For one hour, you may increase the number of magic tendrils you can control by 5. If you have the permission of the other party, you may send these tendrils inside of someone else¡¯s body with a dramatically reduced mana cost. You will also have proper ¡®vision¡¯ of any organic matter that these magic tendrils come into contact with.


    This Perk consumes mana in order to sustain itself at a high rate. Mana from any magic seed can be paid to maintain it. Overuse without rest time may cause major headaches, migraines, and eventually far more severe problems if you continue past these problems.


    Alice grinned after she saw her new Perk. This did everything she had been hoping it would.


    She had still lost a few Magic tendrils from her ¡®base¡¯ combat abilities... but in exchange, she could summon an extra five when she wanted to. Furthermore, those magic tendrils were able to function as a new sort of ¡®organic vision,¡¯ and they also let her penetrate mana resistance better if she had {Patient¡¯s Consent}. Of course, in exchange, Alice could now only use her organic vision and the other extra abilities while paying a hefty cost. Furthermore, anytime she summoned her ¡®extra¡¯ five mana tendrils, they sounded like they would eat through her mana pool and give her a lasting headache. Still, Alice thought it was a fairly useful new Perk. Oftentimes, fights happened fast enough that she didn¡¯t have the time to use the single extra mana tendril from {Improved Multitasking}, and after enough time had passed, she had started to forget she could even summon it. It just wasn¡¯t a relevant enough part of battle to factor in to things in most cases. But with five extra mana tendrils, it would be much more useful. Not to mention, while ¡®losing lots of mana¡¯ would be devastating for many combatants, Alice was building a knockoff System magic seed. The amount of mana stored in that magic seed was already becoming ridiculous, and it would only grow more and more absurd the longer she lived. Alice wasn¡¯t short of the mana needed to sustain this kind of effect. Potential headaches, migraines, and more serious effects were more of a concern, but as long as she could use the Perk for a decent amount of time, it wouldn¡¯t be a big problem.


    She smiled as she looked at the new Perk, and then eyed Jonathan again.


    With her new Perk, she would certainly have a way to actually do what she wanted to do.


    ¡°Find something useful?¡± asked Jonathan.


    ¡°Yeah. I found something that should work just fine,¡± said Alice. ¡°Let me look at my last Perk first, and then we¡¯ll get back to the [Fisherman] experiment.¡±


    After that, Alice took a look at her last Perk choice.


    This one was for [Careful Enchanter]. At first glance, Alice wasn¡¯t actually sure why she had gotten levels for this class. After all, she hadn¡¯t made a single ¡®enchantment¡¯ recently.


    But it only took her a few seconds to realize that she had spent several days studying how to make enchantments under an Immortal [Enchanter]. There was probably nothing that was more ¡®enchanter-y¡¯ in the world than that. It made perfect sense for her to get levels for studying under Demor. In fact, that was probably where her [Student] level had come from, as well.


    Since [Careful Enchanter] hadn¡¯t reached past level 50 yet, there was no complicated thinking involved in her Perk choice. Alice didn¡¯t have any ability to do a perk combination for the Class yet, so she went straight to the Perk selection screen. Since Alice had gotten what she wanted from her second Perk choice, she wasn¡¯t entirely sure what she was looking for from her final Perk selection. However, when Alice saw her Perk choices, she grinned. The System had given her the best thing that she hadn¡¯t realized she wanted.


    Alice spent a few seconds scanning her other two Perk options, before she completely ignored them. One of them let her spend a huge amount of mana to remove ¡®lesser flaws¡¯ from her enchantments, whatever that meant. The other choice would highlight any errors in her enchantments if she concentrated on them ¨C sort of like a teacher going over a test paper and outlining the mistakes in red ink. Normally, Alice might have been interested in the second Perk... but the third option she saw was just so much better that it wasn¡¯t a consideration.


    Raw Mana Enchanting


    Requirements: Careful Enchanter level 40 or higher, Have Experimented with some form of construct derived entirely of pure mana and understood its nature, have access to at least 10 different types of mana at the same time, Magic 150 or higher, Pure Mana Seed available, at least 1 Rarity 10 Achievement


    You gain the ability to ¡®stabilize¡¯ constructs made of pure mana, at a significant mana cost. A stabilized mana construct will dissipate far more slowly, and will exhibit some resilience against wear and tear from its surroundings and natural dissipation.


    This Perk was simple, but also perfectly fit what Alice was trying to do. Of course, the Perk indicated that a stabilized mana construct only exhibited ¡®some¡¯ resilience against wear and tear. It wouldn¡¯t totally fix mana construct deterioration. But it highlighted a problem Alice hadn¡¯t thought of ¨C artificial magic seeds getting impacted by external mana and then collapsing. Right after highlighting that problem, it offered her a solution, and a way to study how the System ¡®solved¡¯ that issue. With any luck, that would give her a research direction to improve her own abilities further. It was exactly what she needed right now.


    It also implied that a ¡®pure mana construct¡¯ counted as something related to Enchanting. Alice was more than a little amused by that, since enchanting was usually the process of adding mana to an already-existing physical material... but if it counted, it was good for her. Since she was seeing this Perk, it probably meant that her experiments with pure mana constructs still counted for class levels. It wasn¡¯t like it changed her plans either way, but it was nice to know she would keep getting rewards as she worked.


    Alice glanced over her two new Perks, and then turned back towards Jonathan. Now that the mana resistance problem was solved, it was time to take another crack at artificial magic seeds. This time, she didn¡¯t intend to get stuck at the very first step.

 Chapter 195

    With her mana penetration improved, Alice got back to work. After giving her new Perks one final read-through to make sure she wasn¡¯t missing anything, she activated her new Perk. In an instant,{Burst of Multitasking} created five new magic tendrils.


    Contrary to her expectations, Alice didn¡¯t ¡®see¡¯ things through her new magic tendrils. Instead, any time her new magic tendrils touched a bit of organic matter, Alice got a strange mixture of sensations from them. It was more like she was touching, smelling, and looking at any piece of organic matter the tendrils touched. They also felt very different from her normal magic tendrils. It was a bizarre collage of sensations that Alice didn¡¯t quite know how to parse.


    Of course, this was a bit more limited than the wording of the Perk implied. Alice couldn¡¯t see anything on the level of microbes. She couldn¡¯t see viruses, or bacteria, or any of the truly microscopic types of organic matter. However, if she focused, she absolutely could see individual muscle fibers, especially the blocks of solidified mana-muscles that the System favored when people increased the physical stats. In short, she could see tissues, but nothing smaller than that. Alice was a bit disappointed by this, but not very surprised. People in this world had general knowledge of how diseases worked, but seemed to have no intimate knowledge of things like the size difference between bacteria and viruses. If a mere level 70 Perk could let people observe the microscopic world, it probably wouldn¡¯t be a mystery to the people in this world right now. So even though Alice wished that her Perk would let her observe more, she wasn¡¯t surprised that it didn¡¯t.


    That wasn¡¯t the only unexpected side of the Perk. The mana cost of the Perk rather hefty. Even though Alice had a compound System seed with around 600 Mariums of mana inside of it, she still suspected that she could only keep the Perk running for about 5 minutes, if she were to use her System seed to keep the thing fueled. In other words, the seed was chewing through about 2 Mariums of mana per minute. That level of consumption might pose some problems if she was using the Perk solely for its organic vision-related abilities. After all, sometimes Alice needed to observe an experiment for an extended period of time. However, the level of detail and information Alice was getting from her Perk was also much higher than before, so it wasn¡¯t entirely a loss. Not to mention, this Perk was actually very useful in combat, and would be much more valuable in quick fights than the two Perks she had lost.


    The mental strain of the Perk was another matter. Even with nearly 200 [Intelligence], Alice felt like her mind was being strained even if she only activated the Perk for a few seconds. With the mental strain of the Perk added in, Alice suspected that she might only be able to keep the Perk running for a total of three minutes right now. Past that point, and it would start to become a painful and unwelcome distraction. That was far less time than she had been hoping for. This new Perk had a great deal of useful sides, but it was also an endless black hole for her mana and mental energy.


    Alice sighed, before she focused. She needed to focus on the [Fisherman] mana in Jonathan. If she only had 3 minutes before she needed to take a break, she couldn¡¯t waste them sighing and thinking. She still had Jonathan¡¯s permission to interact with his body, so she pushed her mana tendrils right back into his stomach, to see if her new Perk would fix her previous problem.


    This time, Alice didn¡¯t feel like she had rammed her magic tendrils into a steel wall. She still felt Jonathan¡¯s body resisting her intrusion ¨C after all, Immortals had ludicrously dense mana in their bodies. However, it was at least at a manageable level now. If before she was trying to punch through solid steel, now it felt like she was trying to push through hard wood with a few small holes drilled into it. Alice still wasn¡¯t making great progress. The ¡®holes¡¯ in Jonathan¡¯s defenses were too small for her to perfectly exploit. However, she could do something, at least. It was still much harder and more expensive than a regular patient, but she could work through it, if barely.


    Alice started looking at Jonathan¡¯s body again, and planned her next move. She wanted to build Jonathan¡¯s [Fisherman] mana into a knockoff class seed. Of course, Alice didn¡¯t know much about the construction of a proper Class seed, so she had to improvise a bit. For now, Alice¡¯s plan was simple ¨C she would tie a ¡®string¡¯ of stabilization mana around a bit of Fisherman mana, and then try condensing it. From there... Alice would see what happened. At the very least, {Safety Analysis} wasn¡¯t ringing any warning bells at her, so Alice thought it was a safe enough experiment to run. However, just to make sure, she decided to only interact with the mana in Jonathan¡¯s left pinky toe. Alice knew that the System placed class seeds in other locations ¨C mostly near the heart or the brain. There was probably a reason for that... but Alice didn¡¯t know what it was. Therefore, for now, Alice decided to experiment with mana only in the least vital areas of the body. That way, if something went wrong, the lowest possible amount of damage would be inflicted. Furthermore, if something went truly wrong, Alice could always chop off Jonathan¡¯s pinky toe before the damage spread. In this world, it wasn¡¯t very difficult to restore missing limbs with the help of an [Organic Mage]. Losing a toe wasn¡¯t a big deal.


    Then, Alice frowned. How was she supposed to cut through the flesh of an Immortal with a crazy [Endurance] stat? She had Jonathan wait while she went back to the manor. Luckily, Ethan was in right now, so Alice dragged him over. Alice didn¡¯t think Ethan could help much with her actual experiment, but he could probably cut off Jonathan¡¯s toe if needed. Besides, he was also an experienced Immortal with centuries of practice as a healer. Even if it wasn¡¯t his main focus, it was probably good enough to handle the current situation.


    After that, Alice went over her plans with Jonathan. After all, it was important to make sure he was all right with her plans before she got started. After Jonathan gave her the green light, Alice finally got to work. She pushed her mana tendrils into Jonathan¡¯s pinky toe, and started trying to influence Jonathan¡¯s [Fisherman] mana.


    Alice felt beads of sweat start to form on her a moment later. Even with her new Perk, it was slow and difficult. However, after nearly a minute of strain, Alice sagged in relief.


    She had managed to tie a string of [Fisherman] mana and stabilization mana together, and then condense it. For a good measure, she had even thrown {Raw Mana Enchanting} at the little helix of mana, just to make sure it wouldn¡¯t fall apart before she could observe what was happening. Then, Alice relaxed, turned off her extra magic tendrils, and focused on her mana vision.


    The thread of [Fisherman] mana and stabilization mana didn¡¯t look anything like the class seeds that Alice was used to seeing. It looked more like one of the DNA models that Alice had seen in biology class ¨C it was like a helix of mana. However, unlike a DNA model, this one looked like someone had tried to crush it after making it. One end of the model was a little bit squashed, giving it a rather ugly appearance. However, Alice felt a grin start to form on her lips as she watched the double helix of mana.


    It... wasn¡¯t collapsing. At least, not immediately. There weren¡¯t even obvious signs that it was fraying around the edges, or anything like that. Sure, the mana helix was also doing literally none of the jobs that a Class seed was supposed to do ¨C but at the very least, the whole mess wasn¡¯t collapsing in on itself.


    Alice pulled her magic tendrils out of Jonathan¡¯s body, and then carefully observed the threads of mana as they sat around inside of his left pinky toe.


    ¡°Is anything happening?¡± asked Jonathan.


    ¡°Maybe. Do you feel... any changes in your thoughts or body? Particularly those related to fishing?¡± Asked Alice. ¡°Or did anything new appear in your Status Screen?¡±


    Jonathan frowned.


    So, why wouldn¡¯t [Fisherman] mana be able to help people fish better? As long as the mana in a Class Seed had some sort of ¡®instruction¡¯ for what it was supposed to do, it could probably handle the rest. All that was needed was a way to get the Class mana to accept a certain set of instructions for what it needed to do, and a way to handle the resulting broken mana.


    People¡¯s perception of what a ¡®class¡¯ was supposed to do would shape the limitations and abilities of each type of magic afterwards. Alice just needed to make sure her knockoff class seed gave the correct instructions, absorbed the correct type of mana, and handled waste disposal. As long as those three things were accomplished, and any hidden medical dangers were resolved, the class seed would be functional. Alice suspected there was a bit more to it than that ¨C after all, she wasn¡¯t sure how people got a ¡®choice¡¯ about what type of ¡®Perk¡¯ they wanted whenever they had a Perk choice. But she could worry about that later. It was far, far lower on the priority list than the other stuff.


    Alice grimaced, and then reactivated {Burst of Multitasking}. Her headache started to grow again, and Jonathan¡¯s mana resistance proved to be a massive pain in the neck as she went back to interfering with his body. Alice was expecting it this time, and gritted her teeth as she powered through it. She used a bit of pure mana to start pushing around the other mana in Jonathan¡¯s body, specifically focusing on the [Fisherman] mana in the rest of his foot. Alice kept shoving it towards her double helix of mana. Her helix of mana didn¡¯t seem to drag other mana towards it... but did it at least trap mana that it came into contact with?


    After a few minutes of trial and error, Alice confirmed her slim hope. The [Fisherman] mana didn¡¯t leave the double helix once it touched it. It was like the [Fisherman] mana was a layer of sticky tarp ¨C it didn¡¯t actively drag other things towards it, but once something touched it, it would keep it there. It was far from ideal, but at least it wasn¡¯t completely useless.


    Of course, Alice also noticed that as more [Fisherman] mana accumulated in the double helix of mana, the double helix started to grow less stable. The density of the artificial magic seed was compromised, because the magic seed wasn¡¯t naturally condensing the mana it was coming into contact with. In addition, the quantity of [Fisherman] mana started to become much higher in comparison to the quantity of stabilization mana. The magic helix didn¡¯t fall apart on the spot, but Alice seriously doubted the mana helix would remain stable under these conditions. Worse, it was pulling in other types of mana besides [Fisherman] mana. Those types of mana didn¡¯t get incorporated into the helix at all ¨C they just got stuck.


    Alice grimaced. There were a lot of problems she needed to fix. System-made Class seeds had none of these problems. How did the System fix the mana ratio problem? Not to mention, she still needed to find any hidden medical problems and deal with all of the other ¡®missing components¡¯ from her version of a Class Seed. And she had to find a solution quickly, because every hour she wasted was an hour the planet teetered closer to the brink of collapse.


    Alice took a deep breath, and tried to shove her anxiety down. People would be dying for every second that she failed to fix all of this... but if she gave people a faulty cure, that would do far more damage than taking a few more days to make sure her solution to the crisis was safe. If she distributed a problematic cure, people would grow wary of any future cures. Not to mention, anyone unlucky enough to receive a faulty cure might have their life irreparably harmed. She was practically bursting with the need to move faster, to do better... but she still needed to make sure her cure was perfect. At the very least, it needed to fix the obvious problems people were running into, and have no hidden side effects.


    She sighed. There was still so much about Class seeds she didn¡¯t understand. Despite the fact that she was missing so much information, she had to develop a replacement as quickly as possible, or people would keep dying. The situation felt truly absurd to her.


    She glanced at her magic seeds, and decided that she had enough mana, mental energy, and Perk usage time remaining for one more experiment. In practice, she had enough for a bit more... but she wanted to leave some mana aside. That way, if an emergency happened, she had the mana to immediately break down everything that she had been experimenting with in Jonathan¡¯s body and handle any complications.


    Alice decided to try addressing one of the bigger problems her ¡®class seed¡¯ had. She couldn¡¯t try to fix everything this time, but at the very least, she could try to get it to absorb nearby mana. That was because Alice had thought of a possible solution for that problem. She didn¡¯t know if it was the ¡®correct¡¯ solution, but she at least had an idea. {Safety Analysis} didn¡¯t warn her against trying it, so Alice was willing to give it a shot.


    Alice spent a minute switching her focus back towards her {Experimental Magic} seed, and tried making a new type of mana. Alice had no idea if this type of mana was used by the System, but she was already getting ¡®creative¡¯ with her problem solving. As long as it worked, that would be good enough for her.


    Alice decided to create what she called ¡®pulling¡¯ mana. This type of mana was meant to pull ALL types of mana towards itself ¨C just at a ridiculously slow rate. Alice didn¡¯t want to drag in a bunch of nearby mana, and then have something go wrong and kill Jonathan. Thus, she needed a type of mana that would work, but wouldn¡¯t do anything quickly and create an unsolvable mess.


    She produced a tiny, tiny speck of this mana using her {Experimental Magic} seed, since that was all she could generate in a few minutes, and then, to simulate ¡®normal¡¯ conditions, she used her pure mana to move a bunch of other [Fisherman] mana near the seed.


    Then, she used her tiny little speck of ¡®pulling¡¯ mana, and was gratified to see a few wisps of [Fisherman] mana get sucked into her mana helix.


    Then, Alice ran out of mana. More importantly, her headache from using {Burst of Multitasking} started to reach a point where she couldn¡¯t focus anymore. But at the very least, she had found a solution to her problem. She needed to find a way to make her mana helix generate that type of mana and use it on its own, but... that was a problem that could wait until her headache was gone.


    It was still far from a complete solution... but she was finally making progress. She had confirmed that it was possible to make a stable mana structure using stabilization mana and class mana, and found a way to get that mana structure to absorb other, nearby mana. There were a bunch of problems left to solve, but Alice had at least confirmed that she had the start of a solution.


    She just hoped it wouldn¡¯t be too little, too late when she finished.

 Chapter 196

    The morning after Alice¡¯s first magic seed experiment, she was in a good mood. She had finally made some progress towards making an artificial magic seed. She was still missing several things for a ¡®full¡¯ class seed, and she wasn¡¯t entirely sure how to solve some of the problems she had... but she had a rough idea how to move forward, at least. She started out the day by filtering the rest of the levels she had gotten during her magic seed experiment. She had already filtered most of the mana she had gained in order to get her new Perks, but she had gained a bit more during the experiment on Jonathan.


    You have leveled up!


    Scholar: 70 -> 71, Careful Enchanter 40 -> 43


    Alice didn¡¯t get any other levels, but she was happy to see more progress for [Careful Enchanter] after only one evening of careful mana manipulation. After all, [Careful Enchanter] was starting to look like it might have a unique level of relevance in fixing the current crisis, and the Class had lagged far behind a lot of her other Classes. It didn¡¯t benefit from some of her leveling speed boosters in her Achievements, but that didn¡¯t mean Alice was happy with it being so far behind. She hoped it would at least start getting combined Perks soon, so that Alice would have another tool ready to help repair or replace the System.


    Of course, that was far from the only progress Alice had. While she was in her dream library the previous night, she had also spent a bunch of time reviewing her own memories of the System, mana, and other mana constructs she had witnessed the creation of. And as she went back through her memories, she had noticed something that she had previously overlooked.


    When Alice had observed someone survive their mana baptism, all those months ago, Alice had seen someone¡¯s mage core ¡®light up¡¯ several. Alice had also noticed a similar ¡®lighting up¡¯ process when observing monsters transform into alphas, during the group¡¯s journey to meet with Demor in Morendia. Since Alice had observed it twice, in two different spots, she suspected that it was important. The question was what, exactly, she had observed.


    Alice suspected that what she saw was some sort of ¡®finishing touch¡¯ to magic cores, monster cores, and various other types of mana structure. Having seen her own attempt at making an artificial magic seed, and how it turned into a double helix, Alice knew that there were a lot of details about artificial magic seeds that she was missing. However, unlike before, she actually had a few guesses about what this meant.


    Alice¡¯s first guess was that artificial magic seeds would ¡®light up¡¯ once they became dense enough, or reached some sort of critical mass. Alternately, maybe it meant that something was ¡®turned on,¡¯ sort of like hitting a switch for a light. Alice felt that these two might be good directions to focus her research on, in order to hopefully finish her research on artificial magic seeds more quickly. The faster she got everything solved, the faster she could start genuinely helping people instead of sitting in her research lab while the world burned. Of course, Alice¡¯s version of the System was still several steps behind the ¡®original...¡¯ but it was far better than no solution at all.


    Of course, Alice¡¯s guess that ¡®density¡¯ was what produced the flashing lights she saw in completed mana structures was a guess that lay on shaky foundations. At first glance, this would seem to make sense. After all, Alice knew that both newly forming mage cores and monster cores drew in huge amounts of mana when they were forming. Since magic and monster cores didn¡¯t grow any larger in size, it would make sense to assume that the mana was being compacted into a denser and denser ball of mana for both types of mana-structure.


    Unfortunately, magic didn¡¯t always follow the laws of conservation of energy. Which meant that Alice might be completely off-base with that assumption. She just had to cross her fingers and hope that she was going in the right direction, and that the esoteric laws of magic weren¡¯t going to screw her over at the worst possible time.


    Alice mused on these thoughts as she went down to the floor level of the mansion, before getting a bowl of soup that was sitting just above a traditional campfire to stay warm. The soup was a bit cold, since it seemed like the others had finished eating before Alice woke, but it still tasted decent enough. According to Ethan, it was quite normal to have soup as a breakfast item in Morendia, although it struck Alice as a bit unusual, since Illvaria¡¯s breakfast culture was similar to those from Alice¡¯s homeland. Either way, tasted decent enough. It vaguely reminded of a traditional Polish soup she had once had when one of her mom¡¯s friends had visited them, when Alice was younger. As Alice sat down with her bowl and started eating, she tried to think about her next steps. She was getting pretty close to the cooldown for {System¡¯s Ambition}, and {Magic Modelling} was also almost ready to go. She had a few conflicting needs for what to use {Magic Modelling} on, and Alice hadn¡¯t figured out the best direction for it. Using it on a Class seed would make sense, but she could also try using it on her own Mana Helix to get more detail on what she had created and how it worked.


    As she was lost in thought, Cecilia returned to the mansion.


    Alice gave her friend a nod as she strode into the entryway, while Cecilia quickly wandered over to the fire and gave the bowl of soup an experimental sniff. Then, deciding that it had earned her approval, Cecilia also grabbed herself a bowl, before sliding into a seat next to Alice.


    ¡°Hey. How have you been?¡± asked Cecilia, as she leaned back into her chair. Alice noticed that Cecilia seemed a little fatigued. Her eyes had dark circles under them, as if she had spent many sleepless nights focused on her surroundings, and Cecilia also seemed a bit... out of it.


    ¡°Things have been going fine on my end. I wouldn¡¯t say things are perfect, but I¡¯m making progress, even if I worry that it¡¯s not fast enough. What about you? Did something happen? Why do you look so tired?¡± asked Alice. ¡°Is your investigation taking up too much time and energy?¡±


    ¡°I am finding some of the news that I¡¯ve been looking into to be rather... troubling,¡± said Cecilia. ¡°There are a lot of things that don¡¯t make sense.¡± Then, Cecilia paused for a moment, before turning back towards Alice. ¡°Tell me about your investigation. I could use something to take my mind off of my own investigation for a while.¡±


    Alice didn¡¯t need to think for long before she nodded in agreement. Sometimes, an outside perspective could help one progress their research more effectively. ¡°My experiments are going well,¡± she said. ¡°I think. I¡¯m having a hard time with a few important parts of setting up a proper Class seed, which is a problem. Here, let me show you.¡±


    Cecilia held out her arm, and Alice gently grabbed her wrist and used {Shared Memory}. After that, Alice started taking Cecilia on a mental tour of all of her recent experiments. Alice showed Cecilia her attempts to make an artificial magic seed in Jonathan¡¯s pinky toe, as well as her various speculations and experiments with stabilization mana and artificial magic seeds.


    Alice took in a breath of fresh air, and felt herself relax. Even if she didn¡¯t love the outdoors much, the occasional breath of fresh air wasn¡¯t bad. She could feel some of the stress and worry in her thoughts start to melt away. She was still very aware of how much she had to do, and how many things depended on her... but they felt less like all-consuming, crushing pressure that would grind her to dust if she didn¡¯t keep moving forward.


    After that, Alice switched to her mana vision and frowned.


    In the past week, while she had been experimenting, she hadn¡¯t paid very much attention to the nearby mana. After all, it Demor¡¯s mansion had plenty of mana inside of it. It was the home of an Immortal focused on enchantments. There were so many small enchantments layered throughout the hallways and basement that Alice could basically always see a bit of mana here and there. Demor certainly didn¡¯t have a hard time paying for the monster cores to keep everything running.


    But once she stepped outside, it became obvious that the level of mana had dropped, and not just by a little bit. It looked almost as if the mana were on the verge of completely vanishing. It wouldn¡¯t happen overnight, of course ¨C but if this continued, Alice wasn¡¯t sure if mana would still be in Morendia in a year or two. Maybe the mana would disappear even faster than that, if the monster population increased or something else drained the mana from the area. Alice... had no idea what to make of that.


    Alice sighed, before she shook her head. ¡°This really is weird,¡± she said. ¡°Let¡¯s go meet up with that [Scholar] you mentioned.¡±


    Cecilia nodded, and the group made their way out of the area near Demor¡¯s mansion. They didn¡¯t see many people along the way, since Demor had a large, enclosed manor. However, after they passed the boundary of Demor¡¯s land and made their way into the city proper, the number of people started to increase. Alice tried not to notice how many people seemed to be caught up in their own particular brand of madness. Some were trying to sow seeds in the middle of the street in broad daylight, while others were hammering nothing with a [Blacksmith¡¯s] hammer. A few weeks ago, Alice had seen some amount of madness, but it was mostly contained. Most people had still been in control of their mental faculties, and the cities had still seemed mostly safe and controlled. If someone fell into Class madness, there had been avenues to seek help so that their family members could get them to a controlled environment and keep them safe.


    Now, order was beginning to break down. People in the streets were starting to fall into class madness, and instead of being rushed to a facility to help take care of them, they were just surrounded by more mad people. Alice could even see a few corpses. It looked like the corpses were people who had fallen victim to their own class madness, and forgotten to eat or drink in the process. Alice shuddered, and then moved towards a few of the more severe patients, before helping them filter their Class mana. She needed to keep most of her mana for experiments, but she also felt intense guild when she saw these people dying and didn¡¯t do anything to help. As she helped a few people, she noticed that the situation wasn¡¯t quite as bad as she had first thought.


    There were a few other people roaming the streets, trying to help those who were afflicted, but those helpers were running into problems of their own. It looked like they were being quickly enveloped by layers of some kind of healing-related Class mana. Unlike the other afflicted, Alice couldn¡¯t even do anything to help them. Most of them didn¡¯t have a Class seed for her to stuff all of their mana into. Most of them were covered in several variations of [Doctor] or [Healer] mana. As she saw that, Alice started to realize why this particular art of the System¡¯s collapse was so sinister. Even helping other people would make you a new victim of the collapse.


    Even more concerning, Alice seriously doubted that many of the people on the street, or the helpers, would be shaken out of their stupor. She only had so much mana she could spend helping, and she only had so many people she could focus on at once. There were always going to be limits to what Alice could do alone. Besides, starvation and dehydration weren¡¯t the only threats here. At this point, even if monsters waltzed up to them and started eating, the people probably wouldn¡¯t notice. After all, these people couldn¡¯t even be roused by their thirst or hunger. Would being eaten really rouse them?


    In Morendia, there weren¡¯t many monsters to worry about. The disappearance of mana in the area was concerning, but at the very least, it meant that almost no monsters were present nearby. They simply couldn¡¯t survive in this kind of environment. For the first time, Alice started thinking in a different direction. If this drop in mana was artificial in nature... maybe there was a way to replicate it? If Alice could just suck mana out of the rest of the planet, it would solve the class mana problem and the monster swarm problem. However, even though it seemed like it might be a good idea, she needed to know more first. A blessing in disguise that was poorly understood might also be the herald of something far more dangerous.


    As Alice stewed in her thoughts and worries, the two arrived at a reasonably nice-looking house. Some of the maintenance looked like it had fallen off over the past month or two, but that was to be expected, times being what they were. Cecilia knocked on the door a few times, and then waited.


    And waited.


    And waited.


    Alice started to get a bad feeling in her stomach. ¡°Does she usually take this long to come to the door?¡± she asked.


    Cecilia frowned, and shook her head. ¡°She doesn¡¯t. I was speaking with her less than two hours ago. I know for a fact that she said she was going to head home. Maybe she left to go do something?¡±


    A shadow peeled out from under Alice¡¯s feet, before it glanced at the home of [Scholar] Metista. Then, the shadow seemed to notice something. It slid under the door to Metista¡¯s house. Alice and Cecilia waited for a few more minutes, before the door slid open. There, just inside of the house¡¯s entryway, was a patch of fresh-looking bloodstains, and signs of a struggle. The interior of the house was thrown into disarray, and there was no sign of the [Scholar] Alice and Cecilia had set out to meet.


    ¡°Shit,¡± said Cecilia.

 Chapter 197

    The moment after Alice processed what they were looking at, panic started to set in. There was blood on the floor. Something looked like it had entered the house and hurt the owner. There were signs of a struggle. Had a monster broken in? Had someone succumbed to a class-mana related madness that pushed them towards violence, then hurt someone? Or had something else happened?


    Either way, it was bad news. Alice felt a grimace pull at her lips as she looked at Allira¡¯s shadow. The shadow gave Alice a confused look, and Alice sighed. She really wished Allira¡¯s shadows could talk, so that she could ask them a few questions. Right now, she had no idea what to do.


    Another of Allira¡¯s shadows slithered out from under Cecilia¡¯s feet, and joined the shadow already inside. Then, the two shadows swarmed into the building again. Alice decided to wait. There was no guarantee that whatever had done this had left. If there was danger, it was best for Allira¡¯s shadows to do the scouting. The shadow were perfect disposable scouts. However, if whatever had done this was lurking in the shadows, waiting for Alice and Cecilia to be unprotected...


    The thought startled Alice out of her sluggish thoughts. Danger. Right here. Right now. Whatever had done this might still be nearby. Alice felt goosebumps form on her body as she realized that something might be watching her and Cecilia right now, with malicious intentions. She scrambled for the enchanted items she had laying around in her storage Perk, fumbled, and then finally pulled out a few enchanted bracelets and beads.


    In the interest of saving time, Ethan hadn¡¯t let Alice make much more of her own equipment recently. It might have been great for Alice¡¯s leveling speed, but now that they were in the middle of a crisis, Ethan had decided that she needed to spend her time focused on the crisis instead of her equipment. Instead, right after they settled down in Demor¡¯s mansion, he had bought out a few local [Enchanter]¡¯s shops. He had handed her a pile of enchanted items, most of which could block different types of common magic related attacks. She now had a pair of bracelets that blocked electricity and heat, as well as her own, original necklace that could stop nearby objects. In addition, Ethan had handed her a huge pile of glass beads that would explode like grenades after being thrown.


    Finally, Alice still had a few of her own bracelets left, complete with the self-propelling beads.


    Wordlessly, Alice handed Cecilia an extra handful of beads and bracelets, just in case. Cecilia wordlessly took them and put them on, as the two nervously scanned their surroundings and tried to identify any nearby threats.


    Seconds crawled by as if they were hours, while the two waited for Allira¡¯s shadows to return. After what felt like half an hour, but must have been less than a minute, one of the two shadows returned, and shook its head at Alice. Then, it held up a hand at the two of them.


    Alice... had no idea what the shadow was trying to communicate. The shadow kept shaking its head and holding a hand towards them, almost as if it were trying to push them away.


    ¡°Do you want us to wait?¡± asked Cecilia, after a few seconds of confusion.


    The shadow shook its head, and then advanced towards them, still holding out a sign for them to ¡®stop.¡¯ After a few seconds, Alice backed away. The shadow nodded furiously, and then kept advancing.


    ¡°Do we need to back up?¡± asked Alice.


    Alice finally thought she understood what the shadow meant. They needed to scoot back. Based on the fact that the shadow wasn¡¯t furiously urging them to leave the area, it didn¡¯t seem like they needed to flee immediately. Perhaps there was some sort of trap in the house? Or some kind of hazard? Or perhaps [Scholar] Metista was still inside of the building, and the shadows were about to try to rescue her. In that case, it might make sense that the two shadows wanted them out of the area?


    The shadow nodded furiously, and the two started evacuating from the vicinity of the building. Instead, they moved to the street they had previously travelled en route to [Scholar] Metista¡¯s house, and then waited.


    It didn¡¯t take long for help to arrive. After a few minutes, Allira appeared. Her usually gorgeous hair looked like it had been tossed around by a hurricane, and her clothes were also disheveled. It looked like she had just crawled out of bed after a nap and then sprinted all of the way here.


    Cecilia was right. Attacking someone to steal their research notes... sounded exactly like something the Society of Starry Eyes would do. That didn¡¯t meant they were definitely the culprit ¨C but they were one of the suspects.


    During her journey to Morendia, Alice had seen surprisingly little of the Society. That was probably because she was surrounded by Immortals the entire time, and the group never stayed long enough to get much news. Tracking two combat-oriented Immortals as they quickly moved forward would be an unbelievably stupid act. The Society was many things ¨C but they weren¡¯t stupid. Therefore, Alice hadn¡¯t seen much of the Society, and had even started to subconsciously ignore their existence in favor of other, larger problems. Some part of her had hoped that the Society was simply wracked by its own System-collapse related problems, and would stop making trouble. But if the Society had abducted [Scholar] Metista, then Alice would have yet another major problem to deal with.


    Allira scanned the area, before her frown deepened. ¡°I don¡¯t have definitive proof yet, but I also suspect the Society. I¡¯ve heard that they are making rather unusual movements recently ¨C not just in Illvaria, but across the entire Shil Confederacy, and even in other nations that they aren¡¯t usually active in. I suspect part of this is the members of the Society falling victim to the same mana madness that plagues other people ¨C after all, the Society members usually have classes that are related to unethical research. If they are driven to behave ¡®like their Class,¡¯ they would start to do stupid but daring things, even in countries they aren¡¯t as obviously active in. However, the Society has also been targeting a lot of more well-renowned researchers in some unusual fields of study. It seems like they¡¯re just as worried about figuring out the roots and meaning of this incident as... well, you,¡± said Allira, as she turned towards Alice.


    Alice grimaced. If Allira also suspected the Society was behind this, there was a pretty good chance that she was correct. In fact, now that Alice thought about it...


    Wasn¡¯t she just thinking about how the mana depletion in Morendia was unnatural? That it was possibly artificial in nature, and that nothing she knew of could have created this unusual phenomenon?


    What if it really was artificial in nature?


    The Society was renowned for doing dubious and unethical experiments. What if, somewhere along the way, they managed to figure out the true nature of mana? Or at least a small part of it?


    Alice still had no idea how they could have possibly used that to create the bizarre void of mana in the middle of Morendia... but if they were, it would neatly resolve several of Alice¡¯s doubts. It would also explain why they might target someone like [Scholar] Metista. If someone was researching what they were doing, they might be moving to silence the other party. Of course, it was also entirely possible that the Society had no clue what was causing the mana void in Morendia either, as much as Alice suspected that the mana draining away was artificial in nature. Perhaps one of Morendia¡¯s [Nobles], or the monarch, was trying to keep their country safe. Alice wasn¡¯t sure.


    But either way, Alice was realizing that the mana-void in Morendia might be far more important than she had given it credit for being. In the same way an unexploded bomb laying in her backyard would make her feel anxious, the strange decrease in Morendia¡¯s mana was starting to make her feel anxious.


    Regardless of whether the Society was responsible for the decrease in mana or not, [Scholar] Metista needed to be found and rescued. Alice wasn¡¯t sure if she would be involved in that operation ¨C after all, Ethan tended to keep her away from the fighting if he couldn¡¯t control the situation. However, this wasn¡¯t Illvaria, where Ethan could summon dozens of subordinates to guard her on a whim. Here, Ethan wasn¡¯t a high-ranking military official whose father commanded the entire army. He was an ordinary guest of the state. Given that, he might ask Alice to come along so that he could keep an eye on her.


    Allira sighed, and then grimaced as she looked at the mess in the house again. Maybe Ethan wouldn¡¯t try to rescue Metista at all. After all, this was Morendia. Shouldn¡¯t the country try to rescue one of their [Scholars] if she was kidnapped?


    The international diplomacy and politics behind it all was something Alice didn¡¯t understand well enough to make a clear prediction about. For now, she decided to wait for Ethan and Allira to make their own decisions.


    ¡°For now, a few of my shadow creatures will escort you back to the manor. I¡¯ll do what investigation I can, and see what I can find.¡± Allira grimaced. ¡°Assuming enough people are still sane to give me proper information. Since my Class is so reliant on talking to people, the madness is really starting to make it hard to gather intelligence... well, I¡¯ll make do somehow. By tonight, I should have a better read on what¡¯s going on. Don¡¯t leave until then. Things might be dangerous.¡±


    Alice and Cecilia nodded, and returned to the manor with a few of Allira¡¯s shadows as guards. As she returned to her room, Alice felt her stomach tighten in anxiety. Allira and Cecilia could be wrong... but Allira was an Immortal. If she was willing to say something was ¡®probably¡¯ the work of the Society, she probably had more information to work off of than Alice was privy to. Metista had probably been kidnapped by the Society. Alice wasn¡¯t sure what that meant, or how it would impact her yet... but she had a sneaking suspicion that no matter what happened, it wouldn¡¯t be to her benefit.

 Chapter 198

    That night, Alice and Cecilia stewed in anxiety while they waited in Demor¡¯s mansion. Alice¡¯s worries about how to finish her last few problems had been tossed to the back of her thoughts. The Society¡¯s appearance ¨C or, perhaps more accurately, their reappearance, cast Alice¡¯s thoughts into disarray.


    About two hours before Alice usually went to sleep, Allira and Ethan knocked on her door. Alice frowned, as the two led her back towards the common room. When Alice got there, she saw that Cecilia, Jonathan, Jonathan¡¯s family, and even Demor were also sitting at the dining table.


    Before Alice could raise her voice to ask, Allira sat down at the head of the table. She moved with such force that she nearly shattered the poor wooden chair that she had sat down on, causing Alice to wince as she heard the distressed creaks of the furniture. The [Strength] of an Immortal was incredible, even if Allira was young by Immortal standards.


    ¡°The Society is, indeed, behind [Scholar] Metista¡¯s disappearance,¡± said Allira, with an angry huff.


    Alice frowned. So they had confirmation now. Allira worked as something like Illvaria¡¯s spymaster most of the time, so Alice was willing to trust Allira¡¯s word if she said the Society was behind this. However, why was Allira so angry? The woman usually seemed polite, if emotionally disconnected. Seeing her get worked up was... unusual.


    ¡°So, are we going to rescue her?¡± asked Alice. ¡°Or turn it over the local authorities?¡±


    Ethan sighed.


    ¡°That¡¯s the problem,¡± he said. ¡°Nobody cares that [Scholar] Metista was abducted. Under normal circumstances, this case would have caused outrage. People would be demanding that the [Guards] of the city do something. I would have expected that [Soldiers] would be hunting down every possible lead, if only to stem public outcry.


    ¡°Unfortunately, these are not normal times. The government is in too bad of a condition to worry about the disappearance of a single [Scholar]. Thus, the ruler of Morendia has told us that the country can¡¯t follow up on this case right now. We were told that if we solved this problem, Morendia would thank us and wish us good luck... but the country will not offer us any assistance in rescuing Metista. After that, we were basically shooed out of the throne room.¡±


    Alice frowned.


    That was... a problem.


    Now that Alice thought about it, it wasn¡¯t actually that surprising. She was mostly sheltered from the gradual breakdown of social order that was happening outside... but the visit she and Cecilia took outside of the mansion had opened her eyes to just how bad things were getting. People on the streets were being left to die, and few people were still lucid enough to help others. Mana madness was starting to shatter what little social order remained. Monster hordes were ravaging other countries, and even though the most problematic mana-related catastrophes such as monster swarms and manaborn weren¡¯t as notable in Morendia, they were still creating obvious problems. In light of everything else going wrong, it made a twisted kind of sense for the monarch of this country to focus on other, bigger problems. The Society of Starry Eyes was a small problem compared to the avalanche of extinction events crushing Morendia under their weight.


    But Alice had been hoping that [Scholar] Metista would have the answers she needed. That maybe she could piece together a few final clues after a conversation with her, and solve the entire situation. Alice knew it was a slim hope, but she had been hoping for some kind of insight from [Scholar] Metista. To hear that the woman had been kidnapped by the Society, and that the local government had no ability to help her was disheartening.


    ¡°How important was Metista to your research?¡± asked Ethan. Alice¡¯s breath caught in her throat.


    As she looked at Ethan, she realized something. The local government wasn¡¯t the only one that had given up on [Scholar] Metista. Ethan would, at least potentially, ignore the disappearance of the [Scholar] if Alice didn¡¯t deem her necessary for her research.


    Worse, Alice could understand the logic behind it, even if it made her feel rotten.


    [Scholar] Metista was nowhere near the only person suffering right now. The world itself was crumbling apart, like a house of cards falling down. The end of the human species on this planet, or at very least the serious weakening of the human species, wasn¡¯t just imminent anymore ¨C it was happening every second that passed. People were dying left and right, and every moment Alice spent doing one task was a moment she didn¡¯t spend doing another. Her manpower and resources were limited, and she needed to find the way to fix everything. Could she really justify wasting Ethan and Allira¡¯s limited time on a problem that didn¡¯t directly relate to the bigger picture? If she did, wouldn¡¯t that unfair to the hundreds of thousands of other people who were suffering?


    At the same time... was ignoring Metista the right thing to do? Was it truly a good idea to ignore a potential clue to solving the crisis, the moment the Society appeared?


    Alice felt a headache form, as she realized that the life and death of [Scholar] Metista probably rested on her words. If Alice said she wasn¡¯t useful enough, Ethan and Allira would abandon her to her fate. If Alice said Metista was useful to her research, and the group wasted resources and time rescuing her, Alice would need to turn that into something useful for the crisis ¨C otherwise, she would be letting all of the people dying of mana-madness down. As she felt stress and anxiety start to build up, Alice suddenly had another thought.


    The Society... had probably done an awful lot of unethical experimentation recently. Especially after the collapse of the System, local law enforcement had gotten much harder. While that was terrible for the humans of this world, it was great for the Society, since they were essentially a group of outlaws to begin with. In such circumstances, they would surely thrive, even if the collapse of the System would bring them down eventually. Furthermore, many members of the Society of Starry Eyes would be driven to perform unethical experiments, not necessarily out of their own long term interests... but purely as a result of their Class, and the associated mana.


    However, the direction of their research probably wouldn¡¯t be very well controlled. After all, those who were part of the Society were probably people with lower [Willpower] stats to begin with. If they had a high [Willpower] stat, they would find themselves less tempted to do things like unethical research in the first place.


    Would the Society have any other useful research that Alice could use? Something that would boost her progress along considerably, but that she would never be willing to test herself?


    The Perks were something Alice had been waiting for a while for. After all, she had discovered or invented several new types of mana that she wanted, and her {Experimental Seed} was incapable of keeping up with the supply of mana that she needed. However, the levels were also rather exciting.


    You have leveled up!


    Explorer of Magic: 89 -> 90, Careful Enchanter 43 -> 46, Scholar 71 -> 72, Scientist 72 -> 74, Student 10 -> 11


    This was for a simple reason. [Explorer of Magic] had reached another Perk level, as had [Careful Enchanter]. [Explorer of Magic] was especially exciting, because Alice had hopes that the Class would solve her current predicament entirely. As for [Careful Enchanter]... it also had some chance to provide solutions for Alice¡¯s current predicament.


    Since Alice didn¡¯t know how her Perks and needs would change after taking her new Perks, she decided to deal with her new Perks before handling her Perk cooldowns.


    She looked at [Explorer of Magic] first.


    Thus far, Alice¡¯s needs had been pretty comfortably met by combining Perks that were both part of the [Explorer of Magic] Perk. However, Alice had never forgotten that Perks above level 75 had one more advantage over regular Perk combination ¨C they could also grab perks from totally outside of their Class, as long as one of the two ¡®ingredients¡¯ was from the correct Class. Right now, Alice was trying to figure out how to make artificial magic seeds, and there was a Perk that she suspected would help her do that correctly. It wasn¡¯t from [Explorer of Magic]... but she suspected it would work well as a base for the Perk she wanted.


    {Raw Mana Enchanting}, the most recent Perk from [Careful Enchanter]. It was directly aligned with her current goals and needs, and Alice felt like it had a lot of potential as an ingredient for Perk combination.


    Raw Mana Enchanting


    Requirements: Careful Enchanter level 40 or higher, Have Experimented with some form of construct derived entirely of pure mana and understood its nature, have access to at least 10 different types of mana at the same time, Magic 150 or higher, Pure Mana Seed available, at least 1 Rarity 10 Achievement


    You gain the ability to ¡®stabilize¡¯ constructs made of pure mana, at a significant mana cost. A stabilized mana construct will dissipate far more slowly, and will exhibit some resilience against wear and tear from its surroundings and natural dissipation.


    The problem Alice had was finding a Perk to combine it with.


    Alice couldn¡¯t currently use Tier 3 Perks as fuel for combination. That would only happen once she evolved her Class again at level 100. {Broken Seed} was also far, far too valuable to ever give up, so it was completely off the table as a Perk combination ingredient. Thus, Alice had three choices left. {Combat Seed}, {Seeds of Magic}, and {Enhanced Regeneration}. {Enhanced Regeneration} was just a basic mana regeneration boost, which Alice thought might give her the results she wanted. After all, Alice was trying to figure out how to make Artificial magic seeds, and it did seem like one of the more important aspects of a Magic seed was its ability to generate mana. However, {Seeds of Magic} was a Perk directly related to Magic Seeds, so Alice suspected it would ALSO give her what she wanted. The question was which one would do a better job of giving her what she wanted.


    Alice spent nearly ten minutes debating what the correct path forward was, before she eventually decided to go with {Enhanced Regeneration}. It was... probably more relevant to the result she wanted? Alice hoped so, at least.


    Enhanced regeneration


    Requirements: Explorer of Magic level 10 or higher


    Allows you to regenerate mana 10% faster for all seeds.


    It took several seconds for her Perks to finish fusing together, which was rather unusual. Alice spent the entire time using her Perks to watch in curiosity, as two different streams of mana leapt out of her Class seeds and intertwined with each other. They looked almost like two different streams of light. As the Perk combination neared completion, finally, Alice saw her [Explorer of Magic] Class seed slurp up the intertwined mana like someone eating a bowl of noodles.


    Star of Mana (Tier 3 Explorer of Magic Perk) (Level 10 + Level 40 {Careful Enchanter} Perk)


    Perk Costs: Enhanced Regeneration + Raw Mana Enchanting


    At a very significant mana cost, you can create a raw construct of mana. This construct of mana is capable of regenerating its mana (so long as it is attached to a compatible physical object). It can also act as an enchantment for most intents and purposes (including the automated expenditure of mana).


    Alice looked at her new Perk, and started grinning wildly. Even the thoughts of her Perks, which had just come off cooldown, and her other [Careful Enchanter] Perk fell out of her mind as she grinned in sheer excitement. For days, she had labored to find a solution to her problem. She had bashed her head against wall after wall, finding every single attempt insufficient for her needs. But at last, she had found the key. A magic seed that could independently regenerate mana. She had finally found it. And with that... hopefully, she had found the missing component for how to make a knockoff Class seed.

 Chapter 199

    Alice continued staring at her new Perk for far, far longer than she should have, before she shook herself out of her thoughts. She had one more new Perk to pick, and two Perks to activate. Then... it was time to take her new Perk out for a spin, and see if she could finally make a [Fisherman] Class seed that worked as it was supposed to.


    When Alice opened up the options for [Careful Enchanter], there were only three choices. The first Perk improved the precision of her mana control, with a larger boost while enchanting. It didn¡¯t really appeal to her much. At this point, Alice wasn¡¯t as focused on actual enchantments as she was pure mana constructs, and she didn¡¯t think the precision of her mana control was the problem there. She was missing something fundamental to the process, and no amount of mana precision would help her fix that right now. Besides, Alice just didn¡¯t think that this Perk was strong enough to merit being a level 45 Perk. There had to be better options. Thus, this Perk was discarded without much thought.


    The other two Perks were much more interesting.


    The first Perk would give her the ability to modify enchantments she made without redoing everything.


    Construct Modification


    Requirements: Careful Enchanter level 45 or higher, interaction with a mana construct, creation of a partially finished mana construct, Rarity 10 Achievement


    Allows you to modify and manipulate already-created enchantments, especially enchantments made of mana. Works best on things that you created. No?v(el)B\\jnn


    At first, Alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure why she would want this Perk. After all, she could already ¡®modify¡¯ enchantments, at least to some extent. Sure, modifying an enchantment that already existed wasn¡¯t easy... but it wasn¡¯t impossible. Not to mention, even if she made an enchantment and it didn¡¯t work, her usual go-to method for solving problems was just to start over. It was usually easier to examine a failed enchantment, figure out where she went wrong, and then start a new copy from scratch.


    Then, Alice realized that this Perk was far more practical than she was giving it credit for.


    She could start over just fine if she ruined one of her projectile bracelets or something... but Alice was currently trying to figure out how to make enchantments inside of human beings. That was, in a sense, what a Class seed was, wasn¡¯t it? An enchantment based on the design principles of both monster cores and magic seeds.


    It was much harder to fix a person once they got hurt than it was to replace a bracelet. This Perk made it easier to fix problems she made while minimizing damage to people.


    Furthermore, if Alice had some sort of last-minute tweak she needed to make to her already made class-seeds later, this would be useful. That was... very nice, when Alice was trying to make an intricate combination of enchantments that she understood some of the mechanics of, while totally missing others. If she needed to ¡®patch¡¯ her class seeds, this would make it less of a pain in the neck.


    The other Perk, however, was just as interesting.


    Organic Enchantment


    Requirements: Careful Enchanter level 45 or higher, attempt to enchant a human being, Rarity 10 Achievement, Enhanced Support from the System as a result of the Outworlder Perk (or similar), Moderate or higher understanding of how the System itself works


    You gain a greatly improved ability to use humans as an enchanting material. Human hearts and brains become especially effective at retaining mana without harming the organs in question, and you can tether enchantments to them as appropriate physical anchors.


    Alice was actually quite interested in both enchantments. Sadly, she could only take one... and she had a pretty darn good idea what she wanted.


    {Organic Enchantment} just lined up with what she wanted far, far too well. She was also a bit interested in the perk description. One of the requirements was that she had to have at least some understanding of how the System itself worked. Since most of Alice¡¯s research was devoted to fixing the System right now, Perks that required her to understand the System were obvious, important clues for her research.


    Normally, Alice would still be leery of using other humans as test subjects, but combined with {Safety Analysis} and Jonathan¡¯s ludicrous [Endurance], Alice felt much safer in doing small human experiments. Jonathan wasn¡¯t a fool. If he thought one of Alice¡¯s experiments was a danger, he wouldn¡¯t let her proceed. Alice had no real ability to get through his mana resistance anyway, if he retracted his {Patient¡¯s Consent}. Alice did her best to explain every experiment she did involving him, as well as the risks involved. He was free to say no at any time.


    Since Alice had such a good research position to capitalize on {Organic Enchantment}, she decided to pick that one.


    After picking her second Perk, Alice turned her attention back towards her two Perks that were off cooldown. For her System seed, Alice immediately added in stabilization mana and density mana. She decided to hang on to the other two ¡®additions¡¯ to her compound magic seed, in case she found a new type of mana that she needed or something. She also decided to leave out ¡®pulling¡¯ mana, at least for now. She still hadn¡¯t quite figured out how the System¡¯s version of Class seeds pulled in nearby mana, but she was pretty sure pulling mana wasn¡¯t it. She would see if she could find a better alternative, and add it in if she got stuck.


    Finally, Alice turned her attention to {Magic Modelling}. She decided to make a model of a fully functioning Class seed. It would take a while for her to ¡®fix¡¯ the image, but it was immediately relevant to her current research, and it would be good to have an example from the System. Maybe she could break down more of the intricate components of the model if she was careful and paid attention. Her previous two models had been of mana gems, so Alice was pretty happy with her magic models on that front. It was time to turn her attention to other parts of the System. Even if Alice suspected that she had gone in a slightly different direction from the original System¡¯s design, she could still take inspiration from what she saw and integrate it later on, if she found something useful or necessary.


    Soon, the little magic seed in Jonathan¡¯s heart became a sphere. A few seconds later, the magic seed flashed with mana for a few seconds, and then fell silent.


    Alice observed the rest of Jonathan¡¯s body, and grinned.


    All of the [Fisherman] mana in Jonathan¡¯s body had been pulled into the magic seed. The magic seed didn¡¯t show any signs of instability, either. It was constantly producing more stabilization mana, and that stabilization mana was sufficient to keep the [Fisherman] mana from pulling apart and drifting away.


    However, Alice noticed that her new ¡®magic seed¡¯ didn¡¯t look quite right. There were still several types of mana missing, and Alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure whether the seed was doing its job correctly.


    Still, even though the magic seed didn¡¯t look quite right, and there might be problems with it, it was doing something. Alice started tossing more activations of {Safety Analysis} at the magic seed, just to make sure that nothing had gone horribly wrong and started killing Jonathan. But everything seemed fine.


    ¡°How do you feel?¡± asked Alice.


    ¡°I feel... fine?¡± said Jonathan, as he inspected himself. ¡°In fact, I feel a bit different than usual. Ever since you had me start building up the prerequisites to become a [Fisherman], I¡¯ve felt a very small urge to fish, even though it¡¯s not really something I typically enjoy. It¡¯s easy to push away, since I have a very high [Willpower], but I did notice it. However, I feel like that urge has decreased. It¡¯s subtle though, and it might be an illusion.¡±


    Alice tried not to start cackling madly in excitement. A moment later, she failed, and started giving out a full, witchy cackle that reverberated through the air and made Jonathan raise an eyebrow.


    ¡°I think it worked! Or at least, I got a partial success this time!¡± said Alice, so happy that she nearly hugged Jonathan, before deciding she really didn¡¯t want physical contact with another human being today. Still, Alice continued cackling happily as she watched the mana in Jonathan¡¯s body slither towards the newly made class seed.


    ¡°Do you have a new Class in your status screen?¡± asked Alice, in between wheezy cackles.


    ¡°Umm... I don¡¯t,¡± said Jonathan.


    Alice finally got her mad giggling back under control, and leaned in closer to Jonathan¡¯s body to see what was going on. It only took her a few seconds to figure out why it wasn¡¯t linked to the rest of Jonathan¡¯s status screen ¨C her newly made class seed didn¡¯t have any display mana, or math mana inside of it. Naturally, that meant that while it was doing its job just fine, it wasn¡¯t producing a result for Jonathan to investigate. Alice quickly used a bit of her remaining compound seed¡¯s mana to manually hook up Jonathan¡¯s [Fisherman] seed with his brain. She tossed a bit of math and display mana towards it to make sure everything showed up properly.


    ¡°How about now?¡± asked Alice.


    ¡°Hmm... I do see something. But I have no idea what it says. It looks like it¡¯s in some kind of foreign language that I¡¯ve never heard of before,¡± said Jonathan. ¡°I think it looks like... there is letter that looks like a big pole, with two little flags sticking out of it? And then it¡¯s followed by a little line that is standing upright, with a dot right on top of it...¡±


    ¡°Oops, one second,¡± said Alice, as she finally realized the problem. Jonathan didn¡¯t speak English. She added in a bit of meaning mana to translate everything. ¡°How about now?¡±


    Jonathan squinted at the air in front of him, before he nodded. ¡°My status screen now shows a new secondary Class. It¡¯s called [Fisherman]. However, the Status Screen also says has the words (Flawed Seed) written right next to it. It¡¯s also displayed as level 0, instead of level 1. I have never heard of a Class being stuck at level 0. How odd.¡±


    Alice shrugged. She had kind of expected that the new magic seed wouldn¡¯t work perfectly. She was just happy she had produced some kind of functioning result at all. It might not be perfect... but she had finally gotten somewhere. It looked like her magic seed suppressed the unusual personality transformations caused by mana, at least. Alice suspected that her ¡®Class Seed¡¯ wouldn¡¯t give people Perks, so it was no wonder the System considered it a half-baked magic seed. Still, she had made a solution for the Class mana problem, at least. There were still several components that her magic seed was missing, and she would have to observe Jonathan for a while and make sure her seed didn¡¯t have problems. However, she was at least half-sure that she had finally made a working Class seed of some sort. She could address the current crisis.


    She thanked Jonathan for his assistance and willingness to let her experiment on him, and told him to immediately tell her if anything went wrong. Jonathan told her that he would let her know, and also told her that he would do some fishing to see if anything ¡®odd¡¯ happened while he generated more [Fisherman] mana.


    Alice spent the rest of the day as a mess of emotions, veering between anticipation, hope, and crushing anxiety that she had missed something that would cause the whole thing to collapse. This continued long after dinner, and that night, Alice tossed and turned on her bed. It had been half a day since she had given Jonathan the new version of her seed, and there hadn¡¯t been any issues so far. Had she really done it? Would her test succeed?


    As she lay in bed, thinking about her next steps, and her fears and hopes, she was dragged out of her thoughts by a gentle knocking sound on her door. She got out of bed, made sure her appearance was presentable, and then opened the door. On the other side stood Cecilia.


    ¡°Ethan wanted you to know. Allira found the Society base. We¡¯ll raid it in two days,¡± she said.

 Chapter 200

    the next two days were a blur of activity. alice spent most of each day monitoring jonathan¡¯s condition. now that she had given him a new version of a ¡®class seed,¡¯ she desperately wanted to spend every moment observing it and seeing if it worked or not.


    at first, she was hopeful. at the time, she had felt like she might have really solved the problems related to creating class seeds and developed a viable alternative. however, she started to realize there were a lot of issues she still needed to work out.


    first of all, the magic seed was prone to the same issue the system-created magic seeds had ¨Cthat is, the magic seed quickly got clogged up when it tried to absorb nearby mana. since alice had a way to solve that problem, it wasn¡¯t the end of the world if she didn¡¯t develop a solution for this. however, it required resources and manpower to create, and so alice filed it away as a possible improvement she could make if she had time.


    however, there was a bigger, more fundamental issue to her class seed.


    stability issues.


    alice had thought that ¡®stabilization mana,¡¯ paired with some amount of mana compression, would be enough to make a pseudo-class seed. that was the entire reason that alice had worked so hard to make the class seed produce stabilization mana. without it, the class mana would always outgrow the stabilization mana eventually, and then the whole thing would fall apart.


    however, alice¡¯s solution only partially resolved the issue. on alice¡¯s request, jonathan kept fishing in order to stress test the seed. at first, it seemed to work... and then, after thirty-six hours, the class seed started to collapse.


    the problem was organization.


    the magic seed still grew like it was supposed to. it absorbed [fisherman] mana and generated stabilization mana, and with the help of some density mana, the whole thing remained reasonably compact. however, the way it grew was lumpy, uneven, and disjointed. after a few rounds of collecting [fisherman] mana, the seed was barely held together by alice¡¯s hopes and dreams. it looked like a cancerous tumor rather than a class seed. it was constantly trying to grow, fall apart, and spread throughout jonathan¡¯s body, and alice had a sneaking suspicion the problem would only get worse if the seed kept growing like this.


    alice had taken a step in the right direction, but there was still something deeply wrong with her attempted class seed.


    in a desperate attempt to salvage her collapsing class seed, alice started trying to add other components of system mana to the failing [fisherman] seed. she started out with math mana, since she was hoping it would keep the whole seed reasonably organized and stable. however, alice wasn¡¯t even sure if it helped. the math mana seemed to make the [fisherman] seed become slightly more organized for an hour or two... before the math mana also started to become a jumbled, disorganized mess. there were a variety of weird, jagged creases, lumps, and oddities in the magic seed, and the entire thing was pulling itself apart. it was a disaster.


    this frustrated alice to no end, and she started trying to add in other types of mana to create some of the stability the class seed needed. she tried using pure mana to help the math mana organize itself. when the pure mana and the math mana struggled to interact with each other, alice used communication mana to help them relay information to each other. when that started to make the class seed behave erratically and start to fall apart, alice added in some filtration mana. not because she actually thought it would fix the seed, but out of sheer frustration and some sort of misplaced hope that she could just ¡®filter away¡¯ all of the instabilities in the magic seed.


    that wen about as well as alice had suspected it would ¨C that is to say, the class seed gave up and imploded, setting alice right back to square one. alice was more than a bit frustrated by that, but she had no idea what else she could have done at that point. the class seed was clearly not working as intended, and all of her attempts to save it had gone awry. she needed to fix the problems in her class seed in some other way.


    frustrated, alice spent several hours in her dream library studying the system version of a class seed. she was still missing a lot of the visual information she wanted, but she did stumble across something that she hadn¡¯t noticed before. a part of each class seed that she had always known about, but hadn¡¯t realized the importance of.


    perks.


    alice had always thought that perks were sort of like a side benefit the system tossed in to class seeds. in her mind, she had always thought that the ¡®big purpose¡¯ of a class seed was to absorb mana and stabilize it. the perks were just a way to give humans a little benefit from the mana, instead of just leaving a neutralized time bomb inside of their body.


    this was not the case.


    as alice studied the system¡¯s class seed in more detail, the bits of the image she had taken started to become easier to view and observe. and through that, alice started to notice a pattern.


    the system¡¯s class seeds also showed some of the same signs of lumpiness and disorganization that her own class seeds had started to show. whatever had designed the system, it had clearly run into the same problem she had.


    however, while alice was still missing a lot of the picture, she realized that it almost looked like little bits and pieces of each chunk of mana were stitched together with incredibly fine, layered thread made of mana. alice wasn¡¯t quite sure what she was looking at, until she noticed that the magic seed seemed to have a very specific number of ¡®weird lumps¡¯ in it. alice had taken an image of her [explorer of magic] seed, and the [explorer of magic] seed had ninety lumps in.


    exactly the number of levels she had in the class.


    it could have been a coincidence, but alice suspected it was not.


    however, she had never had any issues with actually selecting new perks. when she got a new perk, it worked just fine. achievements had all grown much weaker once the system collapsed, and alice had needed to manually ¡®repair¡¯ them to get her achievements back to full strength afterwards. she had never needed to do the same for her perks.


    in other words, class seeds didn¡¯t need access to the system for any part of the perk creation process. alice suspected that class seeds couldn¡¯t invent new perks on the spot, either. for the first fifty levels, classes all had pretty consistent perk lists. everyone with the [barmaid] class had the exact same pool of perks that the system picked from, and while the system only presented a few choices at each level, they were all part of the same ¡®master list.¡¯ in other words, perks probably had some sort of ¡®local storage¡¯ for all of the perks someone could get from each class. then, whenever someone hit the appropriate level, their class seed just searched through the library of blueprints and grabbed whatever it thought the user was ¡®interested in¡¯ and hit the requirements for.


    with that in mind... alice already had a copy of all of the perks a [fisherman] could ever want. she didn¡¯t need to figure out how to make perks herself. all she needed to do was find the local storage, and then copy it over. assuming her assumptions were correct, of course.


    even better, alice already had the [fisherwoman] class. it was stuck at level 3, and would probably never advance to level 4, but if it did have some sort of ¡®local storage¡¯ for perks, she just needed to find it.


    alice looked at the ¡®picture¡¯ she had taken of a class seed, and sighed in disappointment.


    she had taken a picture of her [explorer of magic] seed, because she had thought it was a better class to get a ¡®first glimpse¡¯ of. it was her most complicated and detailed perk, and alice had been hoping to figure out how it worked before she reached level 100 in the class. it might have given her a lot of insight into why mana gems seemed to form after level 75. now, alice wished she had ignored the class entirely, and gone for a picture of her simplest class first.


    it was a small mistake, but it would cost her a few days to get a picture of her [fisherwoman] seed. that was quite frustrating.


    all of her experiments did give her another level in [careful enchanter], bringing her up to level 47 in the class... but she didn¡¯t get any other levels, either. alice was probably close to levelling up several classes, but she hadn¡¯t quite hit the next threshold. which also meant she couldn¡¯t get a new perk that would fix her problems.


    you have leveled up!


    careful enchanter: 46 -> 47


    after realizing her hopes for an ¡®easy solution¡¯ would either need to come from her [explorer of magic] class seed or some more time, alice stopped worrying about jonathan¡¯s class seed. at least in the immediate future, she wasn¡¯t going to be able to get a ¡®perfect solution,¡¯ or even an unorthodox workaround. so she threw herself into last-minute preparations for the upcoming raid.


    the society would be weakened, but she wasn¡¯t going to gamble her life on something she didn¡¯t feel certain on. ethan and allira would be next to her, and so would jonathan. they would also have a group of [mercenaries] helping them out ¨C but at the end of the day, [mercenaries] were far less reliable than the lineup alice had previously been part of while raiding a society base. last time, she had been accompanied by hundreds of hardened illvarian [soldiers] who were loyal to ethan¡¯s father and were hand-picked to help ethan. they were a group of competent men and women that were trained to work together and had treat ethan as their commander for years, if not decades.


    [mercenaries] had not spent decades learning to trust ethan¡¯s decision making in the heat of battle. alice suspected ethan would have ways to weed out truly untrustworthy hires... but it was obvious there were going to be more problems with this raid than the last one.


    thus, alice spent the last half day before the society base raid going over the enchanting equipment ethan had dumped in front of her door the night before the raid.


    there were a variety of new pieces of gear, but most of them were either ¡®stop a mage from using their magic to kill alice¡¯ types of equipment, or ¡®toss this into a portal and then snap it shut before it explodes¡¯ types of equipment. it seemed like ethan had quickly realized how alice¡¯s new fighting style worked after she picked up {dimensional camouflage}, and had bought out another few enchantment stores to make sure alice was well supplied. she appreciated it, even if alice wasn¡¯t quite sure how she was ever going to use all of the equipment he had given her. the quantity was ludicrous enough that alice could probably spend days tossing out consumable enchantments before she ran out of supplies. it seemed like overkill to her. then again, alice was not an immortal with centuries of dedicated combat training and experience. she decided to trust ethan¡¯s judgement. if he thought she needed all this equipment, maybe she did.


    finally, the day of the society base raid came.


    ethan and allira quickly led alice out of demor¡¯s mansion, followed by jonathan, cecilia, and oddly enough, jonathan¡¯s family. alice glanced at ethan and jonathan questioningly, wondering why they had brought several civilians with them, but jonathan simply shrugged upon seeing alice¡¯s confused gaze.


    ¡°i don¡¯t actually anticipate this being too dangerous. most combat oriented immortals are about equal to several hundred average [soldiers], and we have two combat-oriented immortals here. unless the society¡¯s entire upper echelon is hiding in this base, we should have a massive advantage in this fight. leaving my family back in demor¡¯s mansion might give the society something to target,¡± he said. ¡°so i thought it was safer to just bring them along with me.¡±


    alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure whether that was a good idea, but she decided not to say anything. it was his family, and alice already knew she wasn¡¯t exactly a tactical genius.


    after that, alice scanned the [mercenaries] ethan had put together. in total, there were about fifty men and women standing outside of demor¡¯s mansion. based off of alice¡¯s rough assessment, they were mostly between level 40 and 55 ¨C a bit lower than the illvarian pseudo-army that ethan had put together last time. at the head of the [mercenaries] was a man who seemed to be about level 65, and looked a bit on the older side. he was the [mercenary commander] for the company of soldiers ethan had hired. after alice realized that ethan had hired a company of people, rather than fifty individuals, she did feel herself grow a bit more relaxed.


    perhaps she hadn¡¯t given the [mercenaries] quite enough credit. it did look like they had a reasonable level of coordination with each other. perhaps her understanding of [mercenaries] wasn¡¯t as good as she thought it was. even if their group seemed far less intimidating than the illvarian army ethan had commanded last time, allira was here to pick up the slack. she still needed to be alert in case something went wrong... but she also shouldn¡¯t undersell the group.


    she tried not to wallow in self doubt and anxiety as the group finished organizing, and then started to march towards the society base.

 Chapter 201

    The march through the forest was slow, and a large part of that was due to the inefficiency of the [Mercenaries]. Alice had never before appreciated just how much of a difference training made on travel speed. The Illvarian army that she and Ethan had traveled with last time had moved at a ground-eating pace, travelling across well-paved roads while [Scouts] and [Commanders] constantly buffed the soldiers and found the most optimal route.


    The [Mercenaries] didn¡¯t have that advantage. They didn¡¯t move slowly, but they didn¡¯t move quickly, either. Alice guessed that they were probably moving at half the speed the Illvarian [Soldiers] had moved at - and the [Mercenaries] also had a strong tendency to get slightly lost. If it weren¡¯t for Allira¡¯s shadows helping the group find their way, Alice suspected the group might spend hours wandering around the forest, trying to find their target.


    The second thing that Alice noticed was that the [Mercenary] band was loud. Every single footfall echoed through the forest like the beat of a drum, which made Alice wince. If the Society had any competent [Scouts], they would definitely know that the [Mercenaries] were coming. There was no plausible way that they would miss the loud, clumsy tramping of the small army through the forest. Admittedly, even during the previous base raid, Alice had noticed that the Society lacked the kind of efficient command structure a military had. However, she still didn¡¯t think the group would have surprise on their side when they arrived.


    The only thing that slightly reassured Alice was Allira. The Immortal was capable of filling in for several of the logistical roles that the [Mercenaries] were missing. After seeing the hopelessly slow and loud march, Allira started humming at the makeshift army. After that, Alice saw little flecks of rainbow mana crawl out of her shadow, before swarming the [Mercenaries] and covering up their feet. With each note, the [Mercenaries] became faster. Their feet would subconsciously start to dodge little branches and rocks, becoming surer and less easily disturbed.


    Of course, singing wasn¡¯t exactly a quiet activity. Thus, even though Allira could help with the group¡¯s movement speed, there was nothing she could do to fix the sound problem.


    After nearly four hours of walking, Alice was starting to grow increasingly nervous. The Society hadn¡¯t responded to the group¡¯s approach at all. And Alice couldn¡¯t figure out why. Was the Society preparing an ambush? After she thought of all of the traps and dangers a Mage could create, Alice started to constantly sweep their surroundings with her Perks. She kept imagining something out of a movie from home ¨C perhaps a scene where a soldier steps onto a landmine, killing him and his companions. She could certainly imagine ways to create similar weapons using magic.


    However, none of Alice¡¯s scans with mana turned up anything. Far from making Alice feel relieved, this made her feel even more tense. The Society should have a response prepared. If she didn¡¯t see one, that meant she was missing it. Ethan and Allira seemed to share her anxiety. Allira¡¯s shadows got more and more restless as the group approached the base, and Ethan constantly emitted flashes of rainbow mana as he searched the area for any threats that they had missed.


    ¡°There is no way the Society would be this careless,¡± Allira finally hissed, as the group entered the final stretch of forest. ¡°We¡¯re less than a kilometer away. We spent days trying to find a [Mercenary] group. The Society must have some contacts with the surrounding population. That¡¯s just how they operate. They should already know that we¡¯re coming, and this is the perfect spot to set up an ambush, and we¡¯ve passed several other spots where they could have at least set up a few magic traps to slow us down. Why does this area seem so empty?¡±


    Ethan also frowned. ¡°My father used to say that if an enemy is behaving oddly, or a situation is going too well, it¡¯s because the enemy has you right where they want you. I¡¯m inclined to agree with him,¡± said Ethan. ¡°Something is wrong here.¡±


    Cecilia, who stood just to the left of Alice, shivered. ¡°Maybe they¡¯re just hard-hit by the impact of class-mana poisoning? That would explain at least some of their odd behavior,¡± said Cecilia. ¡°Even more normal people are starting to fall into madness as a result of their class mana overwhelming them. The Society is comprised of people who, to put it bluntly, have weaker [Willpower], a Stat we know directly assists people in resisting the corrosion of Class mana. It¡¯s not unimaginable that their command structure is paralyzed.¡±


    ¡°Maybe,¡± said Ethan. ¡°But even if the Society has lower average [Willpower], their response shouldn¡¯t be this lackluster. Logistical issues and societal problems haven¡¯t reached critical mass in regular cities yet, and I don¡¯t think the Society is likely to be at that stage either yet. This just seems too... ineffective compared to my previous alterations with the Society.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± said Cecilia, sounding thoughtful. Alice felt her heart tighten further, as though a giant had reached into her chest and started squeezing on her nerves. So she wasn¡¯t the only one that thought the current situation was off. If even two Immortals thought the current situation was weird, something was definitely wrong.


    ¡°Alice, do you see anything?¡± asked Ethan. ¡°Your eyesight is way better than everyone else¡¯s.¡±


    Alice shook her head. ¡°I¡¯ve been looking, but I don¡¯t see anything at all. The area is just... empty. I haven¡¯t even see basic monsters like spidercrabs.¡±


    Ethan grimaced.


    The group continued creeping closer, until finally, they reached the outskirts of the Society base. There, Alice frowned again.


    The previous Society base that she had attacked with Ethan had been hidden by an enchantment. The enchantment had a variety of abilities, all of which made it very hard to find the base unless someone already knew where it was. However, as far as she could tell, this Society base didn¡¯t have any similar enchantment surrounding it. That was... baffling. Why hadn¡¯t the Society put up an enchantment to keep the base hidden?


    Alice wondered if maybe the enchantment had somehow been incompatible with... whatever the Society was doing in this base. Or maybe the Society simply hadn¡¯t installed the same enchantment here? Neither of those explanations felt right to Alice, but she didn¡¯t know what to think.


    Alice felt her unease grow stronger. The Society she had feared wasn¡¯t this incompetent. Even if many members would have been blasted to madness by the influence of their Class mana, there was no way the Society would fall like this.


    But that was exactly what she was seeing. After nearly half a minute, the Society finally started peppering the advancing [Mercenaries] with projectiles from smaller slits in the building. However, their attacks were ineffective at best. Alice didn¡¯t know how many [Kinetic Mages] the base had, but it seemed like less than ten were attacking the [Mercenaries]. The few projectiles that did hit the [Mercenary] charge were deflected by various Perks, and before the Society could inflict any real damage, the [Mercenaries] kicked down the door and leapt inside. Alice and the others were right on their tail. Alice frowned as they rushed into the building.


    Alice wasn¡¯t sure why the Society was so much less effective than it usually was. This didn¡¯t seem like the level of damage that just Class mana could do ¨C it seemed more like the entire command structure of the Society had dropped dead or something. Even more odd, this base didn¡¯t have most of the defenses that the first base Alice had seen had. There was no giant ditch surrounding the Society base, even though it wouldn¡¯t have been very hard to dig one out, and it would have made the lives of the [Mercenaries] far more difficult. There weren¡¯t any odd magical traps outside of the base. Something was very wrong here.


    When Alice got her first look inside of the building, she finally saw the first sign of real defenses.


    Just behind the doorway was a massive, caved in section of the floor. It was about fifty meters long, and ten meters deep. Alice could still see bits of stone and dust swirling around the air, making it look like a Society Mage had used some kind of magic or Perk to destroy the hallway only moments earlier.


    Standing on the other side of the gap were twenty [Organic Mages] and a handful of [Kinetic Mages]. The [Organic Mages] were wearing hastily put together enchanted items and weapons, and the [Kinetic Mages] looked nervous as they eyed Alice, Ethan, and Allira. Clearly, they had figured out that they were fighting powerful enemies, even if they weren¡¯t aware that Ethan and Allira were combat-oriented Immortals.


    A moment passed, as the Society Mages looked at the [Mercenaries], and the [Mercenaries] stared at the huge pit in front of the door. The [Mercenaries] whipped out bows and started firing at the Society Mages, who immediately started deflecting their arrows with Kinetic magic and returning fire. As projectiles started whizzing over the massive hallway pit, Ethan finally started to intervene, tilting the projectile war decisively in their favor. An Immortal might not be able to defeat an entire army, but they could certainly crush five mid-level Mages. Allira didn¡¯t even need to intervene, and thus spread her shadows into the surroundings to watch out for other nasty surprises.


    ¡°Alice. Fix the floor,¡± said Ethan. ¡°I want to keep my eyes open for other traps. Something doesn¡¯t feel right about this.¡±


    Alice nodded. Repairing a floor was something she could do. She started using her senses to scan for other materials... before realizing that she didn¡¯t know very much about architecture. Now probably wasn¡¯t the time for trial and error. Alice winced, and decided to solve the problem a different way. She used her dimensional mana to open a large portal, wide enough for about three people to walk through at a time. She devoted a few more mana tendrils to clearing up some of the broken mana flying around the area as a result of all the Mages in the vicinity, and then gestured towards the [Mercenaries].


    ¡°Jump through the portal. I¡¯m dealing with the broken mana!¡± yelled Alice.


    A few of the [Mercenaries] looked uneasy, but as they glanced at the collapsing Society defensive line, they relaxed. Ethan had already crushed most of the resisting Society Mages. Then, they hopped through the portal. Although a few of the remaining [Organic Mages] turned around to meet them, Ethan¡¯s projectiles had already devastated their position. Nearly half of the defenders were dead, and another quarter of them were seriously injured. As dozens of [Mercenaries] poured through the portal, the remaining defenders quickly fell into disarray, and started to retreat further into the base. However, at that moment, another set of shadow maws snapped up several of the remaining defenders, and the [Mercenaries] made short work of the final remaining few. In less than a minute, the two Immortals and the hired [Mercenaries] had bulldozed the defensive line of the Society¡¯s base.


    Alice frowned.


    The entire operation still felt... too easy to her. She still felt that something was wrong, but the exact cause of that wrongness was still unidentified. It felt like Alice was jumping at shadows, searching for a problem that might not exist. She hated this, but she also didn¡¯t know how to fix it.


    ¡°Let¡¯s just go,¡± she said. Ethan, Allira, and Jonathan all moved closer as the group rejoined the other [Mercenaries]. Cecilia frowned as she checked the walls of the base, before she shook her head.


    ¡°The base¡¯s wall enchantments don¡¯t seem dangerous to me. Whatever the Society is planning, it¡¯s not related to that,¡± she said.


    Ethan and Allira nodded, and continued giving their surroundings wary glances.


    Uneasily, the large group made their way past the entrance hallway of the base, and started making their way deeper inside. Even though something still felt wrong, Alice wasn¡¯t sure how to resolve the issue. So, barring an idea of what the problem was or if it actually existed, she decided to see what else was inside. She just hoped she wouldn¡¯t miss the real threat before it was too late.

 Chapter 202

    The depths of the Society base were different from what Alice was expecting. The previous Society base had been like a makeshift fort. Most of the important bits were above ground, and while there was a basement, it was small. It had mostly been used for storage.


    At first, Alice thought that this base was similar. However, as the group started to search the aboveground regions, she started to wonder. The Society base was different. The parts of the building that were above ground were filled with random magic supplies, and not a single test subject or report. It was almost like a glorified storage closet, filled with random bits and bobs. Alice had even started to wonder if the group had mistaken the owners of the base somehow. Perhaps the base wasn¡¯t a Society base at all, but just a group of Mages that disliked civilization and set up a giant base in the woods for some reason? As ridiculous as the notion seemed, the base simply didn¡¯t match her expectations based on the last Society base she had seen.


    Then, one of the [Mercenaries] hired by Ethan found the real base. Near the back of the base, there was a hidden trapdoor which led to an underground floor. Since the group had found little aboveground, they quickly moved through the trapdoor.


    The first floor of the underground facility was where things started to get weirder. The first room in the underground facility was filled with crystals. Lots, and lots, and lots of crystals. Alice had never seen them before. She had no idea what type of crystal they were, what they were supposed to do, or what they were made of. They weren¡¯t particularly unusual to her various types of mana-sight, either. They were neither mana-rich nor mana-poor. They were somewhat pretty, but didn¡¯t really stand out. If she had seen them while walking down the street, she probably would have thought they were some kind of raw gemstone that could be shaped into jewelry for upper middle class [Merchants] in this world.


    The rest of the first floor was filled with a bunch of other supplies, all of similarly baffling nature. There were wooden sticks that had no special attributes, clothes that looked almost like those of a [Priest], but didn¡¯t belong to any religion Alice knew of, etc. They were just random odds and ends, without any unusual mana characteristics or physical characteristics.


    The second floor was filled with test subjects. Unlike most Society bases, the captives on the second floor were mostly alive - which was a small miracle. Only one in twenty were dead, which was an incredibly low casualty rate by the standards of most Society experiments. However, almost eighty percent of the captives had succumbed to some form of class madness. Several of them looked malnourished, or dehydrated, or both.


    Alice frowned when she saw that.


    Eighty percent... was a very high number of people to succumb to class madness.


    Back in the capital of Morendia, Alice was willing to bet that less than ten percent of the population had succumbed to their class mana. Things there had reached a stage where it was hard to care for the sick and mad, but they were still sort of under control. In the Society base, the number of mad had already reached a point where there were few sane survivors left.


    The group started to go around, rescuing the survivors and doing what they could for them. Meanwhile, the [Mercenaries] and Allira¡¯s shadows fanned out to search the surrounding area. About two thirds of the way through giving the survivors medical checks and removing the Class mana pollution, one of the [Mercenaries] ran back up to Ethan and handed him a sheaf of papers.


    ¡°They found a research log,¡± said Ethan, after skimming through the papers. ¡°Take a look with me.¡± He moved the papers so that Alice could also read them.


    Alice grabbed hold of the book Allira handed over, and then started skimming it. She could do a more in-depth review of the book once she was safe, and asleep.


    Record log of grand experiment 17:


    Attempted to determine the nature of the ¡®unusual¡¯ behavior of the general population.


    Based on some leaps of faith, as well as general suspicions of how Classes work and public knowledge shared by ¡®Alice¡¯ in Illvaria, we have attempted to determine whether there is any sort of relation between ¡®beliefs¡¯ and the progression of various forms of madness.


    Experiment began by placing a regular ¡®placebo¡¯ crystal into a room, in full view of a select group of test subjects, and then having a single, fake patient placed into a room with that crystal. Fake patient was actually Veridin, a Society member who has the [Spy] and [Flesh Trader] Classes. Vedrin faked rapid insanity, while making it appear that the crystal was what caused the progression of Class madness.


    Afterwards, we placed crystals into rooms with all of the other test subjects for batch one, and then tested the rate at which they fell into class madness when compared to a control group. It was confirmed that class madness takes over the patients and their mind nearly 30% faster if a crystal was placed into a room with a patient who witnessed Vedrin¡¯s ¡®madness¡¯ act.@@@@


    Patients that remained sane were returned to the research pool later, fo further study.


    Experiment 18:


    Using similar procedure to the previous experiment, it was determined that the crystals have no impact on patients that did not witness Vedrin¡¯s ¡®madness¡¯ act. However people¡¯s beliefs shape their surroundings, it does not seem to carry over. Perhaps this is a result of lack of concentrated beliefs? Worth testing in a future experiment. ???¦¯?E??


    Alice felt faintly ill. At least she understood what all of the normal crystals on the previous floor were used for, now. They were to test placebo effects on the patients. The reason the crystals seemed so random was because they didn¡¯t have any effect on their own.


    The next few experiments in the research log were mostly of similar nature to the previous ones - just different ways of verifying the impact of ¡®belief¡¯ on mana and trying to pin down precise numbers for how belief and reality interacted with each other. The Society seemed maddened by the inconsistency of their results - after all, the Society didn¡¯t seem to have any way to measure ¡®belief,¡¯ and since that was one of the core variables in their experiments, many of their tests came up with ludicrous or bizarre results that had a general ¡®theme,¡¯ but no consistent mathematical equations to back it up.


    ¡°So the Society found some of the same things I did,¡± said Alice, resisting the urge to grimace. ¡°It doesn¡¯t look like they got very useful results, though. Too much jumbled math and confusion on their end.¡±


    Ethan nodded as the group continued rooting through the reports. ¡°It looks like they were trying to devise some way to measure human belief, but kept failing. I¡¯m surprised they got this far.¡±


    Alice sighed. ¡°It¡¯s normal for them to find some of the same things I spent so much time discovering. They don¡¯t care about ethical research, after all.¡±


    Cecilia winced, before she nodded in agreement. ¡°It¡¯s way easier to produce results when you don¡¯t care about the safety of your test subjects.¡±


    Alice sighed. The Society had spent a lot of time verifying some of the groundwork for Alice¡¯s own assumptions about the System, belief, and how humans and mana interacted with each other. That was... sort of useful for her. But it didn¡¯t give her the kind of information she had been hoping to get from the Society base.


    Alice frowned. ¡°Can you deal with them?¡± she asked.


    ¡°I can, but I figure Ethan would be a better matchup,¡± said Allira. ¡°I¡¯d have to spend several Perks dealing with them, and I¡¯d rather keep those in case we run into a second army of researchers or something.¡±


    ¡°I can do it,¡± said Ethan, as he took a step towards the monsters. Then, Alice saw thermal mana start to swirl around his body, mixed in with rainbow mana.


    A few seconds later, one of the air leeches finally noticed Ethan. It started flying towards him at a breakneck speed, but it was too slow.


    Alice felt a blast of heat rip its way out of Ethan¡¯s body, before cooking most of the air on the third floor. It was like the space in front of them had turned into a giant oven. The air leeches immediately noticed Ethan, and started charging towards him. Several of them also turned their bodies into air, in a desperate attempt to survive.


    Their actions meant little. Without any further spells or actions on Ethan¡¯s part, the monsters quickly fell apart. In thirty seconds flat, the floor no longer had monsters on it.


    ¡°They¡¯re gone. One of my Perks is gone too,¡± said Ethan, as he glanced at the dried-out, desiccated corpses of the monsters. They looked oddly similar to plastic bags, at least in Alice¡¯s opinion.


    ¡°Anything else on the floor?¡± asked Ethan, as he turned towards Allira.


    ¡°Give me a moment to check,¡± said Allira. She started singing, and the shadows rose in response, before they started swarming the floor.


    A few minutes later, the shadows returned to her. Allira shook her head.


    ¡°There aren¡¯t any other monsters in here. There aren¡¯t any other documents, either,¡± she said. ¡°There are a lot of human corpses here, and that¡¯s it. I¡¯m not sure what they were trying to do here, either.¡±


    Alice sighed, and stepped fully into the third underground floor. ¡°Let¡¯s see if we can dig any secrets out of the dead, then,¡± she said.


    The group started investigating the floor, but just as Allira had said, there were no other monsters, no documents, no anything. Alice found that frustrating. The Society was usually quite gung-ho about recording their monstrous experiments. This was the first time Alice had seen a Society base that had basically no records at all of what they were trying to do. It was just... a pile of long-dead human corpses, and monsters roaming the floor for unknown reasons.


    ¡°Odd,¡± said Ethan, after the other Immortals and [Mercenaries] on the floor reconvened. ¡°I can¡¯t tell what the Society was trying to test here at all.¡±


    ¡°Hmm...¡± Allira frowned. ¡°It seems like this base, in general, might have been testing the links between human beliefs and their environment. if that¡¯s the case... maybe this floor was similar?¡±


    Jonathan nodded. ¡°It seems like as good of a guess as any. All of the human corpses we found were placed inside of isolation chambers, but all of them had one-way windows that let them see outside of their cells. A ridiculous amount of craftsmanship and resources were put into making it possible to see out of the cell, without alerting the monsters to the presence of the humans. If I had to take a wild guess, I would say that the Society wanted to see if human beliefs could influence monsters?¡±


    Alice frowned. Jonathan¡¯s speculation was a bit of a leap, since they didn¡¯t have very much information yet, but it did make sense.


    ¡°Why kill all of the prisoners then?¡± she asked. Then, a moment later, a question struck her. One that she would have been interested in testing, if she had no morals or bottom line. ¡°I wonder if human beliefs continue to influence their surroundings after they die.¡±


    Ethan laughed, a grim, bitter laugh. ¡°That sounds about right.¡± He turned to Allira. ¡°Allira, did these air leeches seem any different from usual air leeches?¡±


    Allira shook her head. ¡°No. They seemed pretty normal to me.¡± Then, she frowned. ¡°But we did kill them very quickly. It¡¯s unknown what ¡®change¡¯ the Society tried to make to these creatures, if your assumption is correct. So it¡¯s hard to say whether we would have spotted any smaller changes to the monsters.¡±


    Since they didn¡¯t have enough information, the group quickly moved on. Much like the difference between the second and third floor, the staircase between the third and fourth floor had an enchantment that kept unidentified life forms from moving between floors. Cecilia disabled it, and then the group stepped into the next floor.


    The moment they entered the fourth floor, the group froze. The fourth floor was beyond Alice¡¯s imagination.


    Hundreds of dead people all lay slumped on stone altars, as if they had died in some act of worship. Hundreds more living people lay chained to other altars, drooling and mumbling some sort of mad set of ravings, over and over again. They seemed completely out of their minds - almost as if they were drugged, or had been influenced by Class mana to lose any understanding of their surroundings and their actions. The fourth floor itself was built like one giant, ridiculously oversized cathedral of epic proportions. Mana fluctuated wildly in the surrounding area, like the core of a black hole hungrily drinking in everything in sight.


    And right at the center of this scene of utter madness was... something. It was shaped like a giant stone statue, at least four meters high, and built out of a massive, interlocking series of numbers and jagged, broken rainbow mana. It didn¡¯t contain a single ounce of flesh or organic matter, and Alice could tell that it had been carved recently. The edges of the monumental sculpture still had the sharp edges and distinct lines of a monument yet to be eroded by time.


    But this carving was no normal sculpture. It was faint, but its limbs twitched, and the mana in its body resembled that of a monster or a manaborn.


    It was alive.

 Chapter 203

    The twitching, shivering mass of stone looked at them, and Alice shivered as a strange sense of disquiet settled in the pit of her stomach. It was like no living thing she had ever seen before. The bits of chaotic rainbow mana it emanated were unsettling. It looked like someone had tried and failed to create some sort of... half-baked System mana. However, dozens of parts were missing, and the structure was completely wrong.


    If Alice compared it to a painting, it was as if someone had heard about the Mona Lisa, and then, without ever seeing the painting, had tried to replicate it using a completely different color palette. Then, halfway through the painting process, they had accidentally dumped several buckets of paint onto the canvas, decided it looked better that way, and called it a day. The strange statue was both familiar and unfamiliar in a deeply unsettling way.


    However, there was a strange beauty to it, hiding underneath the nightmarish, twisted surface of the strange System mana. Alice was reminded of her own first attempts at creating System mana. Her current attempts to replicate the System were also bizarre, twisted mockeries of the original System - even after all this time, she hadn¡¯t figured out how to perfectly replicate the System, even if she was able to ¡®replace¡¯ most of it with semi-effective solutions.


    Alice saw a pair of rainbow chunks of mana snap around their group, isolating the [Mercenaries] from the rest of the group. Then, Allira and Ethan glared at the statue, as if it owed them money and refused to return it.


    ¡°What the hell is this?¡± asked Allira, finally breaking Alice out of her stupor. ¡°This... I don¡¯t even know what I¡¯m looking at.¡± Allira¡¯s eyes were locked on the twitching, writhing mass of stone. Even though Allira couldn¡¯t see mana as far as Alice knew, the woman still seemed disturbed by the bizarre image.


    ¡°It looks like a cult,¡± said Ethan, softly. ¡°They¡¯re very rare, since the church of the System is dominant on the southern continent and most of the central continent. Even those that spurn the Church of the System usually turn to the Church of Mana instead. However, occasionally, a few people stop worshipping either the System or mana, and worship something... else. Usually an exceptionally powerful monster. I¡¯ve heard it¡¯s particularly common in societies that get isolated for long periods of time but manage to survive - though there are only a few cases that I know of. Most ¡®cults¡¯ appeared before the colonization of the southern continent, and disappeared on their own. Not much future in worshipping a monster, after all.¡± Ethan grimaced. ¡°I have no idea why a ¡®cult¡¯ would appear in the Society, though. As far as I know, they don¡¯t worship anything. They just want power and don¡¯t care how they get it.¡±


    ¡°What are the people here even worshipping?¡± asked Jonathan, as he also gazed at the twisted, messy chunks of mana and stone, as well as the half-dead worshippers. ¡°It looks almost like they offered their own bodies to their ¡®god¡¯ as sustenance or something. Are you sure this stone thing isn¡¯t a monster? Or a manaborn or something?¡±


    Alice shook her head. ¡°The stone looks like it was carved,¡± said Alice. ¡°I think this is sort of like a manaborn, but not quite the same. It seems like it was artificially made.¡± Alice took a single, hesitant step forward, and squinted at the statue. ¡°I think the Society was trying to recreate the System, but in a completely different way from what I¡¯ve been trying.¡± At first, her voice was unsteady. However, the more she spoke, the more confident Alice became.


    ¡°That¡¯s...¡± Cecilia¡¯s eyes widened, as she looked at the space in front of them. ¡°Did they try what I think they tried? That¡¯s... insane. But also kind of brilliant.¡±


    Alice nodded. ¡°I hadn¡¯t thought of trying to fix the System like this,¡± she said, as she saw Jonathan¡¯s confused expression. ¡°I¡¯ve been trying to fix the actual, underlying mechanisms behind how the System works, but I¡¯ve always approached it from the ¡®underlying logic¡¯ of mana. I thought that just made sense. The System is made of mana, and so I just thought it made sense to fix it based on the same principles. But the Society tried to repair the System using human belief,¡± said Alice. ¡°If everyone believes that something is true, then at least to some extent, it will be true. That¡¯s a big part of how mana and belief interact with each other. If you can convince everyone that the pile of rocks in front of you is a manifestation of the System, or some sort of substitute...¡±


    ¡°Ah. I see,¡± said Jonathan.


    Ethan shook his head in disgust. ¡°That¡¯s actually kind of clever. But what the hell is up with the people here?¡± He looked at the half-dead, delirious worshippers, as well as the numerous corpses, and then snorted. Then, he glanced at Alice. ¡°Did it work? Do you know?¡±


    Alice leaned closer to one of the little snippets of pseudo-System mana that the living pile of stone had emitted, and then frowned.


    ¡°No. At least, I don¡¯t think so,¡± she said. Even though Alice wasn¡¯t quite sure what the statue¡¯s pseudo-System mana did, it definitely didn¡¯t work the way the System was supposed to. The System mana she was familiar with was a compound mana. It combined several different types of mana together to create a specific series of magic effects, all of which together formed the System. It was carefully organized and structured.


    The stone statue¡¯s rainbow mana looked more like slurry. It was disorganized, chaotic madness that would have fit better in a Lovecraftian horror story, instead of the System. There were some chunks of mana that Alice recognized from the actual System, such as organic mana and pure mana, but they were barely connected at all. Worse, several types of mana that she had identified were completely missing, making the statue¡¯s knockoff System mana dubious at best.


    ¡°The Society tried something interesting, but it doesn¡¯t look like they got it to work. I guess that for ¡®worship¡¯ to create a functioning variant of System mana, the worshippers need to understand what they¡¯re worshipping. Or at least, they need to have a rough understanding of it,¡± said Alice.


    ¡°That¡¯s... both relieving and disappointing,¡± said Ethan. ¡°If this had worked, it would have been a good way to fix some of the smaller issues in your progress...¡± he said, as he glanced at Alice. Alice also sighed. As disgusting as this scene was, it represented a potential path to resolving the crisis. Unfortunately, it had failed.


    A moment later, Ethan¡¯s face darkened. ¡°Even for me, this is pretty bad,¡± he said. ¡°I don¡¯t know if there¡¯s anything we can do here. We¡¯ll still try, but...¡± he shook his head.


    Alice nodded, while Allira started humming. A few shadows started gently picking up all of the other people, before they started to transport them out of the room.


    Meanwhile, Alice finally got her stomach back under control, and glared at the vile room.


    Based on her understanding of how beliefs and mana interacted with each other, this shouldn¡¯t have been enough to animate the statue in the center of the room. The Society would have still somehow needed to establish a firm idea that the statue in the center of the room was both alive, and the System. Currently, she didn¡¯t see any way for them to have accomplished that. There didn¡¯t seem to be any direct link between the people¡¯s beliefs and the statue. What was the missing link here?


    Alice stepped closer to the giant statue. ¡°Ethan?¡± she asked. ¡°If I try to investigate that statue, can you protect me if something goes wrong and it tries to kill me?¡±


    Ethan squinted at the statue.


    ¡°Hmm... I have to admit, I¡¯m not sure,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯d like to say yes, but I¡¯ve never seen anything quite like this before. I could probably keep you safe if something went wrong - but I¡¯m not going to risk your safety on a ¡®probably¡¯ unless we have no other choice. That thing is weird, and I don¡¯t know what it can do.¡±


    Alice winced. That was... reasonable. She was asking Ethan if he could keep her safe from something he had never seen before, with totally unknown abilities. The situation was as unpredictable as it could possibly get.


    She hesitated. The statue might be able to give her more information - but she also didn¡¯t want to get killed by it. Ethan, seeing her hesitate, sighed.


    ¡°I¡¯ll go up to it,¡± said Ethan. ¡°I¡¯m mostly confident that I¡¯ll be fine if I try to interact with the statue - I¡¯m just not sure if I could pull you out if it moved fast enough and it targeted you. You¡¯re much less resilient against assassination attempts or sudden, dangerous attacks than the rest of us. If I can get a better handle on its abilities and decide it¡¯s not dangerous, you can take a look then. I know you won¡¯t get anywhere near as much information as if you used your own Perks to investigate it while it¡¯s still alive - but if you die, we won¡¯t get any data at all.¡±


    Alice sighed, but nodded. It wasn¡¯t a perfect solution, but it was probably the best one she would get. Without the protection of an Immortal, she really didn¡¯t want to mess with the statue too much. It hadn¡¯t reacted to their attempts to save people so far - but it was impossible to say what would set it off.


    Ethan moved out of the group and started making his way towards the statue. The moment he stepped within a certain range of the statue, it finally stopped ignoring them. It perked up, before it started to move.


    Alice had never seen such an unnatural, inorganic method of movement before. As the statue twisted and bent to face Ethan, Alice realized that her earlier assessment was wrong. She had thought the statue was made entirely of stone, but now, she could see that wasn¡¯t entirely true. The statue had little bits of mana-flesh stuck in between other parts of its body - but nowhere near enough to allow it ¡®normal¡¯ movement. So instead, it grated, and screeched, and twisted as it turned towards Ethan. It moved more like something out of a child¡¯s nightmare, rather than a real, living thing.


    Ethan froze, and forty magic tendrils sprouted out of his body as he stared at the statue. Before either Ethan or the statue moved, Alice heard a clicking sound on the side of the room. She turned towards it, and saw another batch of Society members. Unlike the previous group of Society members they had fought, these Society members were high level, elite Mages. Alice estimated the lowest level one was level 60, and most were probably level 70 or 80. There were over a hundred of them.


    At their front, there were four people that Alice immediately realized were either Immortals, or very close. She even recognized one of them - the near Immortal that had ambushed her when she and Ethan were returning from Cyra. The man who led them gave Alice a strangely courteous nod.


    ¡°Miss Alice, as well as Immortal Allira and Ethan. It took you longer than expected to arrive here,¡± he said.

 Chapter 204

    Alice felt her heart start to race as she stared at the group of Society members. Information clicked into place in her mind. The oddly undefended base. The empty hallways. The elaborate base and massive research project, without anywhere near the adequate manpower to start the whole operation.


    They had even kidnapped [Scholar] Matista, who Alice had been wanting to talk to. Cecilia had spoken with Matista long before Alice had, and Cecilia was known to be helping Alice. It wouldn¡¯t have been hard to realize that Alice might be interested in a meeting with the [Scholar], and to kidnap her beforehand.


    The whole base was a trap. It was designed for her.


    Before Alice could finish processing that information, the worshippers in the room started to collapse. They were like sandcastles washed away by reality itself. Centimeter by centimeter, their flesh turned into black motes, which shrank into nonexistence moments later. Alice saw some of their dull, lifeless eyes flicker with relief, while others still stared deliriously at the statue - their minds too damaged for any awareness of their impending death. In moments, they all died.


    However, they didn¡¯t completely disappear - while their physical bodies turned to dust and ash, small orbs of mana remained where their bodies had collapsed. Those orbs of mana sent a steady, unbroken stream of mana through the air... towards the statue. Alice felt her heart sink as she realized what she was looking at..


    The previous floor¡¯s test. Whether people could still supply something with mana after their death. Clearly, the Society had found a way to make that happen, if it didn¡¯t already happen naturally.


    ¡°Distract him,¡± said the Immortal who led the Society Mages, pointing towards Ethan.


    A moment later, the statue shifted. Before, it hadn¡¯t moved with purpose - it had only squirmed and shuffled in place.


    Now, it rumbled to life. It got to its feet, and strode towards Ethan. Its movements were a jagged mess of unsteady steps, like a toddler learning to walk for the first time. However, its effect on the nearby mana was horrible - every single movement it made broke the nearby mana, like a portal spewing broken mana into the void. Even though its movements were clumsy, the amount of mana radiating from its body made Alice suspect that it was still a threat.


    ¡°I¡¯ll deal with the [Bard]. You grab the girl,¡± said the Society leader. ¡°Three against a [Farmer] and a noncombatant. It should be fine.¡±


    ¡°Other Mages, deal with the [Mercenaries], then assist the other fights as needed,¡± said the Society leader.


    Alice felt a chill in her heart.


    They really were here for her.


    The three near Immortals, as well as several other Society Mages, rushed towards Alice. The [Mercenaries], who still numbered about fifty, adopted a defensive stance. Given that they were outnumbered nearly two to one, and the Society members were all Mages, Alice doubted they would last long, but she didn¡¯t have the attention to spare to help them out.


    Ethan tried to ignore the statue entirely, and instead rushed towards the Immortal who was attacking Allira - but the Statue shut that down nearly immediately. As Ethan moved to help Allira, the statue raised its hand. A cone of broken rainbow mana fizzed into existence, surrounding both it and Ethan, and somehow, Ethan¡¯s forward momentum just... disappeared. In a tenth of a second, Ethan had been isolated from the rest of the group. Ethan¡¯s eyes narrowed, before he immediately tapped the air in front of him. Alice realized that Ethan couldn''t see the rainbow bubble - so he didn¡¯t even know exactly where the boundaries of his ¡®prison¡¯ were. He tried to open a portal using dimensional mana, but the other side of the portal just... never materialized. It was something Alice had never seen before when using dimensional mana. Where did the portal go? Into the void?


    Ethan snapped the portal closed, and turned towards the statue. He started blasting it with pieces of shrapnel, but the statue shrugged off the attacks. Alice whirled towards the three near-Immortals who were advancing on her, and started to panic. Jonathan stepped in front of her, while Cecilia started throwing enchanted items at them, but the Society Mages stepped around Jonathan like he wasn¡¯t even there. Jonathan was an extraordinary meat shield - but his [Dexterity] was uninspiring. Cecilia¡¯s enchanted items didn¡¯t slow the Society Mages down much - there was far too big of a level difference between them for Cecilia¡¯s actions to matter.@@@@


    Alice¡¯s mind raced. She needed to figure out how to turn the tables in this fight. But how?


    A moment later, Alice felt {Adrenaline Rush} activate. The Society near-Immortals were far too close for comfort, and her Perk had finally decided she was at risk of death. Time seemed to slow down as the Perk worked its magic.


    Alice scrambled for a solution.


    Kinetic Magic had been her go-to combat style most of the time. After all, it was highly effective against non-mages, and also incredibly mana efficient, while still being highly lethal. It was like being a human machine gun. However, there was no chance in hell that would work here. The Society Mages could shut down her attacks with almost no effort - the level gap was too wide. Organic magic was useless for the same reason. Alice couldn¡¯t think of a creative way to use her System mana to fix this mess.


    Then, Alice¡¯s mind caught on a memory. Of the first time an Immortal had attacked her, during the boat ride back to Metsel.


    Alice had proven that she could shut down even an Immortal¡¯s Perks with anti-magic mana, during the fight with Emilia weeks ago. That could shut down one of the three monsters barreling towards her - but there was no way to handle the other two. Alice nearly rejected the idea.


    The other group was probably the Sigmusi, the nightmare that seemed to haunt more than half of Allira¡¯s perk-induced illusions.


    Normally, Allira¡¯s illusions were kind of random. Alice had always assumed that this was because Allira had no control over what the illusions actually did. They reenacted scenes from Allira¡¯s memory, with little understanding of the fact that they weren¡¯t alive, or that their environment was very different from before. They were illusions, after all. Not real people.


    This time, it was different.


    The [Soldiers], both Illvarian and Sigmusi, started the first second of the illusion like normal. They swung swords at each other, pelted both sides with arrows, and generally wreaked havoc as they tried their best to kill each other. Allira¡¯s shadows started to melt away, as if they were snow thrown into a volcano. Perhaps Allira couldn¡¯t maintain both her shadows and her illusions at the same time?


    As Alice was thinking about that, she saw a wave of dissolving shadows leap into the soldiers of both sides. The illusions who had been inhabited by shadows froze for half a second, and then shifted. A moment later, they looked far more aware of their surroundings than before - and far, far more pissed off at the presence of the Society Immortal.


    A moment later, nearly thirty [Archers] turned towards the Society Immortal and fired a wave of arrows at him.


    The man flew out of the way, then whirled towards Allira again, ignoring Alice.


    Only for Ethan to snap into place behind the man and slam him with a barrage of kinetically-powered objects. Alice glanced at the three near-Immortals who had tried to kidnap her, and realized that they were now dead. Ethan had finished cleaning up this part of the battlefield.


    The Immortal tried to dodge out of the way of Ethan¡¯s storm of attacks, but now he was actually struggling. Allira¡¯s shadow soldiers and Ethan¡¯s barrage of attacks created enough pressure that the man didn¡¯t have any time to focus on Alice at all. Alice focused, trying to visualize the man¡¯s flight patterns and target him. She needed a perfect opportunity.


    Nearly twenty-five seconds later, the opportunity appeared. The Immortal ducked out of the way of another wave of heat blasts from Ethan, and Ethan used that moment to pull out his father¡¯s old sword. The Immortal, seemingly realizing what the sword was, dodged much more heavily than usual, placing him right into the path of a wave of Allira¡¯s arrows. The man knocked those away with Kinetic magic, but all fifty-seven of his magic tendrils were occupied. Alice decided to take a risk and go for it. She opened a portal right in front of herself - with the other end of the portal right next to the Society Immortal. She shoved a mana tendril through the portal, and into the Society Immortal, before she shoved every drop of anti-magic mana she had remaining into his body.


    For a brief moment, his Perks fizzled out. The man¡¯s unnaturally smooth flight patterns cut out.


    Ethan swung the sword, and a blast of heat burned away nearly half of the man¡¯s body. Rainbow mana flashed through him, trying to regrow his body - and ran into Alice¡¯s anti-magic mana. The rainbow mana pushed through it a quarter of a second later, but that was enough time for Allira¡¯s soldiers to nail him in the eye with an arrow. Somehow, he was still alive after that, but he teleported right in front of Alice.


    Alice¡¯s eyes widened as the man glared at her, the arrow in his eye and the missing lower half of his body widened in hatred and madness. Then, unexpectedly, he laughed, bitterly.


    ¡°I thought so. Take it. I won¡¯t let it go to waste.¡± He reached into thin air, and rainbow mana flickered. A book appeared in his hands, and he stuffed it into Alice¡¯s hands.


    Then, Ethan appeared right in front of the man and unceremoniously beheaded him.


    Alice breathed a low, heavy sigh of relief, as she glanced at the statue, which had stopped moving after Ethan escaped. She looked at the other dead near-Immortals of the Society. She glanced at the [Mercenaries], who Allira was now helping mow down the other Society Mages. Nearly two thirds of the [Mercenaries] had been wiped out, but with two Immortals helping them out, there was practically no chance that they would lose. She turned back to the Society Immortal - presumably, the leader of the shadowy organization.


    Was he... really dead?


    Part of her expected him to reach out towards her again. Perhaps to get up and attack her, snatch her before Ethan and Allira could rescue her. Or perhaps the real Immortal¡¯s body would step out from behind another secret passage, and reveal that they had only killed his body double... or something. Or perhaps the book he had handed her would explode, or open up a portal and drag her away. This had to be a trap.


    Right?


    Even backed by an actual Immortal, the Society members had seemed at least somewhat outmatched. This couldn¡¯t be it, could it? Had they... really just decapitated the Society leadership?


    Alice used organic mana to start ripping apart the Society leader¡¯s headless corpse. There was no sensation of mana resistance. The headless corpse just collapsed. She glanced at the book again, and thought over his last words.


    I won¡¯t let it go to waste.


    As confusion filled her mind, she finally realized that there was no denying the reality in front of her. The Leader of the Society of Starry Eyes was dead, and with him, most of the leadership had followed to the grave.

 Chapter 205

    Immediately after the Society leader fell, Alice got a few System notifications.


    You have gained an achievement!


    Death of an Immortal (Rarity: 9)


    You directly contributed to a battle in which an Immortal fell.


    +200% growth speed for all combat-related classes, +50% growth speed for all Classes above level 75.


    Your mana becomes more effective at ignoring the inherent resistance to external mana that all life has.


    This Perk grows temporarily weaker if it is used too frequently in a short period of time.


    You have leveled up!


    Explorer of Magic: 90 -> 91, Survivor: 69 -> 73, Kinetic Manabinder 57 -> 60


    Alice looked at her new Class levels, and then she grinned. She would finish dealing with this base first, but she was looking forward to getting a new wave of Perks to bolster her combat and research abilities. Even if she doubted [Kinetic Manabinder] and [Survivor] would help her handle the research she needed to get done, it would certainly help her survive any future problems that needed to be resolved with fists.


    As Alice was checking her System notifications, Ethan grabbed the notebook that the Society Leader had stuffed into Alice¡¯s hands. After thumbing through it, Ethan seemed lost. Then, after a brief moment of confusion, he sighed, shook his head, and snorted.


    ¡°Just a madman trying to justify his actions.¡± Then, Ethan sighed again. ¡°Well, at the very least, the notebook contains what we came here for. Information about the Society¡¯s inhumane experiments. As for the first three pages, they¡¯re different. They look like a note from the Society leader to you. It looks like he was trying to justify what he did... as well as explain his actions. You can look at it or skip to the fourth page. It looks like the Immortal tried to format the information in a way that would be as helpful for you as possible,¡± he said. ¡°Personally, I don¡¯t put much stuck in that man¡¯s beliefs. Regardless of what his ¡®great goals¡¯ were, he still murdered thousands of people in cold blood. Many of them were kids.¡±


    Alice felt a twinge of curiosity, mixed with revulsion. The Society leader had a ¡®great goal¡¯ he was pursuing? What could possibly justify so many innocent deaths? Alice couldn¡¯t help but think back to the Society leader¡¯s death. It had seemed... suspicious. The man had stepped in front of her, and instead of attacking her or kidnapping her, he had just... given her his notebook and died. And his first words had been ¡®I thought so.¡¯


    It almost felt like the man had expected, or even wanted to die here.


    Alice felt a moment of hesitation. Was it a good idea to read the first three pages of the notebook? The only things she ¡®needed¡¯ started on the fourth page. Then, Alice sighed, and opened the book to he first page. She had always been someone ruled by her curiosity. That was what had started her on this path in the first place.


    If you¡¯re reading this, it means that you won.


    Your name is Alice, right? And if I¡¯m not mistaken, you should be from that other dimension. I know very little about the world you came from, but at the end of the day, it doesn¡¯t matter.


    You may think of me as a madman, or a murderer.


    You would be correct. I¡¯ve done many things that are despicable, and many things that make me seem mad. I cannot say that my conscience is clean - it hasn¡¯t been from the moment I founded the Society of Starry Eyes.


    But my actions were necessary. I was working for the greater good - something that needed to happen. If nobody else stepped up, I had to do it. Otherwise, there would have been no hope for this world. Two dimensions would have collided, and as best I can tell, that would involve both planets teleporting into each other, or perhaps colliding. I can¡¯t imagine that ending well for either world.


    Alice shuddered. Two dimensions colliding? She had to admit, after learning the origins of her arrival here, she hadn¡¯t investigated much about how dimensional physics worked. There had just been one pressing issue after another, leaving her little time to investigate other interesting but irrelevant ideas. However, for a brief moment, Alice¡¯s mind flashed to the meteor that had ended the dinosaurs. How much worse would it be if two planets collided? Or if they teleported into each other?


    Humans were capable of surviving in a pretty limited number of environments. Having another planet teleport into this one... Alice didn¡¯t even know what that would look like. However, she suspected that no matter how it worked, it would still be an extinction event. The details were functionally irrelevant - if it happened, everyone was dead. She might not understand the exact hows of everyone¡¯s death, but it probably didn¡¯t matter.@@@@


    Alice turned her attention back to the notebook.


    Reality mana, contrary to Alice¡¯s nickname for it, didn¡¯t control reality. It didn¡¯t even directly interact with the strings of mana that she had started to notice, the ones that seemed to serve as bridges between belief and reality. Instead, Reality mana did one thing - it either amplified, or weakened the impact of people¡¯s beliefs on reality.


    Of course, it was quite a bit more complicated than just working as an amplifier or a limiter. It was more accurate to say that... defined things. It worked like a template - it allowed whoever used Reality mana to define what reality was ¡®supposed¡¯ to look like. Then, anything that made reality looked like it was ¡®supposed to¡¯ would be amplified. Meanwhile, anything that made reality look less like the template would be weakened. However, if the ¡®template¡¯ that reality mana pulled from was totally different from what the world looked like, the template might shatter completely, wasting all of the reality mana. It could serve as a way of stabilizing reality, or inducing small changes in the world - but it couldn¡¯t totally warp the laws of reality and physics in an instant.


    Even though the mana type had some limitations, Alice still thought it was incredibly useful.


    Alice was only a high school student back on earth, but she still had a decent idea of what a lot of the building blocks of reality looked like. She could at least talk about how atoms, gravity, diseases, and a bunch of other things worked in basic terms. She could even describe some laws of physics with specific mathematical equations, since she at least knew basic equations like the equation for acceleration from gravity on Earth¡¯s surface. Alice might not have the physics and biology understanding of, say, a college professor who had worked with those concepts for years, but she could do basic stuff.


    This new type of mana could stabilize the entire world, if she used it properly. If Alice could find a way to flood the planet with ¡®reality¡¯ mana, she might be able to prevent the creation of new manaborn - and also stop the laws of physics from slipping totally outside of comprehension. She had no idea how to flood the planet with reality mana... but it was a potential solution to a dangerous problem.


    As Alice was reading through the book, Ethan¡¯s voice broke her out of her thoughts.


    ¡°Alice, come look at this. I think we figured out how the Society created that massive mana void,¡± said Ethan, as Alice thought about how to use the newly found Reality mana.


    Alice made her way forward, and quickly realized why it had taken the group so long to find this particular secret.


    It was buried under a random floorboard. There was no direct way to access it - it was basically inaccessible if the group didn¡¯t know what they were looking for already - or if they didn''t have a swarm of Allira¡¯s shadows helping them find things that they might need. Alice suspected it might have been listed later on in the notebook the Society Immortal had given her - but at least so far, it hadn¡¯t been mentioned.


    Alice made her way into the large room buried underneath an inconspicuous floorboard, and blinked in surprise.


    Just underneath the floorboards was one of the most complicated Artifacts Alice had ever seen. It dwarfed the complexity of even the other feats of madness in the Society base - it looked like someone had tried and failed to replicate some sort of lovecraftian horror entirely out of magic. The shapes, bends, and whorls of the enchantment before her were so ridiculous that Alice didn¡¯t even know how to start making heads or tails of them.


    What was obvious was that the giant enchantment was siphoning mana out of everything above this floor for some reason. In exchange, it looked like it was converting it into reality mana, in mind-boggling quantities. All of this reality mana was concentrated into a giant stone container, which was also filled with layer after layer of complicated enchantments. At least this time, Alice could tell what all the enchantments were doing - they were obviously meant to help contain mana and keep it stable.


    Finally, there was a sort of ¡®pipeline¡¯ that seemed to lead directly out of the Artifact and towards the room where they had fought the Immortal. Alice realized this was probably how the Society had pulled off animating the fake ¡®System¡¯ statue. Reality mana had been pulled out of this room and used to help empower the statue.


    The last component of the room was a large steel cage. In a cage, unconscious, was [Scholar] Matista.


    In all of the chaos happening above, Alice had assumed that Matista had died. Her initial assumption had been that she would have been one of the many followers that were devoured by the System-knockoff statue, or perhaps the Society would have killed her in some other way.


    Contrary to Alice¡¯s assumption, [Scholar] Matista seemed... fine.


    It only took Alice a few moments to make a guess about why.


    Alice had wanted to speak with Matista about the disappearance of mana in Morendia. The Society had kidnapped Matista because it would drag Alice here... but the Society had practically planned to lose this fight. The notebook the Immortal had given her was practically a way to stuff the Society¡¯s legacy into Alice¡¯s hands, and make sure she knew how to use it. As much as their actions were disgusting, the Society had genuinely wanted the world to survive.


    Since the Society had known Alice wanted to speak to Matista, they had kept her alive. Just in case Matista had any information Alice desperately needed.


    Alice sighed. The biggest reason that she had wanted to speak to Matista was because she wanted to know more about the weird lack of mana in the country. However, the giant enchantment right in front of her seemed to have the answers for that, meaning Matista herself was largely irrelevant now. Still, Alice was glad that at least one person had been spared from this whole mess.


    Having her former enemies extend goodwill and consideration towards her after their defeat felt odd. Alice was used to fearing the Society. However, at the end of the day, their leader and the top members of the organization had practically come here to commit suicide and give Alice what she needed to save the world. As much as their actions were awful, Alice could still see a trace of something admirable in their actions, buried underneath all the other horrible things they had done.


    She sighed, and decided not to think about it right now. Instead, it was time to awaken Matista, choose her Perks, and read the Society¡¯s notebook. At the same time, Alice eyed the reality mana artifact, and grinned.


    She couldn¡¯t reprogram the Artifact on her own. Luckily, the very reason the group had come to Morendia was to study under an Immortal [Enchanter]. She had just been thinking about how she could stabilize this world with some Reality mana. If they could get this thing working again, they might have a way to permanently solve one of the most headache-inducing problems after the collapse of the System.

 Chapter 206

    ¡°Allira, can you send a few shadows to make sure there aren¡¯t any physical traps located right under this thing?¡± asked Ethan, as he pointed at the Artifact.


    Allira started singing, and a few shadows started checking over the room again. After a few minutes, she gave Ethan a thumbs up, and Ethan crammed the artifact into his storage Perk. Meanwhile, Allira grabbed [Scholar] Matista and started carrying her back to the rest of the group. Jonathan looked distinctly out of place as he looked around, as his family and Cecilia looked for something they could do to make themselves useful. After Ethan finished storing the artifact, he grinned.


    ¡°We¡¯ve already gotten everything of note here, I think. Alice, do you want that statue that emits System mana? It¡¯ll be a pain to store safely, but if you think it¡¯ll be useful for your research, I¡¯ll make it work.¡±


    Alice nodded. ¡°I definitely have a use for it. It¡¯ll help me study how faith and System mana interact with each other. I¡¯m thinking what I might do is create ¡®baselines¡¯ for things to work with, then use faith to perfect any issues with my designs. At least, if things work the way I hope they do. If it doesn¡¯t work, I¡¯ll think of another solution,¡± she said.


    Ethan shrugged. ¡°You would know more about it than I would. But it sounds like a good idea. If you can use that to smooth out the issues with your own version of System mana, it could skip a lot of the final steps of fine-tuning it and fixing it.¡±


    Alice smiled. If it sounded like a good idea to Ethan, that was a strong endorsement for the viability of her plan.


    The group made their way back to the room where they had fought the Society, and Ethan used several Perks to pack away the Statue, as well as the last few miscellaneous research logs and other items. While Ethan did so, Alice looked at the [Mercenaries] that Ethan and Allira had hired, and tried not to wince.


    Nearly half of the [Mercenaries] had died, and the leader seemed none too pleased about that. He kept eyeing Allira and Ethan with an angry scowl, although the difference in power seemed to be keeping him from complaining out loud. Alice could understand why. The battle had been ruinous from his perspective. The Society had kept Matista alive, perhaps because they thought she would be useful for saving the world. However, the Society had clearly not felt the same way about the [Mercenaries]. They hadn¡¯t held back at all against them, and the [Mercenaries] had fallen like wheat before a scythe. For about a minute of fighting, the [Mercenaries] had needed to hold their ground against twice their number of Society Mages. For average level [Mercenaries] with no outstanding qualities, that was practically a death sentence.


    The [Mercenary] leader gritted his teeth, and marched his way over to Ethan.


    ¡°This was a far more costly battle than you implied,¡± he said.


    Ethan looked at the man, and seemed to notice the same thing Alice had. He winced. ¡°I apologize. I will not dismiss your contributions to the fight, nor the comrades you lost. I have no way to revive the dead, or rewind time... but at least  I can compensate the company for the fallen, and give some extra aid to any family they might have had,¡± said Ethan.


    The [Mercenary] leader still looked pissed, but Ethan¡¯s words at least blunted his anger. He grunted in acknowledgement, and his expression relaxed a bit more when Ethan handed him a bag full of gold.


    With that concluded, the group began making their way back to the surface. As they walked, Alice took a moment to look over all of the Perks she had been offered. She had two new choices, and she was excited to see what they were.


    The first one she looked at was [Survivor].


    Alice glanced over the Perks she could combine, and quickly decided that she wasn¡¯t that interested in combining any of them. Many of her perks, such as [Microbe Resistance], were basic, functional Perks that helped her survive the different biosphere in this planet. Risking that would just be a terrible decision, even if the odds of it killing her were low. There was no reason to risk her health or life for a little bit of power. Thus, Alice checked her new Perks instead.


    There were four options available for her Class, but Alice quickly ignored two of them. One of them was a generic stat boost to [Endurance], which, while somewhat appealing, really wasn¡¯t what Alice needed. In a fight, Alice mostly relied on her kinetic magic to deflect projectiles and objects before they hurt her - and at this point, Alice suspected that was always going to be her first line of defense. [Endurance] helped if she failed to deflect an object... but if things were hitting her, the fight had already gone horribly wrong.


    The second Perk she ignored increased the strength and density of her body. Since Alice¡¯s fighting style was highly reliant on magic, boosting her [Strength] was a waste of a Perk slot.


    The next Perk was more interesting.


    Magical Resilience


    Requirements: Survivor level 70 or higher, Have fought an Immortal and survived, have killed a Magic focused Immortal, have at least 3 different magic seeds, have a magic stat of 150 or higher, have a focus on kinetic magic.


    You gain the ability to deflect more than physical objects with your kinetic magic. If you touch any magically-created entity with one of your mana tendrils and then inject it with kinetic mana, it will make it into an object or force that you can interact with using kinetic magic. This is true regardless of whether the object has any physical characteristics at all.


    This Perk was odd, but appealing. One of the things Alice had seen Ethan use in battles semi-frequently was Thermal magic. Tossing around fireballs seemed to be something he specialized in... and also a threat that Alice¡¯s current Perk toolkit was woefully unable to deal with. This Perk provided her with better options than ¡®dodge and hope to hit the enemy first¡¯ if she was fighting against another [Thermal Mage] who specialized in combat.


    Of course, it wasn¡¯t perfect. Magical resilience allowed her to hit non-physical things with her kinetic mana... but it still required a two-step process to defend against things like lightning blasts. She would first need to touch a lightning blast with a magic tendril, then inject it with kinetic energy, then use kinetic mana to divert the attack. Considering how fast things like lightning moved, it would be hard to pull off without an unbelievably high [Perception] stat. Alice doubted she would be able to deflect things like lightning bolts with her current stats, even though she had her reflexes and range boosted to insane levels by her other Perks and abilities.


    Still, Alice felt like it was a strong contender for her 70th level pick. Alice currently had no good way to defend against even a lower level [Thermal Mage] who wanted to hurt her, and this Perk would fix that need. [Thermal Mages] that focused on combat were very rare, since the mana to damage ratio was terrible, but they still existed. It might not help her against higher level enemies, but not even having a defense against lower level Mages was a problem. Not to mention, Alice¡¯s [Perception] and other stats would certainly increase as time passed. That was the nature of Stats in this world - even though they grew more slowly as they got to crazier and crazier numbers, they never permanently decreased, and ways to interfere with other people¡¯s Status Screen were rare. Eventually, Alice would have the [Perception] needed to react to lightning bolts in time.


    However, the other Perk Alice had been offered was also a strong contender.


    Touch the Untouchable


    Requirements: Survivor level 70 or higher, Have fought an Immortal and survived, have killed a Magic focused Immortal, have at least 3 different magic seeds, have a magic stat of 150 or higher, have a focus on kinetic magic.


    Any attempt to manipulate ¡®motion¡¯ around you will be understood by you on an instinctual level. This perk will also make it much harder for items to ¡®shield¡¯ themselves against manipulation, whether by Perk or by specialized types of mana. In practice, this means that you will encounter far fewer items or threats that you have a hard time ¡®moving¡¯ using your kinetic mana.


    This Perk was actually kind of similar to {Magical Resilience}, in that it covered up a distinct weakness Alice had. However, the weakness this Perk addressed was different. While {Magical Resilience} allowed Alice to fight more safely against [Electromagnetic Mages] and [Thermal Mages], this Perk was more of an incremental improvement on what Alice already did during a fight. [Kinetic Mages] were known as the most combat oriented Mage specifically because they could deflect arrows, swords, and any other physical object that was near them. Since Mages were rare, and [Kinetic Mages] could crush most non-Mages of similar level, that made [Kinetic Mages] kings and queens of the battlefield.


    However, at higher levels, plenty of [Archers] and [Swordsmen] also had Perks that countered [Kinetic Mages]. One of the most common ways for them to start countering [Kinetic Mages] was to make it hard to influence their weapons with external mana. This was usually imperfect, since a Mage could punch through it after a few seconds... but those few seconds might also get the Mage killed. This Perk sounded like it either let Alice outright ignore this issue, or drastically reduced its potential to impact the battlefield.


    Alice spent a few minutes tossing ideas around in her head, but ultimately, she decided to go with {Touch the Untouchable}. High level [Archers] and [Swordsmen] were probably more common enemies than [Thermal Mages] and [Electromagnetic Mages] that focused on combat, and both Perks explicitly addressed weaknesses in her build. Since she had problems dealing with both situations, she might as well take the one that she was more likely to use. If there weren¡¯t any better options, she could always just take the other Perk at level 75.


    After that, Alice moved on to her second set of Perks. The Perk for [Kinetic Manabinder].


    Unlike [Survivor], [Kinetic Manabinder] still had a huge stock of Perks left over that ALice had yet to combine. Alice only gave the new perks a brief scan before she confirmed that none of them interested her. She ignored them, and started looking at Perk combinations.


    The Perks from [Kinetic Manabinder] could loosely be divided into three categories: Those that were focused on sensing the area around her, those that were focused on direct combat, and those that focused on enchantments.


    Alice had been using enchantments as a basis for a lot of her research recently, and if the Artifact they had stolen from the Society was anything to go by, this was probably going to continue to be true in the near future.


    With that in mind, Alice decided that she would focus on the enchanting side of things with her new Perk. Specifically, if she could find Perks that helped her gather information and modify enchantments, that would be best.


    The first Perk she decided to sacrifice was Overclock.


    Overclock


    Requirements: Kinetic Manabinder level 20 or higher


    For two hours, only while you are enchanting, drastically increase your speed and focus while thinking and manipulating mana. Does not apply to any mental processes or magic-related abilities besides enchantments. Only usable once per day.


    Overclock was fine as a Perk, and Alice still frequently used it while Enchanting. However, it wasn¡¯t exceptional. At this point, Alice was hoping that a Perk combination would take this ability to new heights. And if something went horribly wrong during the Perk combination process, and she lost the ability entirely, Alice wouldn¡¯t be too upset, either. It was perfect fodder for Perk combination. Of course what Alice was really hoping for was some method of boosting comprehension when she studied enchantments - something that {Overclock} did not innately do.


    The second one was a bit more unusual of a Perk to use. Last time Alice had looked at this combination of Perks, the result had been much less promising... but just like the available Perks she had, every five levels, the results of combining two Perks changed slightly. The results this time were rather promising.


    Kinetic Enchanting


    Requirements: Kinetic Manabinder level 25 Or higher


    If you interact with an enchanting material for an extended period of time while focusing on this perk, you may permanently increase the number of instructions the enchanting material can remember by one. This extra instruction may ONLY be used to increase its memory for kinetic enchantments.


    This can only be used on a given material once, and will fail if other similar perks, achievements, or any other effects have already been used on it.


    Alice checked the likely result for the Achievement combination one more time, and then combined the two Achievements.


    Empowered Enchanting


    Cost: Overclock + Kinetic Enchanting


    Upon activating this Perk, you will enter a state of accelerated understanding of enchanting materials for two hours. While in this state, you will have a much, much greater learning capability for all things related to enchanting MATERIALS, as well as any modifications that have been done to them. May be used once per day. Places mild strain on thoughts of the user.


    Alice grinned, and then checked her Status Screen, since it had been quite a while since she had last done so.


    Name: Alice Verianna


    Age: 16


    Strength: 120 -> 122(122%)


    Perception: 145 -> 146 (165%)


    Dexterity: 121 -> 123 (144%)


    Intelligence: 172 -> 173(128%)


    Endurance: 137 -> 138(141%)


    Willpower: 153 -> 155 (109%)


    Charisma: 133 (107%)


    Magic: 171 -> 176(192 -> 197%)


    Primary Classes: 6/6


    Survivor: 67 -> 73


    Explorer of Magic: 85 -> 91


    Scholar: 67 -> 72


    Scientist: 68 -> 74


    Kinetic Manabinder: 52 -> 60


    Careful Enchanter: 36 -> 47


    Evolved Classes: 2


    Student of Kinetic Magic: 25


    (Apprentice) Enchanter: 25


    Secondary Classes: 4


    Fisherwoman: 3


    Student: 9 -> 11


    Academic Skills:


    English (Language Proficiency): 100


    Illvarian (Language Proficiency): 100


    Sigmusi (Language Proficiency): 7


    Russian (Language Proficiency): 1


    Verinthian (Language Proficiency): 1


    Basic Mathematics: 125


    Intermediate Mathematics: 82


    Advanced Mathematics: 22


    Basic Human Biology: 43


    Mana-biology: 26


    Magic Skills:


    Kinetic Manipulation: 82 -> 86


    Mana Control: 58 -> 65


    Mana Precision: 60 -> 65


    Kinetic Force: 60 -> 66


    Projectile Awareness: 40 -> 48


    Divided Attention: 43 -> 50


    Basic Enchanting: 53 -> 71


    Broken Mana Purification: 24 -> 36


    Mana Filtering: 36 -> 38


    Seed Formation: 30


    Crafting Skills:


    Weaving: 27


    Woodworking: 28


    Cooking: 12


    Stoneworking: 11


    Physical Skills:


    Dodge: 40 -> 42


    Etiquette: 28


    Spearmanship: 19


    Sprinting: 23


    Riding: 15


    Climbing: 9


    Fishing: 9


    Digging: 8


    Stealth: 4


    Basic Medicine: 3


    Dancing: 6


    Magic Seed: 1/1


    Kinetic Seed 165%


    Healing mana seed 65% (Deactivated - you may link this to a Perk if desired!)


    Electromagnetic Seed (15%) (Deactivated)


    Anti-magic 40% (Created by Perk - does not consume seed Slot)


    Lesser Magic Seeds


    (Base Max 30%, Achievements now apply as usual)


    Compound Seed 1 (Display/Filtration/Meaning/Pure Mana/Math/Communication) 61 -> 182%


    Organic Seed 84% -> 85%


    Pure Mana Seed 54%


    Dimensional Seed 45%


    Experimental Seed: 100% (50% Dimensional, 50% Anti-magic)


    Achievements:


    Outworlder (Rarity: 10)


    Seeker of Truth  (IV) (Rarity: 10)


    Baptized by Broken Mana (Rarity: 6)


    Survivor of Winter (Rarity: 3)


    Monstrous Encounter (Rarity: 1)


    Monster Slayer (III) (Rarity: 2)


    Well Trained (Rarity: 4)


    Murderer (Rarity: 4)


    Bookworm (Rarity: 3)


    Kinetic Manabinder (Rarity N/A)


    Careful Enchanter (Rarity N/A)


    Capable Enchanter (Rarity: 5)


    Seed Creator (Rarity: 8)


    In Pursuit of Science (Rarity N/A)


    Immortal''s Apprentice at the battle against the Society (Rarity: 4)


    Legendary Healer (Rarity: 7)


    Creative Healer (Rarity: 4)


    System_Teacher (Rarity: 7)


    First Steps (III) (Rarity: 8)


    Battle with an Immortal (Rarity: 9)


    Royal Crisis Analyst (Rarity: N/A)


    As Alice looked over her Status Screen, the group finally reached the surface, and started making their way back to Morendia¡¯s capital. Alice just hoped that she would be able to make use of the resources they had found in the Society base to finally stabilize this chaotic world.

 Chapter 207

    The journey back to the city was uneventful, to Alice¡¯s relief. Part of her still expected the situation to be some sort of elaborate trick. Her mind kept throwing out scenarios where the Society leader hadn¡¯t actually died, and attacked them when they had their guard down, or scenarios where a monster swarm attacked the group before they could respond. Part of Alice knew that both of these scenarios were ridiculous, but the tense anxiety in her stomach didn¡¯t go away even when she knew she was probably safe.


    By the time they reached the city walls again, she couldn¡¯t help but feel a growing sense of hope. Maybe the Society really was done stirring up trouble and killing people. It still seemed unbelievable to her... but maybe it was the truth.


    As they finally passed through the city gates, she saw Ethan and Allira heave quiet sighs of relief as well. It seemed that she wasn¡¯t the only one who felt disbelief at the situation. That made her feel at least a little bit better. If even Immortals felt the current situation was hard to believe, at least she wasn¡¯t the only one struggling to process what had just happened.


    The [Mercenaries] split off from the group shortly afterwards, while Alice and the rest of her group returned to Demor¡¯s manor. Once they arrived, Alice and Demor worked out some times where they could look over the Society artifact and figure out how it worked and how to modify it. Ethan also insisted that he be present during those times, since he wanted to understand at least roughly what was going on. Alice had a sneaking suspicion that he also wanted to keep an eye on Demor when he was near both Alice and the Artifact, but she wasn¡¯t going to fault him for amping up the security around her when the world was falling apart.


    Unfortunately, the Immortal¡¯s preliminary analysis was that the Artifact would be less useful than she had hoped. The conversion efficiency of the mana from the Artifact wasn¡¯t as good as she had expected - perhaps 90% of the mana the Artifact tried to convert would be ¡®wasted¡¯ when it was activated. With that kind of conversion efficiency, Alice wasn¡¯t sure if all of the mana in the Shil confederacy would be enough to cover even one country.


    However, it wasn¡¯t entirely hopeless. Alice was well aware that mana didn¡¯t follow the laws of conservation of energy, especially when it came to magic seeds. While she wasn¡¯t entirely sure how to exploit this to its maximum potential yet, there was probably some way to fix the mana sourcing problem. Alternately, there might be a way to fix the inefficiency issue. Alice wasn¡¯t sure which of these options was more viable, but luckily, she had an Immortal who was focused on enchantments. After double checking her plan with Ethan, she shared a few bits of her research with Demor, specifically those related to energy conservation and magic seeds. Then, she left the actual problem-solving to Demor.


    After that, she returned to her room to start looking over the Society notebook more carefully. She had already learned about something useful from the first few experiments recorded in the notebook. Alice didn¡¯t want to miss any other potentially useful bits of information.


    The next few experiments that Alice read about were focused on testing a few background things. Specifically, the Society had been trying to figure out what ALICE believed about the System, and then they had tried to verify whether those assumptions were correct or not. For example, the Society had somehow gotten it into their heads that Alice believed the System was sapient, and had spent a great deal of resources trying to verify this assumption - even though Alice had decided a long time ago that the System probably wasn¡¯t Sapient. The Society had spent a lot of time and resources on this question, but had failed to produce any sort of meaningful result before they had given up. It was much harder to test the sentience or sapience of something that had disappeared from the world, after all.


    Since the Society had no idea whether the System was sapient or not, they had apparently gone with the general assumption that it was sapient. After all, the Church of the System¡¯s teaching strongly implied that the System was sapient, and the Society had decided to roll with that interpretation. This was probably why the statue the group had recovered was a living creature.


    That brought Alice to the next set of experiments recorded in the notebook. The entire second half of the notebook was devoted to the creation of the stone statue, as well as its purpose. True to Alice¡¯s first suspicions, the Society had been trying to recreate the System.


    However, the System they had tried to create was very different from the System as Alice understood it. The first and most obvious difference was sapience. The second biggest difference was the Society¡¯s understanding of the System¡¯s ¡®purpose.¡¯


    After the Society confirmed that mana and beliefs would directly warp reality, the Society had decided that the System itself was probably directly influenced by the beliefs of the Church of the System. From there, they had decided to go almost entirely off of the holy book of the System for their version of it, treating the System as a legitimate sapient deity instead of a giant enchantment. Under this interpretation, the ¡®disappearance¡¯ of the System also became a huge head-scratcher for the Society. They had eventually decided that the System was probably


    sapient, and had thus decided to either punish humanity or leave the planet for some reason.


    From there, the Society had started to realign with Alice¡¯s plans again, at least in part. The group had decided that, if the first System had left or decided to punish humanity, it was a good opportunity to reshape the System to something a bit more human-friendly. Thus, much like Alice, they had started working on constructing a replacement System - in this case, the stone statue. They had decided that the first priority of the System should be to protect humans - as long as that didn¡¯t oppose the Society¡¯s research or plans, of course. The Statue had a giant backdoor for members of the Society to change the way their ¡®god¡¯ operated, which Alice suspected would have created a huge mess somewhere down the line.


    In any case, despite its glaring flaws, the statue had worked, at least to some extent. The statue had observed the world, then started trying to save humanity. The way it did so was by deleting all of the mana in the environment.


    This was the actual cause of the huge mana void in the center of Morendia. Not a terribly inefficient fuel system designed to keep the reality mana coming, the way Alice had first assumed. Instead, most of the ¡®mana void¡¯ was caused by the statue¡¯s attempts to eradicate mana and fix the root cause of this mess.


    The Society had also used this process to help fuel people¡¯s ¡®worship¡¯ of the knockoff System. They had created a set of enchanted items that gave people a sort of limited mana-vision. Then after ruining people¡¯s regular critical thinking abilities with a mixture of drugs and brain surgery, the Society had shown everyone their new ¡®god.¡¯ When people saw the massive changes to nearby mana and reality that the statue was capable of doing, they had at least somewhat believed that they were looking at a ¡®deity.¡¯ From there, belief started to take over as the statue¡¯s primary fuel source, and the Society mages had stopped needing to manually do everything for the statue.


    Alice didn¡¯t have a good way to replicate most of this process, at least not in a way she considered ethical. However, it was good to know that the Artifact the group had retrieved was not responsible for the massive void of mana in Morendia. It didn¡¯t have the power to absorb and convert that much mana.


    This knowledge was very important, because it gave Alice a better idea what the objects they had recovered from the Society were capable of.


    The next part of the Society¡¯s attempts to create the System were less interesting. They detailed what materials had gone into the statue and why, how they had kidnapped a [Sculptor] to give the System a face, and other miscellaneous details. These details would probably interest Demor, but Alice didn¡¯t think she would end up delving into those details as much as expected. After all, her time was limited, and if there was an Immortal she could offload some work to, she probably should offload that work.


    The only other part of real note was the statue¡¯s attempts to constrain Ethan - which were detailed near the back of the book. The Society itself was meant to help humans, but the Society had built several ¡®add-ons¡¯ for it to help them. One of the more unusual things they had added was a sealing bubble - which they had created specifically to try to kidnap Alice. The Society Leader had felt confident that he could hold off Allira, since she was younger and weaker than the average Immortal, and the other three high-level Society Mages had felt reasonably confident they could grab Alice even if Jonathan tried to keep her safe. After all, Jonathan wasn¡¯t a combat Immortal - he was a threat to regular [Soldiers] and noncombatants, but his Perks just couldn¡¯t pull their weight on a battlefield with high level combatants flinging Immortal-level Perks around. This ¡®sealing bubble¡¯ had been built into the statue¡¯s hands shortly before the Society had kidnapped the [Scholar].


    Based off of the descriptions of the book, the Society had thought it was a coin flip whether the fight would go their way or not. Their entire battle strategy revolved around sealing Ethan off from the fight, since he was the strongest combatant on their side. Based on the plans the Society had outlined in the book, the fight had ¡®ended¡¯ almost the moment Alice freed Ethan. The moment Ethan had rejoined the fight, the Society leader had realized the fight was unwinnable, and prepared for his death.


    After reading the book, Alice sighed. The Society¡¯s attempts to build a god to control the System were still somewhat enlightening. They detailed a lot of the ways that belief and mana interacted with each other, and discussed a lot of smaller details in how belief could warp mana. Alice would need more time to pore over each experiment, and try to figure out how to apply that to her own efforts. However, the more she read, the more Alice reaffirmed her earlier idea. She was going to start out by creating a strong ¡®baseline¡¯ for the way the System worked, and then use belief mana to finish rounding out the abilities the System needed but she didn¡¯t know how to create. It would be a little bit less stable than the original system - but it should work well enough to help stabilize the planet. After that, Alice would just need to find a way to ¡®export¡¯ this version of the System to the rest of the world... and at least in theory, she would finally quell the chaos from the collapse of the System.


    Alice sighed.


    She had a lot of work to do, and not anywhere near as much time as she would like to get to it. But at least she had a strong direction now.


    * * *


    The next few days were spent neck-deep in research. Demor, along with Alice and Ethan, worked to understand how exactly the Society¡¯s artifact worked and why it was so inefficient. When she wasn¡¯t focused on that, Alice worked on understanding the Statue and the way beliefs and mana interacted with each other. When she had spare mana and time, she also helped heal a few people who were badly afflicted with class-mana poisoning. While her priority was fixing the bigger issues plaguing the world, Ethan had pointed out that she might get an upgrade to the {Distributing the Cure} Achievement if she directly healed more people. In addition, making sure that higher level government workers remained sane was incredibly useful for keeping the city stable while they worked.


    Apart from those practical reasons to heal others, Alice found that helping a few people every day helped center her mind and mood. Struggling with her own, convoluted research was time consuming and tiring work, and Alice was glad to have an occasional break, especially one where she could visibly see that her actions were changing people¡¯s lives for the better. It helped remind her of why she was doing this in the first place.


    After a few days, Alice had a slightly better idea how beliefs and mana worked with each other. She wasn¡¯t quite ready to launch her own version of the System yet - but she was starting to put together a rough plan.


    Unfortunately, that plan had a requirement for it to work. If Alice wanted to use beliefs to patch up any errors in her version of the System, she needed people to have a specific set of beliefs. Alice was a [Scientist], not a [Priest]. She wasn¡¯t very good at public speaking, or tricking people into joining religions the way a cult leader might.


    Ethan¡¯s suggestion was simple. Instead of founding a new set of beliefs and trying to manage it, he suggested that she piggyback off of a set of beliefs that was already present. In this case, the Church of the System. The Church of the System already worshipped the System, so having them propagate a few beliefs related to the System made perfect sense... if the [Priests of the System] were willing to work with her, at least.


    For the first time, it wasn¡¯t just the value of her Immortal mentor that brought people through the door when Alice wanted to arrange a meeting.


    While Alice¡¯s attempts to save people from Class mana poisoning might not have saved many people, word had still spread. The villages that the group had stopped at had told some travellers of Alice¡¯s work, and while the rumours of her actions were quite distorted as they spread through word of mouth, they did still exist. Paired with the few people Alice had helped in Morendia¡¯s capital, some of the local [Priests of the System] were more than happy to meet up with her.


    ¡°Do you have it? A way to see the System again?¡± asked the first [Priest of the System] who walked through the door.


    Alice blinked in surprise. Rather than a stable [Priest of the System], the man standing in front of her resembled a drug addict looking for his next fix. The look in his eyes was off.


    It only took Alice a few seconds to realize why. The man¡¯s body was buried in [Priest of the System] mana. It was probably messing with his actions and mental acuity.


    ¡°Umm... yes, I have,¡± said Alice, nodding her head. She wasn¡¯t being entirely honest, but to have an open conversation, she would probably need to heal this man first. She had been planning on waiting until more [Priests of the System] arrived, but the man in front of her was rather high level. He was probably around level 80. That meant he was probably rather high in the church hierarchy. ¡°It isn¡¯t perfect, but I have indeed found a way to ¡®contact¡¯ the System. I can do so by using this ring.¡± Alice held up an enchantment she had made right before setting up the meeting - this one would straighten out [Priest of the System] mana.


    The old man didn¡¯t even make a show of doubting Alice¡¯s words - the moment she held it out towards him, he just grabbed the ring and put it on. A moment later, he started laughing.


    ¡°I can see it again! The holy words of the almighty System!¡± The man kept laughing. Alice hoped he wouldn¡¯t hurt his throat, or feel too embarrassed once he was of sound mind again.


    It took a few minutes of cackling, but as time passed, the man¡¯s expressions started to change. At first, it only looked like a few traces of lucidity had returned to him - but as more time passed, the man¡¯s eyes started to become clearer and clearer. Finally, after nearly ten minutes, the man blinked, and then glanced at Alice again.


    ¡°Ahem. My... my apologies. Lady Alice?¡± The man gave his appearance a quick glance, and winced as he noticed how wrinkled some parts of his garments were. He cleared his throat awkwardly. ¡°My apologies for the... unseemly display. And my thanks, for your assistance.¡± The man gave her a nod, and then narrowed his eyes. ¡°I seem to be quite different than I was merely half an hour ago. While I do wish that the System was the one that intervened on my behalf... this situation doesn¡¯t seem like a divine intervention to me.¡± He looked at Alice again, and this time, there was a weight to his gaze. This man was someone who was good at understanding the things he saw around him, and Alice doubted the lie she had originally been planning to spread would work here. The man seemed too sharp for that.


    That wasn¡¯t great... but it wasn¡¯t terrible either. Alice preferred working with people who could help actively promote a few ¡®changes¡¯ to the System that she might need to make. Specifically, ones that helped the System function in some form, despite the limitations to her own understanding of the whole thing. The man was high level, and thus probably highly ranked. Ethan had also screened everyone invited to the manor for discussion, to make sure no one of bad character was involved. Alice nodded to herself. She could work with this.


    ¡°Could we speak in private?¡± asked Alice. ¡°I have a proposition for you.¡±


    The [Priest] gave Alice a curious look, before he nodded.


    It was time to set up a new ¡®god.¡¯

 Chapter 208

    ¡°So what exactly do you want from me?¡± asked the [Priest of the System]. ¡°To put it bluntly, you don¡¯t seem like a typical believer. It might just be a feeling, but I suspect you might not even be from the Church of the System. Someone from the Church of Mana?¡± He asked. Before Alice could respond, the man kept speaking. ¡°Also, if I am not mistaken, the person who contacted me and asked me to come here is none other than the Immortal Demor. And the other person who is waiting outside of this room is Immortal Ethan, from Illvaria? To have such illustrious people invite a small [Priest of the System] such as myself is quite odd.¡± The man¡¯s eyes flickered, and he glanced at Alice.


    Alice resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Which ¡®small¡¯ [Priest of the System] was over level 75? But she didn¡¯t say anything.


    ¡°What¡¯s really going on here?¡± asked the [Priest of the System].


    Alice sighed, trying to figure out how much she should or shouldn¡¯t reveal. It was hard to lie... and at the same time, it was hard to tell the full truth. Alice was still trying to put together a way to resolve the overarching crisis once and for all... but she now had a rough path forward. She wasn¡¯t the same lost, bewildered mage that she had been when the crisis started to unfold. She knew how to replace most parts of the System, and an idea for how to replace the parts she didn¡¯t understand. All she was really  missing was a way to propagate her solution to the rest of the planet, and to make sure the last pieces of her plan worked as intended. If she could do both of those things, and repurpose the Society¡¯s Artifact, she would have finally finished solving the problems caused by the collapse of the System.


    All that would be left was monster swarm cleanup and handling ¡®manaborn¡¯ monsters... but without the other major problems weighing down every kingdom and empire on the planet, Alice suspected those wouldn¡¯t be unsolveable problems. The countries of this world weren¡¯t incompetent - they just needed the weirdest and most esoteric problems to stop weighen them down, and they could handle the new ¡®danger zones¡¯ of the world on their own.


    That also meant that Alice needed to start seriously thinking about what came AFTER this crisis. Especially after seeing the Society¡¯s attempt to create a god, she was firmly aware of how abusable her discoveries were. For example, the fact that beliefs, when mixed with mana, could literally alter the laws of reality... how long would it be until some would-be despot forced people to worship them as a ¡®god¡¯ if this fact was widely known? If the history from Earth was anything to go by, such actions were practically an inevitability. And that was just the first thought Alice had about how this information could go horribly, horribly wrong. There were hundreds of other ways this knowledge could be abused to break the world in horrible ways. Alice wanted to make her discoveries known, but she didn¡¯t want the world to break and die as a result. So she needed to keep some information to herself, and a small circle of people she trusted.


    On the other hand, Alice didn¡¯t see a good way to get the trust of the [Priest of the System] without some amount of honesty. The man wasn¡¯t actually using any sort of lie-detection Perk, as far as she could tell, but something about his gaze made Alice suspect he wouldn¡¯t fall for an obvious lie, regardless of whether or not he had access to supernatural lie detection. Alice rubbed her forehead, before she sighed.


    ¡°The truth is... I¡¯ve learned a few things about the System,¡± said Alice. ¡°The System has lost several of its abilities, due to the way it interacts with the world at large.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± The [Priest of the System] looked at Alice and raised an eyebrow, signalling for her to continue. His expression was faintly amused, almost as if he were thinking ¡®this ought to be good.¡¯ It did very little to inspire Alice¡¯s confidence.


    ¡°Yes,¡± said Alice trying to keep her voice from trembling. ¡°In order to supplement the System¡¯s lacking abilities, I¡¯ve been developing some rings, which tap into the very same root that the System itself is derived from - the natural laws of reality itself.¡±


    The [Priest of the System]¡¯s raised eyebrow shot up his forehead. Alice tried not to sweat.


    ¡°Is that really the case, Lady Alice? The laws of reality itself?¡± said the [Priest of the System]. He sounded skeptical. ¡°I doubt that¡¯s quite how things work behind the scenes. Besides, you seem rather uneasy.¡± His lips curled into a very faint smile, and Alice sighed.


    She decided to go for a bit more honesty.


    ¡°Look... I can¡¯t talk about some things. Because there are some incredibly abusable aspects of the world that might literally break and kill everyone if something goes wrong,¡± said Alice. ¡°The Society of Starry Eyes is an example of how some information should not be known. Despite that fact... I am doing my best to save people, and the System, even if I am withholding some information from you. Please believe me. I am doing my best to keep everyone alive and to restore the System. Regardless of whether I believe it¡¯s a god or not, the fact remains that the System fulfills a vital role for the people of this world. It cannot remain in this state.¡±


    The [Priest of the System] studied her face for nearly a minute, while uneasy silence fell upon the meeting room. The man glanced at her, and rainbow mana flickered through his eyes for a moment. Finally, he nodded, and some of the amusement in his smile died.


    ¡°How odd. I actually do believe you. Fine. I will try ¡®trusting you,¡¯ even though you are obviously withholding information from me. I will even trust that you are doing so entirely out of goodwill, even though I may come to regret this belief. But be warned - if you try to do something that harms the people of Morendia, I will find a way to make you pay for it, whether you¡¯re protected by an Immortal or not.¡±


    Alice felt the urge to sigh in relief, although she managed to suppress it. Best not to break her image of being polite, after all.


    ¡°So what do you need me to do? Be honest with me,¡± said the [Priest of the System].


    ¡°What I need you to do is help me spread a few pieces of... news...¡± said Alice, after a few minutes. She had almost said ¡®beliefs¡¯, but quickly realized that using that word would be a dead giveaway for how beliefs and mana interacted with each other. Astute people might have already figured that out, but she should still make it as hard as possible for them to make connections they shouldn¡¯t make. ¡°I need you to help spread the word that I¡¯m repairing parts of the System using magic. The things that I am doing are a sort of... well, repair job, basically. I also need people to know a bit more about this repair job. First, and most importantly, this repair will allow the System to once again build and repair Classes, meaning that people will no longer face ¡®Class-madness.¡¯ While you have a different name for it here, I trust you already know what I mean?¡±


    The [Priest of the System] nodded. ¡°I am aware of what you mean, yes. So the System is what was originally responsible for handling this?¡± The [Priest of the System] nodded. ¡°Since I myself fell to its effects, and you cured me with your own abilities, I suppose I can¡¯t dispute the fact that you can do that. What else do you want me to spread information about?¡±


    Alice sighed. ¡°Well... I¡¯m also trying to repair the other, miscellaneous parts of the System. Specifically, Achievements and how Attributes work. My ability to repair those things is currently reliant on an Achievement, but I¡¯m making progress on expanding it to become more varied and less limited. I¡¯m also figuring out how to repair ¡®mana gems.¡¯ Anyone who understand what that actually means is someone I would like you to let me know about, since I¡¯d like to recruit them to help me if they¡¯re willing,¡± said Alice. She tried to suppress a tinge of doubt. Alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure how belief mana would interact with something if people had no idea what she was talking about. The mana gems Alice had found inside of people¡¯s brains seemed to be far from common knowledge. Alice just had to hope that even if people didn¡¯t know what she was talking about, people believing that she was fixing it would still provide some benefit to her as she repaired the System.


    ¡°Fair enough.¡± The [Priest of the System] eyed Alice a bit more cautiously, and then he grinned.


    ¡°Now for the real question. Why do you need me to spread this information? Especially since it sounds like you don¡¯t have a fully functional repair yet. Spreading information that you¡¯re repairing something without having a finished product seems odd, at least to me.¡±


    Alice actually had a response for that question prepared, thankfully. Ethan had helped coach her on it. It was the same problem many scientific organizations on Earth struggled with, and an eternal need for any sort of productive research to occur.


    ¡°I need supplies, funds, and manpower ,¡± said Alice. ¡°I¡¯m trying to patch up the System, and I¡¯m trying very hard to do so... but I¡¯m just one person, and I have a limited number of people and resources I can work with. I need help. My work will benefit the entire planet once it¡¯s finished, so I¡¯d appreciate it if other parts of the world did their part to help me succeed. Illvaria has a group of [Enchanters] helping me put together more rings, like the one I used to cure your Class Madness... but it would be better if more countries were helping out.¡±


    ¡°Ah, so this is a way of spreading the word, and soliciting funding and recruitment offers?¡± The [Priest of the System¡¯s] eyes eased slightly, and Alice saw some of the thinly veiled suspicion in the man¡¯s gaze disappear. It seemed that Alice¡¯s reason made enough sense to him that didn¡¯t feel a need to pursue it further - much to Alice¡¯s relief. She wasn¡¯t even strictly lying, since she did need help with enchanters and funds - even if that wasn¡¯t the primary reason she was trying to spread word of her actions. It would have probably skirted by any lie detection Perks - not that the [Priest of the System] had used one.


    ¡°Hmm... on account of the fact that you¡¯ve helped me, and that I have decided to extend some trust towards you... I will help you spread the information you want known,¡± said the [Priest of the System]. ¡°If you need funds, I can also contact a few other smaller churches for some funding, although we¡¯ve spent a lot of what we have trying to help people in these trying times. I¡¯ll also send some letters to some [Enchanters] that I know that might be a good fit. Do you have any magic seed types in particular that you need to prioritize?¡±


    ¡°Pure mana, and open seed slots. There are a few types of mana I have discovered that are useful for helping repair specific problems the System used to manage, but as far as I know, most of them were either unknown or unused before now. So I need people who are willing to spend a seed slot on a potentially weird or useless magic seed. I can help with magic seed formation, since I¡¯m sure people are struggling to do that as well,¡± said Alice. ¡°The System used to help with magic seed formation, but that also stopped once it started encountering problems.¡±


    The [Priest of the System] looked at Alice thoughtfully, and Alice felt another sliver of worry creep into her mind. Would he learn something about the System that would leave it open for horrendous future abuse? Would Alice indirectly be responsible for the destruction of the world or something, a few hundred years down the line? Alice tried to silence her doubts. She was already committed to this path. If she achieved Immortality, as Ethan suspected she would, she could work to contain the problems her haphazard dash towards a solution had caused. Even if she somehow failed, Alice felt that others would carry on her work. She could hesitate, and she could plan for the future - but she also need a solution now, or the world would die.


    Alice sighed, and glanced at the [Priest of the System]. He looked back at her with an impassive face. ¡°Very well. I will put you trust in you this once, Illvarian girl. Is there anything else you needed me to convey?¡± He asked.


    ¡°No, this was everything I was hoping to get out of this meeting,¡± said Alice.


    The [Priest of the System nodded], and his expression contained an unexpected trace of amusement. ¡°In truth, when I came here, I am not quite sure what I was thinking. The... ahem.... ¡®Class Madness¡¯, as you call it, certainly had quite the impact on my mental faculties. As much as I am unnerved by your presence in Morendia, as well as some of the implications of your actions... I do admit, it seems as though you are trying your best. I appreciate that, at least.¡±


    The two shook hands, before the [Priest of the System] left. Alice met with a few other [Priests of the System], afterwards, and used the same ring to cure any mental disruption caused by their class mana. Once Alice showed undeniable proof of her abilities, backed by Ethan¡¯s influence and Demor¡¯s reputation in his home country, most of the [Priests of the System] agreed to work with Alice. At this point, Alice was more relieved by the fact that it was easy to secure cooperation from local forces... but she was also more than a bit worried. People tended to be more willing to overlook minor issues when real crises unfolded in front of them, because they recognized how inherently dire the situation was. It was a good thing that people were cooperating with her... but what did that mean for the world as a whole?


    Alice sighed, and tried not to think about it as she met with priest after priest. Eventually, night fell, and the endless array of meetings finally drew to a close, allowing Alice to sleep for the night.

 Chapter 209

    The next day, Alice noticed a small, subtle difference in the world. It was slight, but she could feel... something different about her.


    She checked her body, and utilized her various mana-senses to get a better idea of what had changed. A moment later, she grinned.


    It was just a tiny thread of mana... but she could see small bits of belief mana gathering inside of her body, just as she had hoped. Alice had expected it to gather inside of her mana gem and turn into a new Achievement, which hadn¡¯t happened yet - but Alice suspected that it would happen sooner or later. Perhaps she had some sort of final requirement to create a Perk that she hadn¡¯t reached yet, or something of the sort. Either way, the little thread of mana would be incredibly useful, if it was doing what she thought it was doing. Alice could receive multiple benefits from getting the [Priests of the System] to spread news about her, but the biggest thing she was hoping to do was replicate parts of the Society¡¯s experiment.


    Still, Alice was rather surprised. Was this belief mana really what she thought it was? IT hadn¡¯t even been 24 hours since she first met with the [Priests of the System]. How had they gotten word out so fast? Alice suddenly felt wary. What if she was jumping to conclusions about what the belief mana in her body represented? She frowned, and  made her way towards Ethan¡¯s room, before she knocked on the door.


    Ethan opened the door a moment later.


    ¡°Ethan, I have a question. The [Priests of the System] that we met with yesterday... have they already gotten to work?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Yes. I was going to tell you after breakfast, but last night, a few of them held sermons discussing your efforts to contain the collapse of the System. While the number of people who firmly believe in the System have decreased pretty significantly over the last few months, there are still a good number of believers. The church is also filled with a new demographic of people - those hoping the church has some secret path to salvation. When the [Priests of the System] held a sudden meeting last night, while they didn¡¯t have a full church, they had a good number of people show up. When they talked about your attempts to fix the System... well, it met the hopes of a lot of people. Especially once the [Priests of the System] stated your name and description, since it looks like rumors about you are spreading. Having an official announcement back up rumors seems to have solidified people¡¯s thoughts about you... at least, that¡¯s what I¡¯m guessing.¡± Ethan shrugged. ¡°Since you came here, I¡¯m assuming it worked, right?¡±


    Alice nodded. ¡°It did,¡± she said. ¡°I think. I have a little thread of belief mana in my body now. I have yet to figure out what it does, but I can see it¡¯s there.¡±


    Ethan nodded. ¡°In that case, I can confirm the [Priests of the System] are doing what they promised. You should go test things out to make sure they worked,¡± said Ethan, before he frowned. ¡°Just be careful. I trust that you know what you¡¯re doing, but I would hate to lose such a promising apprentice to a moment of carelessness. This stuff could be helpful... but it could be dangerous as well.¡±


    Alice sighed. ¡°I know. I¡¯m going to keep a close eye on my thoughts and emotions, and if I feel like something is wrong I¡¯ll stop immediately and find a way to remove the mana before it hurts me. I don¡¯t want to die either.¡±


    Ethan¡¯s expression relaxed.


    ¡°All right. Sounds good. Let me know how your next experiment goes after you finish up.¡±


    After that, Alice went to find Jonathan, before she requested his help testing another magic seed. While Jonathan seemed rather tired from the neverending stream of attempts to make a [Fisherman] magic seed, he agreed to help again. However, he did ask Alice to see if she could hurry the research progress along a bit. According to Jonathan, his son¡¯s [Explorer] class mana was starting to cause more and more problems, and Jonathan was getting very nervous about it. Alice moved Jonathan to another room, before she began working on building another [Fisherman] Class Seed for him.


    This time, there was something different about her work. The belief mana¡¯s impact on her mindset and work progress was both more and less noticeable than she had hoped it would be. The first thing Alice noticed was that the belief mana seemed to have a small but noticeable impact on her ¡®instincts.¡¯ While people might not know exactly how the System worked behind the scenes, it seemed like that didn¡¯t matter. The belief mana in her body was still giving her a small, subtle boost when she tried to work with her own, unique brand of System mana.


    It took Alice a few more minutes to figure out exactly how the ¡®boost¡¯ worked. It wasn¡¯t giving her information she had never had before - it was more like it boosted her intuition when she tried to use information she already knew. It also seemed to make it easier for her to observe mana in her surroundings, although this boost was a lot more subtle. After all, Alice already had so many different boosts to her perception of mana that one more was surprisingly difficult to track.


    Even though the little strands of belief mana weren¡¯t just giving her the answer, Alice was still glad to have a small perception boost. Anything that made her path easier was welcome right now.


    Once Alice got a rough idea what had changed within her own mind, she got back to work


    The first thing she tried doing was re-implementing her old version of a Class seed. Just like last time, she used {Star of Mana} to create a dense oval of stabilization mana, [Fisherman] mana, and density mana, as well as a bit of pulling mana to drag in the rest of the [Fisherman] mana in Jonathan¡¯s body.


    This time, Alice didn¡¯t let the magic seed settle. After all, she had many, many more types of mana to integrate into the magic seed. She started stuffing more types of mana into the glowing oval of mana. Math mana, pure mana, communication mana... every type of mana that Alice knew was part of the System was added into the mana framework that she had created. Alice still wasn¡¯t entirely sure how to make all of these different types of mana work together, but she hoped that her newly integrated belief mana, as well as a final boost from other people¡¯s belief that she was fixing the System, would help her create a working Class Seed, despite the gaps in her knowledge.


    Just like in Alice¡¯s previous tests, Jonathan¡¯s new [Fisherman] class seed started to absorb all of the [Fisherman] mana in his body. Within a few minutes, Jonathan seemed to feel a bit relieved. However, the magic seed itself was also becoming less and less stable, just like last time. Alice noticed that the instability of the magic seed was progressing far more quickly than before. She wasn¡¯t entirely sure what to make of that. Was it a problem with the quantity of [Fisherman] mana in his body, or was there some other issue that was causing the magic seed to collapse more quickly? Either way, Alice had no doubt that it would collapse under its own weight soon.


    This time, Alice felt a small nudge


    from the belief mana in her body. She frowned, as she tried to process what her belief mana was directing her to do. Then, she focused on one of the core regions of the magic seed she was trying to create, and started increasing the density of the magic seed to create a little dense ball of mana, almost like a black hole.


    Last time, the problem with the magic seed had been that it had no way to sustain itself long-term. Alice hadn¡¯t known how to create Perks and Levels, so the seed had imploded. However, this time, Alice had started out by injecting most of the ¡®correct¡¯ types of mana into the magic seed, and the belief mana in her body seemed to be directing her to just keep making it more dense.


    Even as the magic seed grew more and more dense, the mental nudge in her brain kept urging her to press forward. To keep going and going and going until something happened.


    Alice started to feel a bit uneasy, but several checks with {Safety Analysis} told her that she wasn¡¯t doing something dangerous. At least, not yet. Combined with the persistent nudge in her mind, Alice started to suspect that she was actually heading in the correct direction.


    As Alice watched the sinkhole of mana spread, she started to get another type of ¡®nudge¡¯ from her belief mana. It wasn¡¯t anything like a set of instructions - instead, it was more as if the belief mana was telling her to pay attention to something.


    Then, more belief mana started to drift towards Jonathan¡¯s new Fisherman seed. Alice blinked in surprise. The thread of belief mana almost like it was worming its way into the nexus of mana, like an earthworm burrowing into soil. Something changed about the core of the dense cyclone of mana, although it wasn¡¯t entirely obvious what had changed. However, Alice blinked in surprise, as a guess started to creep into her thoughts.


    How were classes made?


    They were clearly made when enough people believed that some kind of job existed, as far as Alice could tell. After all, classes had obviously sprung up in the past, even after the System was created. Alice also knew that Classes had died out in the past, whenever their use became irrelevant. Furthermore, she knew that sometimes Perks would increase or decrease their level requirement based on technology and knowledge spreading, making it less valuable over time.


    So perhaps ¡®belief mana¡¯ was inherently tied to how a Class seed itself was created? Perhaps that was also needed for the ¡®baseline¡¯ of the Class seed she was trying to create.


    Alice started trying to use pure mana to nudge more belief mana towards Jonathan¡¯s new class seed core, and at the same time, focused on what she believed a [Fisherman] needed.


    Alice didn¡¯t know much about Fishermen. She didn¡¯t really like fishing to begin with. But she at least understood the basics. [Fishermen] got fish. They might do so by using a net to pull in fish. They might use spears or fishing lines to catch fish in a river. They might catch fish in a river, in order to survive. Or they might fish out in the open ocean. However, the core of a [Fisherman] was to catch fish, either with or without tools.


    They also needed [Strength], to pull in fish. They needed [Endurance], to work long hours out in the ocean. They needed [Willpower], to patiently wait for the right moment to reel in a fish they had caught.


    As Alice imagined all of this, she was struck by a sudden thought.


    Did this world even have


    fishing poles? Those were a pretty recent, modern invention, weren¡¯ they?


    This stray thought nearly caused all of Alice¡¯s hard work to implode, as her sudden doubt in her own beliefs caused the magic seed to swirl chaotically around. Alice managed to catch her stray thoughts and straighten out her beliefs before the magic seed imploded. She de-emphasized her thoughts about fishing lines and hooks, and focused more on things like spears and nets.


    After nearly two minutes, Alice felt the mana in front of her start to stabilize. She grinned, as she saw the magic seed flash several times. However, something about it still felt wrong. It was almost functioning... but it wasn¡¯t quite done yet.


    Alice used {Raw Mana Enchanting}, to help stabilize the entire framework... and then used {Star of Mana} to compress the magic seed again.


    The second round of compression made the magic seed shrink. Alice realized it was still missing something - the seed was more complete than before, but it was still imperfect. She still needed to ¡®program¡¯ the seed so that it would stitch together [Fisherman] mana and Perks, and use those to stabilize any new growths in the magic seed. She started trying to copy the little bits and pieces of the Perk library from [Fisherman Mana] into the magic seed, and hoped that it would work.


    This met with a lot more problems, because Alice barely understood how the Perk library worked. Her understanding of Perk Libraries was nowhere near complete, and she still only had a rough idea what she was doing. However, by now, Alice had at least started to figure out how Perk libraries worked.


    Perk Libraries were, as far as she could tell, self-contained chunks of data stored inside of each Class seed. They had a giant list of blueprints that a class seed could use at different levels, in order to give someone a Perk every five levels. Each ¡®blueprint¡¯ was, as far as she could tell from her studies, basically a picture of a certain mana configuration. Class seeds somehow took these pictures and turned them back into ¡®stitches,¡¯ which helped hold Class seeds together. Alice didn¡¯t understand how this stitching process worked... but she didn¡¯t need to understand it perfectly. She did her best to stuff images of [Fisherman] Perks into Jonathan¡¯s forming [Fisherman] seed, based on the somewhat blurry images she had from her own [Fisherwoman] Class seed. Then, Alice hoped that belief mana would fill in all of the little gaps and bits of information she was still missing.


    The magic seed started absorbing the mana she fed it like a man dying of thirst who had found a bottle of water. The little threads of belief mana in her environment did... something to it - some kind of enchanting technique Alice had never seen before. She wasn¡¯t quite sure what it was, but she would have time to study it later. For now, she cared about one thing.


    After the magic seed absorbed Alice¡¯s somewhat blurry and imperfect Perk library, it changed again. It started devouring Jonathan¡¯s [Fisherman] mana even more rapidly, and as it did so, it also started to stabilize. It started flashing with brighter and brighter rainbow colors, before it dimmed again. Then, its body started to swell and tear itself apart, but every time it grew to a certain size, instead of exploding, all of the extra growth would get shoved into a new lump of mana. The magic seed kept growing, and growing, and growing as it absorbed Jonathan¡¯s mana... until finally, the tenth lump of mana was formed.


    Then, the magic seed glowed for a moment, before it automatically extracted a random Perk from inside, and copied the picture to form a new, random Perk. This new stitch of mana held the whole thing together, keeping the Class seed from imploding as it grew one more lump of mana.


    Then, the Class seed ran out of {Fisherman] mana. Alice resisted the urge to cackle in delight.


    {Safety Analysis} said that the seed was safe. The Class seed looked like it was stable. Sure, the whole thing was reliant on belief mana to keep functioning, so it wasn¡¯t quite as perfect as the System¡¯s Class seeds. It had also picked a perk at random, instead of letting Jonathan choose the Perk he wanted. However, Alice was pretty sure that she had finally done it.


    ¡°Jonathan, do you have a new secondary Class?¡± asked Alice.


    He frowned for a moment, before he nodded.


    ¡°Yes, I do. I have [Fisherman] level 11 - a new secondary Class. I also got an Achievement called ¡®Improvised Class,¡¯ which has a bunch of different effects. Some are at least sort of combat related, so I won¡¯t talk about them - but it significantly boosts the rate at which I level up my [Fisherman] Class, among other things.¡±


    Alice couldn¡¯t resist it this time. She started cackling. After the seed had been completed, she hadn¡¯t needed to interfere at all. It had worked. She had finally created a functioning System seed on her own. It might not look exactly like a proper Class seed - it was still missing some mana types from the original System. It might not have all of the quality of life features that a proper System Class seed did, such as Perk selection. But those were less important. What mattered was that she finally had a working product. She had created a functioning, if imperfect, Class seed.


    Mana started to flood towards her.

 Chapter 210

    It only took a few moments for Alice to feel overwhelmed by the mana swarming into her class seeds. It was a collage of color and mana that left her vision looking like a confused rainbow. Alice started desperately filtering mana, because if she didn¡¯t, her magic seeds would get hopelessly clogged in seconds, and unclogging the whole mess would become a nightmare. Even more annoying, the mana didn¡¯t stop for several minutes. Right after she unclogged a Class seed, it immediately got blocked by more mana, giving Alice the distinct impression that her Class seeds were trying to suck up everything in the room.


    After nearly five straight minutes of managing class mana, the flow of mana finally tapered off, allowing Alice to process what had just happened. She opened up her System notifications to see what had changed.


    You have leveled up!


    Explorer of Magic: 91 -> 95, Scientist: 74 -> 79, Scholar: 72 -> 78, Careful Enchanter: 47 -> 50, Legendary Organic Healer: 10 -> 17


    The first thing she noticed was the amount of levels she received for [Explorer of Magic]. Normally, Alice didn¡¯t get very many levels in [Explorer of Magic]. Ever since she had passed level 75, her progress had slowed to a crawl. It was more than a little gratifying to see such a huge boost in levels. Of course, [Explorer of Magic] wasn¡¯t the only class that had gained a ridiculous number of levels at once - almost every Class related to her research had grown by a huge amount. It had been quite a while since Alice had gotten even one Perk in some of her Classes. Now, she had... Four Perks to choose at once?


    The boosts that Alice would gain as a result of this experiment might help her a great deal going forward... though what Alice needed from her Classes had also changed significantly. At least as far as she could tell, she had successfully built a very rough ¡®workaround¡¯ for the broken System. Now, she needed to focus on propagating her repair job, which meant she needed a very different set of Perks. She also needed to focus more on Perks that gave her immediate benefits, instead of ones that helped her grow over time. There wasn¡¯t much time left anything before things really imploded, and in some places, things already had imploded. She didn¡¯t have time to waste focusing on long-term growth anymore. She needed results now.


    Alice sighed, before she turned her attention back to her System notifications. Levels weren¡¯t the only thing she had gotten.


    You have gained an achievement!


    First Steps  (III -> IV) (Rarity: 8 -> 10)


    You have found an effective way to handle most of the problems resulting from the collapse of the System. While you have yet to find a way to propagate your ¡®solution¡¯ to the rest of the world, you have found a way to sidestep or replace almost every missing component of the System. Your version of the System might be notably inferior to the ¡®real¡¯ System... but that hardly matters in a crisis..


    +100% -> +150% growth speed for Enchanter classes, +40% -> 100% growth speed for all Classes, +100% -> 150% growth speed for healing classes, +200% Growth for all Research based Classes, Better intuitive understanding of how ¡®belief¡¯ mana interacts with the world around you and how you can manipulate it to accomplish your own goals.


    You can improve up to five objects by increasing the number of enchanting instructions they can hold by 1. Can be activated up to 5 times a month. To activate this Perk, place the item in your storage Perk and then focus on this Achievement. (can only be used on each object once.)


    You may also ¡®repair¡¯ a magic construct instead of increasing the number enchantment instructions, but this is still subject to the five object limitation. Mana constructs do not need to be placed in storage to be repaired, but you must be in close proximity to them and/or be touching them. (If the mana construct is in another person¡¯s body, you must also obtain permission from the owner before repairing anything).


    The second thing Alice noticed was the Achievement {First Steps}. The Perk had picked up some new text. First of all, it now gave her a 200% growth boost for all research related Classes. With this boost, combined with her other progress and her current level, Alice wasn¡¯t worried about hitting Immortality anymore - simple math made it obvious that unless something catastrophic happened, she would get there. Still, levelling speed boosts were always welcome. However, the second new line of text was quite a bit more interesting. It improved her intuitive understanding of ¡®belief¡¯ mana... a type of mana that Alice had started to realize was increasingly relevant to her needs, even if it took a lot of setup to use.


    However, {First Steps} wasn¡¯t the only Achievement that had received an upgrade..


    Seeker of Truth (IV -> V) (Rarity:10)


    You have seen most glimpses of the System. While you have yet to learn everything, you understand the foundation of it all. What you choose to do with this knowledge could reshape the world, for better or for worse.


    Tread carefully.


    +1 Primary Class Slot(s) -> +2 Primary Class Slots, 400% -> 450% class experience for all research-related classes, 25% -> 40% Effect of Intelligence, +30% Effect of Perception. Your ability to see Mana is significantly enhanced. You will no longer experience any interference at all when attempting to observe phenomena involving mana, and will be able to see perfectly clearly.


    The third thing Alice noticed was the upgrade to {Seeker of Truth}. It looked like she had gotten an extra primary Class slot, which allow Alice to have seven Primary Classes instead of six.


    Alice had a pretty good idea what she wanted to spend that extra Class slot on, too. [Legendary Organic Healer] was an amazing Class, and Alice was more than happy to have it as a ¡®main¡¯ Class instead of a side Class. Alice wasn¡¯t sure whether this would give her three extra Perks from the Class [Legendary Organic Healer] had evolved from, but either way... Alice was either looking at two amazing Perks and three mediocre Perks, or two new amazing Perks. No matter what, it was still a good deal. After realizing what she could do, she moved [Legendary Organic Healer] to her new main class slot.


    A moment later, Alice grinned. She had gained 5 new Perk slots, not 2. 3 of the Perk slots came from [Student of Organic Magic], and 2 Perk slots came from [Legendary Organic Healer].


    ¡°Get anything good?¡± asked Jonathan, dragging Alice out of her thoughts for a moment.


    ¡°Lots of levels. And a new Achievement,¡± said Alice. ¡°Lemme finish picking stuff, and then I¡¯ll get back to you.¡±


    Jonathan nodded patiently, and Alice returned to her System screens. This time, she opened up her Perk list.


    The first thing she looked at was [Explorer of Magic]. It was her strongest class, and at this point, it was very, very close to evolving again. Alice was pretty excited to see what options she would get when it came for her class evolution, which was only five levels away. Knowledge about Class evolutions for more advanced Classes were scarce, because anyone who evolved a proper, non-apprentice Class was on the borderline of reaching Immortality. By that time, people¡¯s path tended to be so individual and unique that there was no longer any real meaning in sharing information - no two Immortals had the same build, after all. Not to mention the risk of leaking vital information to hostile Immortals, or enemy nations. Information gathering was inevitable, since Immortals didn¡¯t change their build very fast, but there was no reason to help other people with that information gathering.


    In other words, Alice was uncertain what came next. All she knew was that it would probably be a massive upgrade.


    Alice shook off her thoughts, and finally got to looking at her Perk combinations.


    Absurdly enough, she only had one Tier 2 Perk left in [Explorer of Magic], {Combat Seed}. Every other Tier 2 Perk had already been used as fuel for Perk combination. The only two remaining Tier 1 Perks were {Broken Seed} and {Seeds of Magic}. {Broken Seed} was too important to give up, and {Seeds of Magic} didn¡¯t give her anything she really cared about enough to combine with another Perk. Alice thought about whether she wanted to use {Combat Seed} for anything, before she decided she did. Her combat abilities might not be her primary focus right now, but she could still afford to boost them.


    Combat Seed (Tier 2 perk, level 60 Explorer of Magic) (Level 15 Explorer of Magic perk + Level 20 Explorer of Magic perk)


    Perk costs: Combat Spellcaster + Improved Seed sacrificed to create this perk.


    You may attach a small extra layer of mana to any object you use your kinetic seed to manipulate. This extra layer of mana has the ability to shred other forms of mana it comes into contact with, completely nullifying any attempts to heal wounds or interfere with objects your mana is stuck to until the mana is removed. If an object thrown using this seed becomes embedded in another person, it will fracture into pieces of shrapnel inside their body if it is possible for the object to do so. These pieces of shrapnel will retain your layer of mana-shredding kinetic mana until another mage removes it.


    Note: Other mages may remove this extra layer of mana using their own mana, even without specialized perks. However, doing so will be mentally draining and require careful use of mana. It will be difficult to do quickly unless they are much stronger than you.


    Alice could still see a lot of value in this Perk... at least in theory. The problem was that these days, most ¡®ammunition¡¯ she used during a fight was enchanted to do something similar already. This Perk was incredibly useful when Alice was using her environment to fight, but right now, Alice¡¯s fighting style didn¡¯t rely on her environment.


    The other issue was that Alice had been fighting far more monsters than humans recently. Since monsters tended to have weird magic seeds, their ability to heal themselves was either nonexistent, or interacted poorly with this Perk - such as the fog monsters from the swamp. Since those monsters had essentially revived themselves after death, instead of healing themselves, Perks like this one were irrelevant in similar scenarios.


    However, this Perk still had some use cases, so Alice hoped that a Perk combination would make it useful again. The question was what to combine it with.


    Alice started scanning the Perks from her other Classes, and after some consideration, found another Perk she was happy to use for Perk combination.


    Touch the Untouchable


    Requirements: Survivor level 70 or higher, Have fought an Immortal and survived, have killed a Magic focused Immortal, have at least 3 different magic seeds, have a magic stat of 150 or higher, have a focus on kinetic magic.


    Any attempt to manipulate ¡®motion¡¯ around you will be understood by you on an instinctual level. This perk will also make it much harder for items to ¡®shield¡¯ themselves against manipulation, whether by Perk or by specialized types of mana. In practice, this means that you will encounter far fewer items or threats that you have a hard time ¡®moving¡¯ using your kinetic mana.


    This Perk was pretty useful already, because it helped Alice negate most attempts to make it hard to manipulate other objects.


    {Touch the Untouchable} and {Combat Seed} could even be considered two sides of the same coin. Both made it harder for hostile mages to interact with or cut off her own projectiles. Alice suspected that combining these two Perks wouldn¡¯t give her a very powerful anti-monster Perk, but it would probably give her a useful way to seriously weaken hostile Mages, at least. Alice checked the predicted results of the Perk combination, smiled, and activated the Perk combination.


    Broken Kinetics (Tier 3 perk, level 95 Explorer of Magic)


    Perk costs: Touch the Untouchable + Combat Seed sacrificed to create this perk.


    All objects that you manipulate using kinetic mana are cloaked against hostile magical perception. (This effect works by ¡®cloaking¡¯ the objects in question to ordinary magic senses and similar, lower level Perks. An enemy might be able to override this with the right Perks, or with a high enough [Perception] stat). No extra mana is needed to fuel this ability, though a minimum threshold of mana must be spent on the object¡¯s movement in order to trigger this Perk.


    Any objects you throw using kinetic mana and which touch the flesh of another human being will release an extra burst of kinetic mana upon impact, which will attempt to shatter nearby bones, ligaments, flesh, and muscles. This mana burst is based on the initial amount of mana used to manipulate the object, and is subject to the same mana resistance that all living beings innately possess. This also does not cost any extra mana to use.


    This Perk¡¯s effects may be partially or fully disabled at any time.


    Alice blinked.


    This was new. It was also excellent.


    Most Perks that worked against other people had several caveats and asterisks attached to them. The previous version of {Combat Seed}, for example, made it harder for people to remove mana from objects she had thrown... but it didn¡¯t outright stop them from sensing the objects using typical Perks. It was like a layer of shielding. On the other hand, this Perk seemed more like if the other person didn¡¯t have a high enough [Perception], objects she had thrown around with Kinetic mana that had used a ¡®certain threshold¡¯ amount of mana would basically bypass weaker [Kinetic Mages]. Alice was sure that there were probably plenty of Perks that could counter this, and it would also be useless once she ran out of mana. Still, it was a very scary Perk for people who didn¡¯t have the right counter for it.


    This Perk alone would make her a massive threat on a smaller battlefield - especially because it didn¡¯t need any extra mana or focus. Unless she turned it off, it would just work. That would give Alice a huge level of sustainability and threat in most mage versus mage fights. The only thing Alice was still missing from her toolkit, at least for combat against other Mages, was a way to fight against Thermal and Electromagnetic Mages.


    In one Perk combination, Alice had neatly addressed most of her weaknesses as a Mage, and created a new, devastating threat.


    Were these the kind of Perks that combat-focused Immortals considered normal? If so, Alice could see why they were such huge threats on the battlefield.


    Alice spent a few more minutes staring at her new Perk in glee, before she turned her attention back to her Perk selections.


    Due to the absurd number of levels and achievements she had just gained, Alice still had eight


    Perks to go - a truly absurd quantity of levels and Perks to sort through.


    Most of them were in her various [Organic Mage] Classes, so Alice decided to focus on that next. Perks from Classes below level 50 tended to be simpler, and also matter less, so they were easier to make decisions on.


    The next three choices were for [Student of Organic Magic], level 15, 20, and 25. Alice wasn¡¯t really expecting much from these, since [Student] and [Apprentice] type Classes weren¡¯t very exceptional.


    True to Alice¡¯s suspicions, the next three Perks she chose weren¡¯t that exciting.


    Resistance Avoidance


    Requirements: Student of Organic Magic level 15 or higher, Magic stat 150 or higher, have treated at least 5 patients using magic.


    Your ability to penetrate magic resistance is considerably improved, especially for those who you intend to heal or help in some way.


    Alice took this Perk the moment she confirmed there wasn¡¯t anything better available. Trying to interact with Jonathan¡¯s Class seeds was a huge pain in the neck, because his body was just so darn resistant to external manipulation. This Perk wouldn¡¯t even come close to solving the problem outright, but it would certainly help. Even a small boost was better than nothing.


    The next Perk was mostly the same - a minor boost to Alice¡¯s mana resistance penetration.


    Enhanced Patient¡¯s Consent


    Requirements: Student of Organic Magic level 20 or higher, Magic stat 150 or higher, have a lesser variant of ¡®Patient¡¯s consent.¡¯


    Patient¡¯s consent can now punch through 40% of a patient¡¯s mana resistance (consent is still required and this does not modify the other Perk in any meaningful way).


    There wasn¡¯t much reason to avoid this Perk - Alice highly valued {Patient¡¯s Consent}, and trying to punch through an Immortal¡¯s mana resistance for experiments was nightmarishly draining. This Perk worked well with {Resistance Avoidance} to help Alice actually make a difference while operating on Immortals. It would also make it far easier to heal other patients, since she would waste less mana on each patient. There wasn¡¯t much reason not to take this one.


    Finally, Alice took something to boost her regular healing abilities.


    Healing Correction


    Requirements: Student of Organic Magic level 25 or higher, Magic stat 150 or higher


    For a small extra quantity of organic mana, while healing, all smaller ¡®errors¡¯ in the healing process are drastically reduced in severity, and smaller errors are outright healed.


    While Alice didn¡¯t use Organic Magic to heal people very often, it had happened multiple times in the past. Even if it wasn¡¯t her focus, she still wanted to be better at regular healing as well. This would help her avoid making any major mistakes that harmed her patients instead of healing them. Even though Alice already had enough training to avoid bigger mistakes, having an extra Perk as a guarantee never hurt.


    After that, Alice turned her attention to her remaining Perks. She still had two [Legendary Organic Healer] Perks left, one from [Scientist], one from [Scholar], and one from [Careful Enchanter]. She grinned.


    She was going to need a lot more time to finish choosing her Perks. But she had made a huge amount of progress so far.

 Chapter 211

    The next set of Perks that Alice focused on were the two Perks from [Legendary Organic Healer]. The first set of perks she had seen from that Class had impressed her quite a bit, and Alice had very high hopes for her next Perk choice.


    The first Perk that she saw was enough to reaffirm her high expectations.


    Legendary Healer¡¯s Resilience


    Requirements: Legendary Organic Healer level 10 or higher, have an Immortal as a mentor, fight at least three battles in dangerous circumstances (calculated based on the strength of the opposing side, Magic stat 100 or higher, have taken at least one major injury before and then had it healed using magic or Perks


    Your brain¡¯s ability to survive is drastically improved, granting you the ability to function even if oxygen flow is cut off to your brain for up to ten minutes. During this time, you will be able to think and act clearly, even if you are beheaded or strangled.


    Once per day, while healing yourself, you may change this Perk to an active one. While active, this Perk will give you 100 Mariums of organic mana. This mana may ONLY be used to heal yourself, and will dissipate after ten minutes, once the effect of this Perk being activated ends.


    While this Perk is in an active state, your [Endurance] stat is doubled, and any mana spent healing yourself has its effectiveness doubled as well. (This does NOT count when using organic mana to do things such as improve your muscles).


    Once active, this Perk remains active for ten minutes, before ALL perk-related benefits shut off until it recharges (24 hours after activation ends).


    In Alice''s opinion, this Perk was quite interesting. It was about on par with {Adrenaline Rush}, despite the fact that this Perk was 35 whole levels earlier than {Adrenaline Rush}. In many ways, it also reminded her of the second life that all Immortals possessed. Unless very unusual circumstances appeared, Immortals could survive truly ridiculous occurrences, such as being beheaded or having their entire body destroyed - so long as their brain was not damaged. This Perk basically let Alice fake having the same ability, although unlike Immortals, her body wouldn¡¯t regrow itself from scratch on its own. Still, it was excellent for a level 10 Perk.


    If there weren¡¯t any better options available, Alice would have been happy to take {Legendary Healer¡¯s Resilience} and use that as a way to supplement her somewhat lacking defensive capabilities.


    However, when Alice saw the second Perk she could take at level 10, she decided that it was just better.


    Healing Enchantment


    Requirements: Legendary Organic Healer level 10 or higher, Have healed at least 20 people who are afflicted with ¡®class mana poisoning,¡¯ have at least 1 Rarity 10 Achievement related to manipulating mana, have helped at least 50 people by altering the mana inside of their body, have created at least one enchanted item dedicated to helping those who were harmed by altered mana, have some sort of [Enchanter] Class


    You gain the ability to take ANY material that can be used for enchanting and turn it into an enchantment that can repair class mana clogs. (Material must still have room for at least 1 organic mana instruction, and the enchantment will only be able to heal organic magic related Classes).


    Enchantments made in this way have vastly reduced mana cost for completing the enchanting process.


    This Perk may only activate three times per day.


    This Perk was amazing, for what Alice currently needed to accomplish. It fed into Alice¡¯s goals neatly, and helped her to accomplish one of the hardest parts of her overarching goals - propagating her ¡®patch¡¯ to the System in a meaningful time frame. In short, it fit her current and future needs exceptionally well. Alice still wasn¡¯t sure how she was going to fix the entire planet, because she was utterly incapable of creating the hundreds of millions of enchantments she needed to create within the next month or two... but this Perk would at least help her manage the situation a bit more effectively. It was far from a real solution, but it would help forestall problems and give her more time to think and plan.


    Thus, with only a little hesitation, Alice grabbed {Healing Enchantment}.


    After that, Alice took a look at the level 15 [Legendary Organic Mage] Perks. Given what she had seen at level 10, and level 5, she now had even higher expectations than before.


    There were only two options for this Perk choice as well, and the first option was pretty bland and uninteresting. It was a generic boost to her Magic stat and a similar boost to her organic seed capacity. The number for each stat boost was higher than she normally expected from this level of Perk, but there was nothing outstanding about it. However, the second option was so exceptional that Alice saw no reason not to take it.


    Delve


    Requirements: Legendary Organic Healer level 15 or higher, Have have at least 1 Rarity 10 Achievement related to understanding the nature of some sort of mana, have helped at least 50 people by altering the mana inside of their body


    You gain the ability to ¡®delve¡¯ into the past once per month. So long as you touch an enchanted item, you may send yourself into a form of vision trip that will give you key information about the object, its past, and how it was created. It will also give you critical insight into how it worked and its various sub-components.


    This enchantment must have at least some relationship with organic mana. The more focused this enchantment is on organic mana, the clearer the vision will be and the more insight you will be able to glean about how the enchantment¡¯s components work together to make the enchantment function.


    One of the biggest issues Alice still had was how to propagate her patch for the system throughout the entire globe. For that purpose, Alice was hoping that Murim would come through. Before they had left Illvaria, Alice had asked Murim to trace her rough directions and find the mainframe of the System. After all, the System was very obviously capable of propagating a certain type of enchantment across the globe - it had already been doing so for centuries before she arrived here. However, Alice was also under no illusions that she had truly mastered everything the original creator(s) of the System had. Her patch for the System worked, but it was far inferior.


    With this Perk, if all went well, Alice would hopefully find the mainframe of the System, use it on a big, important enchantment inside of the System¡¯s mainframe, and then use that information to either fully fix the System or propagate her workarounds.


    The fact that it was only once per month stung, but at the very least, it would give her a start if everything worked out correctly.


    Of course, if anything went wrong in her ¡®predicted course of events,¡¯ this Perk might end up being kind of useless. But at this point, Alice was willing to take a few risks with her Perks to help guarantee the future of the world. She could always change her Perks around when she met a [Priest of the System] anyway. She needed to prioritize what she thought she would need and plan for the only path forward she could find. Then, she needed to cross her fingers and hope for the best.


    She decided to focus on [Careful Enchanter] next. Much like her Perks from [Legendary Organic Mage], [Careful Enchanter] was not yet at a point where she could combine Perks. That made it much simpler to do her leveling, because she didn¡¯t need to think about any of the more complicated parts of Perk combination. All she had to do was choose from a list of available Perks.


    There were three options to choose from. The first one was nothing special - it was just a general [Intelligence] and [Magic] boost. Alice discarded that one. The second one was better.


    Enchanting Beliefs


    Requirements: Careful Enchanter level 50 or higher, Have a Reasonable Level of understanding about how humans and enchantments can be combined, have at least 1 Rarity 10 Achievement, Magic stat of 100 or higher, have interacted with ¡®belief mana¡¯ and used it to serve your own needs and wants


    You gain the ability to better integrate Belief mana into enchantments by making your enchantments somewhat capable of filtering themselves. Enchantments that you create while this Perk is active will have some ability to reject beliefs ¡®outside¡¯ of what you want to be part of your enchantment, while they will be more accommodating towards beliefs you actively want to integrate into your enchantments.


    This Perk was pretty obviously useful to Alice. She had been working with belief mana for far too short of a time, and yet Alice was running into more and more situations where belief mana would be useful. The interaction between human beliefs and mana was integral to patching up parts of the System that she didn¡¯t understand.


    Normally, Alice would scoff at the idea of not taking the time to fully understand something before using it. After all, her primary beliefs about reality and the way people interacted with it was that understanding was king. It was the core of how humans advanced through the ages, how science worked, why science was important, and the basis for how she made decisions and took actions. Intentionally trying to get around her lack of understanding by using an untested and somewhat unpredictable tool was, in her eyes, foolish.


    Unfortunately, this was not a situation where she could afford to spent time perfectly understanding everything before taking action. Too many people were dying around the world. Every second that she wasted, every day that she made a wrong decision, people died. Alice needed to move, even if it meant relying on belief-strings of mana instead of ensuring she had a perfect understanding of mana before moving forward. As much as she didn¡¯t like it, {Enchanting Beliefs} would fill in a gap in her abilities that she needed to fill.


    Alice took a quick glance at the third Perk, in hopes that it would provide her with a better option. Sadly, the System did not oblige.


    Enchanted Framework


    Requirements: Careful Enchanter level 50 or higher


    Upon completing an enchantment for the first time each day, a moderate ¡®correction¡¯ will be applied to the enchantment, making it work more in line with your aspirations for what the enchantment was supposed to look like. Does not apply to enchantments that fall significantly outside of the parameters of ¡®regular¡¯ enchantments (such as human enchantments).


    This Perk was kind of interesting, and Alice suspected it would have been great for making Artifacts, if she combined it with a few other things and reached Immortality with a focus on enchanting. Unfortunately, Alice was not focused on Artifact creation or enchantments. This Perk failed to meet most of her current needs, and did almost nothing to help her solve the crisis.


    Thus, with a bizarre mixture of distaste and acceptance, Alice grabbed {Enchanting Beliefs}.


    With that, Alice was down to her last two Perk choices. And, unfortunately, they were also the most complicated Perk choices. Perk combination was never easy, because there was so much choice


    in what she could do. Alice decided to start with [Scholar], because that tended to be a Class that gave her more magically-oriented options, and Alice decided that she wanted one more combat boost if she could get it. Even though Alice was still mostly focusing her Perk choices on solving the crisis, there was no reason not to at least make herself a bit harder to assassinate, and make it a bit harder for the average monster to end her life. Alice couldn¡¯t help anyone if she ended up inside of a monster¡¯s stomach.


    Alice glanced at her available Tier 1 Perks... and realized there were only two left in [Scholar]. {Photographic Memory} and {Rhetorical Flourish}. Alice doubted those two Perks would actually create anything useful if she fused them together, and a quick check of the System¡¯s predicted ¡®net result¡¯ confirmed her suspicions. There was no point in wasting a Perk combination on a half-useless result. Thus, she decided to take a new Perk instead of combining old Perks. It was a bit disappointing as her final level 50-75 Perk choice, but Alice would live with it.


    She looked at the new Perk options. There were four, but only one of them aligned with her current needs - and it did so well enough that the other three just weren¡¯t worth considering.


    True Scholar of Magic


    Requirements: Scholar level 75 or greater, extensive experience interacting with and manipulating belief mana, have at least ten major types of ¡®belief mana¡¯ applied to you (Achievements count)


    You gain greater ability to filter and alter belief mana, so long as you don¡¯t fundamentally alter the ¡®core¡¯ of the beliefs you are interacting with. Rather than simply waiting for belief mana to assign itself to whatever the focus of its ¡®belief¡¯ is, you may now actively make an object ¡®pull in¡¯ related belief mana (this costs a small amount of any type of mana to activate).


    Even more Perks that interacted with belief mana were exactly what Alice wanted right now. She still needed to figure out a way to stabilize the world, and while she was hoping the Artifact Demor was working with would solve that problem, having more ways to help out or work on a backup plan were definitely needed. This Perk explicitly referenced ¡®filtering¡¯ belief mana, and while Alice wasn¡¯t completely sure what that meant, she was hopeful that she would find it useful, at least.


    Then, Alice turned her attention towards her final Perk. Much like [Scholar], [Scientist] only had a few surviving perks that hadn¡¯t already been used for Perk combination. Alice debated using one of the few remaining Perks, but couldn¡¯t find any combinations that were useful for her immediate goals, so she decided to go for a new Perk instead. The level 75 [Scientist] Perk had four options. However, none of them were immediately useful, much to Alice¡¯s disappointment. Since that was the case, Alice decided to grab the most interesting looking Perk. It was a long-term growth Perk, much like the ones she had been explicitly trying to avoid because she was running out of time... but the other Perks were just not useful enough to justify taking.


    True Researcher of Magic


    Requirements: Scientist level 75 or greater, extensive experience researching different types of mana, at least one Class devoted to interacting with and exploring the nature of magic, at least 1 rarity 10 Achievement focused on magical research, at least 3 Rarity 5 or greater Achievements related to researching magic


    You gain a type of ¡®overflow¡¯ Seed, which allows you to store excess mana based on the number of major discoveries you have made and how much they have contributed to the world.


    Note: This Perk does NOT quite function as a new magic seed - it is a separate storage which allows you to store mana you regenerate beyond your maximum storage capacity. It can store any type of mana, but does not change your regeneration rate. Any type of mana can be stored without issue.


    The moment Alice took this Perk, she felt her magic start to surge and bubble, almost like a soup that had been left in the pot for too long. A moment later, she felt a new sense of emptiness inside of her mage core. The feeling was bizarre - but still useful.


    Alice tried to feel out her new storage area, and after some testing, determined that the storage capacity was actually quite a bit larger than she had been expecting. Alice suspected she could store about 3,000 Mariums of mana inside of it, although she would need to do more testing to get more precise numbers. Either way, it was a very welcome addition to her abilities - Alice had often bemoaned how little storage capacity she had for some of her mana types, such as dimensional mana. This offered a solution, although she wished it also improved her regeneration rate.


    Even though the Perk wasn¡¯t a magic bullet that solved all of her problems, Alice grinned.


    With such a huge boost in her storage capacity, she could take much greater strides in integrating dimensional mana into her fighting style. She was already starting to rely on her new portal strategy for cheating when it came to mana tendril ranges, and having a way to reinforce that strategy was incredibly useful. It might not totally change everything... but it was still a massive boost. Even more importantly, she could also use it to store things like her compound mana, ensuring that she could help more people.


    Then, she turned her attention back to Jonathan. based on the levels and Achievement she had just gotten, Alice was pretty sure she had created a working version of the System. She would need to observe him for a few days to make sure she understood what was happening, but... it was time to focus on the other part of the equation. It was time to check in with Demor and see if they could solve the manaborn monster and terrain crisis. Then, if all went well, it would be time to return to Illvaria and see if Murim had returned.

 Chapter 212

    When Alice returned to Demor¡¯s research lab, she found the man hunched over the Artifact they had recovered from the Society. The Artifact didn¡¯t look particularly different from the last time she had seen it. It still strongly resembled a plate of spaghetti gone horribly wrong. She sighed, before she knocked on the side of the wall to get his attention.


    ¡°Demor? Are you free right now?¡± she asked.


    ¡°It depends on what you want, Lady Alice,¡± he said. ¡°For what reason have you come?¡±


    ¡°I came to check on your progress,¡± she said. ¡°I have a few things I¡¯m hoping the artifact will be able to resolve, and the faster we can get it working, the better it will be.¡±


    Demor sighed, before he gestured towards the Artifact. ¡°This damn thing is posing problem after problem. The person who created this Artifact is a lunatic.¡± He flashed a wide, toothy grin at Alice. ¡°I like their style. But it does pose a bit of a problem when trying to make this thing work the way it¡¯s intended to. Do you want to see?¡±


    ¡°Of course,¡± said Alice, as she moved closer to a set of half-physical and half-mana pipes.


    ¡°Based off of the tidbits of your own research that you¡¯ve shared with me, I¡¯ve been trying to get the Artifact to work in conjunction with the statue,¡± he said. ¡°I was having a very hard time getting the Artifact to work on its own, but there are some parts of what I¡¯m working with that I simply don¡¯t understand. Perhaps you would be willing to share some more of your own research with me, to make my job easier?¡± He asked.


    Alice hesitated. She was, indeed, holding some information closer to her chest. After all, she was increasingly aware of just how easy it would be to abuse her research. Sharing enough that people could solve the current crisis, without creating a new one immediately afterwards was a difficult line to walk. It was also a bit difficult to trust Demor, at least the way that she trusted people like Cecilia and Ethan. She didn¡¯t mind outsourcing work to him, but telling him how human beliefs could utterly warp the fabric of reality seemed dangerous before she found a way to curtail this problem.


    However, if she didn¡¯t share enough information, everyone would die from the crisis. Alice sighed.


    ¡°What have you actually managed to find out?¡± she asked, as she tried to divert the subject. If Demor had run into a problem she could solve with her own knowledge base, she could avoid sharing too much dangerous information and still accomplish her goal. She could only hope that Demor would drop his attempt to find out more.


    ¡°Well... regarding the artifact itself, when paired with the passages from that Immortal¡¯s notebook you showed me, I¡¯ve confirmed that this thing is supposed to manipulate reality mana to do... something. I¡¯m not quite sure what, but the Artifact is meant to cover a huge range. At full capacity, it could probably cover half of a country the size of Illvaria. The way the Artifact regenerates mana using its artificial magic seed is also quite clever - it¡¯s not something I¡¯ve ever seen before. However, I have no clue what the mana is supposed to be doing, so I have no clue whether it¡¯s working or not. Reality mana seems like it¡¯s supposed to define reality, and then make that reality ¡®come to life?¡¯ Or something like that? But as far as I can tell, every time I actually use the Artifact to ¡®change reality,¡¯ nothing happens.¡± Demor poked the Artifact to demonstrate, and a cloud of mana appeared right in front of him. He pointed at the cloud of mana, and snorted.


    ¡°See? No infinite bars of gold appeared to fund my extravagant purchases and material acquisitions.¡±


    Alice frowned. ¡°It can only cover an area half the size of Illvaria?¡± She had been hoping that Demor would find a way to increase the range. If the Artifact could cover the entire planet, or even the entire southern continent, that would have been good enough. She could make another one for the Central Continent, and that would have kept the majority of humanity safe during the crisis. Illvaria was far from a large country. If the Artifact could only cover half of Illvaria, they would probably need hundreds of these things to cover the planet - and there was no way they had enough Immortal [Enchanters] to make all those Artifacts.


    Demor nodded. ¡°It seems like the Artifact could have reached a much wider area of effect... if it were complete. Unfortunately, it is not complete. That¡¯s a big part of what I¡¯m struggling with. Not only do I not know exactly what the completed Artifact is supposed to do, the damn thing isn¡¯t even finished. Worse, the madmen from the Society have clearly gotten a bit creative during the creation process, meaning there are a bunch of smaller quirks in this Artifact¡¯s creation process. I need to disassemble each of those, figure out how they work, and then figure out how that ties into the whole thing. I can do it, but it¡¯s not fast.¡±


    ¡°I see,¡± said Alice. She was beginning to get an idea of just how many issues Demor was facing during the study of the Artifact. The task she had handed him might not be impossible, but completing it in a reasonable time frame was probably beyond his abilities.


    ¡°So, what have you actually tried?¡± asked Alice.


    ¡°I did try combining the Artifact with the statue that you recovered. I thought maybe that would help the whole thing along, and I was running out of ideas for fast, easy solutions. My Perks indicated that it might be a good idea. However, the statue itself is also a mess. According to you, the statue is made to be some sort of... intelligent replacement for the System. But however it¡¯s supposed to accomplish that is beyond me. I tried just sticking the statue in the middle of clouds of Reality mana, but that didn¡¯t do anything - or if it did something, I didn¡¯t notice it, at least. The third time I tried it, the statute did start draining mana from its surroundings though.¡± Demor¡¯s eyebrows furrowed. ¡°Damn thing nearly released the monsters in the basement. That would be a huge mess. I shut it down, but frankly, I have no idea how these two things are supposed to synergize, if they are indeed meant to work together. I can¡¯t get the Artifact working on its own. I also can¡¯t get the statue to do anything on its own. I am quite frustrated by this.¡±


    Demor sighed. ¡°I get the impression that maybe the issue with Reality Mana is that nothing is telling it how it¡¯s supposed to work. I could be wrong, but that¡¯s my theory. We both assumed that Reality mana would just... pull information out of the Mage¡¯s head, and use that to shape reality. But now, I suspect some sort of specialized input method is needed to get Reality mana to understand what it¡¯s supposed to be doing.¡±


    Alice frowned.


    No instructions? That... was a problem. Alice hadn¡¯t tried using Reality mana yet, so she was only aware of its existence - not any of the actual mechanics behind its use. How did one tell a non-sapient, non-sentient clump of mana what reality was supposed to look like? Alice frowned, before she turned her attention towards her mana types. Luckily, her compound magic seed had Communication mana as one of its mana types. Perhaps that would allow her to solve her problem?


    It was worth a shot.


    Alice decided to start small, in case her little experiment didn¡¯t go as planned. She turned towards the Society¡¯s artifact, as well as the huge amount of sored up reality mana.


    ¡°Can you have the artifact release a very small cloud of reality mana?¡± asked Alice. ¡°I want to run some tests.¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± said Demor, before he started fiddling with the artifact. A bit of rainbow mana flowed through his body and into the Artifact, and a moment later, one of the pipes emitted a small cloud of Reality mana.


    Demor looked at it and frowned. ¡°I was hoping for a bigger cloud of mana,¡± he admitted. ¡°This thing is way too finicky. And delicate. Who the hell makes an artifact that¡¯s literally just a giant tangle of enchanted pipes? Reminds me of a ball of yarn. Idiotic design.¡±


    Alice didn¡¯t say anything as Demor snorted and harrumphed at the Artifact design. Instead, she entended a mana tendril into the cloud of rainbow mana, and then started trying to feed it communication mana.


    It felt almost like she was connecting to something... but at the same time, it felt as if something was missing.


    Alice started focusing on the way she thought reality was supposed to look like. She only had a high-school education back on earth, but she still had at least a reasonable idea what the physical world looked like underneath the hood, so to speak. Atoms, molecules, gravity, electromagnetic force, strong nuclear force... all of Alice¡¯s jumbled together knowledge of physics came to the forefront of her mind as she tried to create a framework for the physical world. It was patchy, but it was probably close enough that it would help, at least.


    Then, she tried shoving that information into her mana using communication mana. A moment later, Alice frowned. The mana still wasn¡¯t quite responding as expected. What was missing?


    A moment later, Alice realized what she needed to do.


    The biggest problem here was language. Mana didn¡¯t ¡®think¡¯ in pictures, words, and symbols, the way Alice did. Mana didn¡¯t think at all, because it wasn¡¯t sentient or sapient. So what Alice needed to do was find a way to translate her thoughts into a ¡®language¡¯ the mana could understand.


    Normally, that would be impossible - after all, communicating anything to something with no ability to understand it was essentially a definition error.


    However, Alice had access to a type of mana that could overcome this gap. Meaning mana.


    Alice tried infusing meaning mana into her communication attempt, and this time, she started to see results. The cloud of reality mana started to shiver, almost as if it were trying to form a tornado. After several seconds, Alice felt that the mana was... probably doing what it was supposed to do?


    The problem was that it was hard to track. After all, the only real effect of reality mana was to suppress or amplify the impact of beliefs and mana on something. Thus, it was hard to check how much of an effect it was having on a certain area or object. Nobody had any strong beliefs about the random patch of air in front of her, so the Reality mana was amplifying or reducing the effect of... nothing. Alice quickly realized that trying to multiply anything by zero was a wasted effort.


    Alice thought of Jonathan a moment later. Jonathan had


    volunteered to be a guinea pig, and Alice had just used a lot of belief mana in order to patch up the version of the System she had given Jonathan. That belief mana had obvious, visible effects, and if this experiment didn¡¯t work, she didn¡¯t think anything harmful would happen to him. It was a good way to test Reality mana safely. She ran a few questions through {Safety Analysis}, just to make sure she wasn¡¯t about to accidentally hurt Jonathan, and then smiled. Her tests were at least reasonably safe.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be right back,¡± said Alice, before she dashed out of the room. She found Jonathan, dragged him over to Demor¡¯s lab, and made him stand right in front of the Artifact.


    ¡°Can you have the artifact release another cloud of reality mana?¡± Alice asked. ¡°Release it right on top of Jonathan.¡±


    Demor gave Jonathan and Alice a curious look, but did as she asked. Alice tried her experiment again.


    This time, Alice focused on what she understood about the System. The way it worked. The way its mana flowed into the human body to control it, and prevent harmful effects from arising as a result of the interaction between people and mana. The properties of mana, and how they could harm humans... and the way the System used those very aspects of mana to instead empower people and allow them to survive in this world. The way Class seeds worked, at least in her limited understanding of them. Her understanding of her own Class seed. She communicated all of those ideas with the Reality mana cloud in front of her.


    At the same time, Alice used her other mana tendrils, as well as {Burst of Multitasking}, to investigate what was going on inside of Jonathan¡¯s body.


    This time, the effects of her attempt were far more noticeable. The knockoff Class seed inside of Jonathan¡¯s body started to shiver, almost as if it had been trying to dance. Then, Alice saw little flecks of belief-strings of mana drift start to writhe around like worms. Things shifted slightly out of alignment, before they swapped to a new type of alignment. It seemed every so slightly more stable and complete than before, although Alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure if she was just imagining things or not.


    Finally, the seed stopped changing. Alice squinted at it for a few seconds, just to make sure that nothing had changed for the worse, and then frowned. Things were different than before, but Alice didn¡¯t have a perfect understanding of the System, so she couldn¡¯t pinpoint all of the changes. She did feel that Jonathan¡¯s Class seed had probably improved... but in what ways had it gotten better?


    Alice sighed.


    Even though she still didn¡¯t understand every component of a System magic seed, she could now state with certainty that Jonathan¡¯s Class seed looked closer to a finished product. She wasn¡¯t quite sure what had changed, but with the assurance of {Safety Analysis}, she was at least reasonably sure that she hadn¡¯t done anything that would kill him on the spot, or anything like that. In fact, she was pretty sure that the reality mana she had just used had helped to correct a few smaller mistakes in her attempt at making a Class seed. She didn¡¯t think any of those mistakes had been critical problems - they would have probably slowed down Jonathan¡¯s levelling speed, or reduced how quickly he could absorb Class mana. Those were minor issues. However, she was somewhat sure that Reality mana had, indeed, helped a bit - though she would need to keep observing Jonathan to make sure she hadn¡¯t messed up and made things worse somehow.


    After that, Alice thought of the Society notebook again, and started to feel confused. Trying to find a way to use the reality mana had been difficult, and she wasn¡¯t even sure that this was the ¡®optimal¡¯ way to use reality mana.


    Why hadn¡¯t the Society mentioned the correct way to get reality mana working in their notebook? The Society did seem like it had left a bunch of information specifically to make her life easier in the notebook, and this was certainly one of the more important stumbling blocks. The Society had probably understood how important Reality mana was to her. Why hadn¡¯t they listed how to properly use it?


    Alice frowned. Reality mana amplified the way that mana and beliefs interacted with each other, which also implied that they were naturally ¡®attracted¡¯ to each other. Maybe there was some way to get it working? Say, by using belief mana to directly feed a certain version of reality into reality mana? Alice wasn¡¯t sure exactly how one would use Reality mana to amplify or suppress a certain set of beliefs, if the mana type naturally reacted to and fed off of strings of belief mana in the first place. However, perhaps the Society had somehow gotten this mess working by accident?


    It was an assumption that Alice had no way to prove or disprove yet. However, the notebook did detail many other experiments and ideas in-depth, but was suspiciously silent about this vital piece of information. As much as she didn¡¯t like the Society¡¯s methods, she had to admit that they had, at least thus far, genuinely tried to help her... once they died and stopped trying to kidnap her and kill her friends, at least.


    If the Society had managed to somehow accidentally fulfill the conditions, it would make a lot more sense. The society¡¯s understanding of Reality mana was also patchy and filled with holes, so perhaps there were other aspects of it that she would need to explore or understand in more depth. That was her best guess for why the notebook was missing this information, at least.


    Alice scratched her head, before she sighed. At least she had found a way to get the mana type working. Now, she just had to figure out how to propagate that to the entirety of the Artifact¡¯s range, and preferably, a way to automate it, because she still needed to sleep and trying to transmit her beliefs to the Artifact 24/7 was impractical. She had also noticed that the mana further away from her mana tendrils had reacted far more slowly to external stimuli, meaning there was probably a range limit to how effective reality mana modifications could be.


    Alice sighed again. Sometimes, she felt like every time she solved a problem, it created two new ones. But at least she was still making progress.

 Chapter 213

    Alice and Demor spent the next several days trying to find ways to get an enchantment or Artifact to work the way Alice now envisioned it working. Of course, that opened up more questions from Demor. Alice was hiding things about the System, and he knew it, and some of those secrets were actually needed by him.


    Alice decided to take a breather a few times, and asked Ethan what he thought about exposing a few of the System¡¯s secrets to Demor. Ethan was hesitant to give Alice full approval, which told her a bit about how Ethan himself viewed Demor¡¯s trustworthiness - however, he did, grudgingly, approve some more information leakage.


    ¡°So, what you¡¯re telling me is that we need to reduce the impact of people¡¯s beliefs on their surroundings?¡± asked Demor.


    Alice nodded. ¡°Reality mana shapes how much people¡¯s beliefs can shift things. Imagine reality as a... a giant soup, I suppose. Normally, that soup has a specific texture and flavor. However, people¡¯s beliefs can influence the ¡®taste¡¯ of this soup, altering it considerably. This is very dangerous, because the underlying laws of physics work out in a very specific, very helpful way that keeps humanity from just snapping out of existence and dying on the spot. Tinkering with it too much is liable to cause a mass extinction event... like the one we are potentially in the midst of right now.¡±


    Demor shuddered. ¡°I... see,¡± he said. ¡°How exactly do human beliefs and reality interact with each other to make this happen?¡±


    Alice used {Shared Memory} to run him through a list of interactions she had already witnessed - manaborn monsters, altered terrain, and some of the Society experiments she had read about. By the end of it, Demor looked concerned, which relieved Alice a bit. Given the man¡¯s personality, it wouldn¡¯t have surprised her if he had been more gung-ho about it... which might have made matters worse. Seeing him feel appropriately worried by the unstable laws of reality was a relief, although Alice couldn¡¯t know for sure if the man¡¯s attitude would later change.


    Something to think about later. At least for now, with Demor now properly understanding the nature of the Artifact, the two got back to work.


    Through the use of Alice¡¯s {Experimental Mana} Perk, along with copious use of {Safety Analysis} and a variety of other Perks, Alice tried creating a variety of new types of mana for her new needs. She hoped to create a way to command and control the Artifact, even without a bunch of humans sitting around and telling the present reality-mana cloud what ¡®reality¡¯ was supposed to look like, since that was prone to a whole host of errors. Humans could make mistakes, or let their attention lapse, or be misinformed. That wasn¡¯t usually very dangerous - it was normal for someone to get distracted while doing something.


    However, when playing with the fundamental laws of reality, someone getting bored and thinking about the next book they planned to read, or their spouse, or whatever else would have dangerous consequences. Alice didn¡¯t even trust herself to remain perfectly focused on a task if she was trying to contain and control reality mana. Maybe an Immortal with the right build could pull it off, but realistically, they needed something that wasn¡¯t human to manage the reality mana. That meant they needed a list that detailed how the laws of reality and the System worked, and a way to transmit that information to the reality mana, and a way to solve any distance issues that might occur. New, never before seen types of mana were invented and summarily discarded by Alice and Demor as the days passed by.


    Normally, enchanting materials would have posed a limitation as well, but luckily, Demor had a combination of Perks that could resolve that issue. It might not have been very effective at acquiring Artifact materials - but it could substitute the materials for traditional Enchantments just fine. The cooldown was a bit longer than Alice would have liked, but it still provided them with the materials they needed to try new things.


    After another week of experiments, they had their first breakthrough. It was Alice¡¯s 37th attempt at creating an enchantment that could record how reality worked. She didn¡¯t fix the core issue - but she did confirm that, at the very least, with the right enchantment she could bridge together different types of enchantments and have them communicate intelligently. She had already known from the System that communication mana could help facilitate exchange of information - but the importance of meaning mana became increasingly clear as she tried and failed different mixtures of mana and different types of enchantment.


    To resolve this issue, Demor and Alice created a series of ¡®relays,¡¯ which could constantly parse any information that other enchantments had, and then relay that information to a cloud of reality mana. It was still far from a total solution - after all, Alice had yet to figure out how to actually record information in a stable way in another enchantment. Just writing it down didn¡¯t work, and most other types of mana had limitations on how much information they could record before the whole thing imploded.


    To make sure that this communication and meaning mana was always available for Reality mana to use, Alice created a set of wires that could take her place when she wanted different enchantments and types of mana to communicate with each other.


    The second problem they managed to fix was the distance limitation issue. Alice had already noticed that relaying instructions to a cloud of reality mana had a distance limitation. If it was too far away from the ¡®source¡¯ of instructions, the whole thing just didn¡¯t work. Reality mana would simply sit there, inert and useless.


    To fix this problem, Demor actually didn¡¯t need Alice¡¯s help. Instead, he had Ethan help out, thus sparing Alice some of her mana regeneration for use in other experiments. The two of them created a type of dimensional ¡®relay¡¯ that let tiny thumb-sized bits of metal pass information to each other via teleportation. The exact mechanics of how this worked were beyond Alice¡¯s knowledge, but as far as she could tell, the two had made each enchantment open incredibly tiny portals at regular intervals, then toss along a small packet of communication and meaning mana - and had somehow timed it to make sure that it was just fast enough to keep the Reality mana doing what it was supposed to do, with the minimum mana cost. It was brilliant, and Alice was glad that the two of them had managed to solve one of her problems without any help from her.


    Of course, this solution did have its flaws. These thumb-sized metal boxes could somewhat sense each other¡¯s locations, but the effects were limited. Once they were built, they couldn¡¯t be moved around too much, or they would break. Furthermore, each box needed to be manufactured, and each box also had its own range limitation.


    In short, maintaining the Artifact and allowing it to work in a desirable way now required its own host of lesser enchantments, used primarily for maintenance. Alice couldn¡¯t say that she was entirely surprised, but it was certainly unfortunate. The less production and maintenance was required to make this whole mess work, the better off the world as a whole would be. Still, at least it was something.


    It took several more days for Alice to find a good type of mana to record the laws of reality in. Since she had so many failed attempts, Alice wasn¡¯t really expecting much when she tried out new things anymore. Her first successful attempt happened when she was thinking about her time back on Earth working with computers and robots. She thought of lines of code - how they were so incredibly precise that even a single misplaced parenthesis could break an entire project until it was fixed. Just for the heck of it, she tried creating something she called ¡®coding mana,¡¯ which recorded information and made it easily accessible for other types of mana.


    Of course, ¡®recording mana¡¯ might have been a more accurate name, but Alice decided to stick with ¡®coding mana.¡¯ It reminded her of home, and that made her happy enough to keep even an inaccurate name around.


    In any case, this mana didn¡¯t have quite as much broken mana leakage as the various other types of mana Alice had tried, and still did what she needed it to do - it contained information inside of itself and made it possible to transmit that information to other bits of mana that needed that information. When combined with communication and meaning mana, Alice found the combination of enchantments and mana types effective enough at relaying information that the Reality mana was finally doing what it was supposed to. The first few tests with Jonathan indicated that, when Alice programmed her understanding of the System into the coding mana, it helped solidify and stabilize his magic seed, just like when Alice manually controlled it.


    It wasn¡¯t a perfect test, but Alice didn¡¯t have the time for more extensive testing, sadly. She spent the next few days coding every single thing she could remember about the nature of reality, physics, and biology into the coding mana, with some assistance from Ethan and Cecilia. They stuffed all of the information into another, much larger metal box, this one nearly the size of Alice¡¯s entire body, with some help from Demor to make sure the enchantment on the box didn¡¯t fall apart.


    After nearly two weeks of hard work, the group finally had a set of enchantments that worked together to accomplish their needs. Alice had some Perks that had finally come off of cooldown that she needed to use - and then, they needed to get the whole mess set up and see if they could get it working on a larger scale. If they could, they would have finally solved the issues caused by beliefs and mana.

 Chapter 214

    Alice took a few moments to look over her rewards for all of her enchanting work. Over the past few weeks, Alice had done quite a bit of enchanting - which, naturally, came with a set of rewards in terms of levels.


    You have leveled up!


    Careful Enchanter: 50 -> 54


    Sadly, Alice hadn¡¯t quite hit the break point for another Perk yet. Alice wasn¡¯t entirely sure what she was hoping to get out of her next Perk, but she was sure that more perks were useful, at least. As much as Alice still thought that [Careful Enchanter] fit her needs and goals better than an enchanting class focused on mass production, perhaps what she really needed right now was a way to pump out enchantments faster. A Perk could have helped with that.  However, since she didn¡¯t get a new Perk, the only boost she had gotten was a very minor boost in her instincts related to enchanting. Hardly a notable change.


    Alice sighed, before she shook her head and put her levels out of her mind. If she didn¡¯t get a new Perk, she didn¡¯t get a new Perk. She had to focus on changes she could make, not things she wished had happened. Right now, she needed to focus on setting up the Artifact. Over the past week and a half, they had gotten the Artifact to a point where it could be used - now, they needed to execute their plans.


    This also posed a new problem.


    Where was the Artifact to be installed? There was only one Artifact, and Ethan was Illvarian. Demor had helped them, but he was Morendian. Whichever country the Artifact was installed in, it would essentially mean the other country was being left to its fate.


    Alice shook her head, and decided to toss that question Ethan¡¯s way. Alice wasn¡¯t very good at politics, and this seemed like a political problem. Though a part of Alice wondered if that wasn¡¯t the same thing as handing the Artifact to Illvaria with extra steps - after all, Ethan was Illvarian. There was no question where his loyalty laid. Alice had also landed in Illvaria first when she came to this world, and while there were some things that she wasn¡¯t used to in this world, she felt that Illvaria had mostly done right by her. Perhaps a better thing to do was to find a way to help Morendia too?


    As Alice mulled over that thought, she started looking back through her other Perks, and realized that {System¡¯s Ambition} had come off cooldown. {Magic Modelling} still had a few days left before it recharged, since she had used it to look at the Society¡¯s artifact during their week and a half long research binge. However, {System¡¯s Ambition} was currently sitting around, waiting to be used again. That meant she could form up to four new magic seeds, and combine them all with her already-existing compound magic seed. At the very least, Alice felt that she should use one of the four magic seed creation opportunities - using even one would make the Perk start its cooldown. Then, she could wait a few more weeks before she decided what other seeds she needed, if any.


    What mana types did she need?


    Before the Perk had come off cooldown, Alice had used up the last two seed slots that she had saved from her last use of {System¡¯s Ambition}. The first seed slot had been used to integrate Coding mana into her compound seed, since it had obvious synergy with reality mana and worked as a good way to store information. The other seed slot Alice had saved had been used for Organic mana, since Alice already knew it was part of the System. Now that the Perk had refreshed, Alice had four new seed slots she needed to use up.


    Alice¡¯s first thought was Reality mana. Regardless of how the real System handled people¡¯s beliefs, Alice clearly needed some way to deal with it, and Reality mana had proven effective enough for her needs. As long as she made a good enough description of reality, she could suppress the changes wrought by human belief upon the laws of physics and the environment, which would prevent all of the worst belief-related catastrophes, and that was what she needed right now.


    Right now, Alice could use {Experimental Magic} to generate all sorts of ¡®weird¡¯ types of mana that she wanted to use for further experimentation. However, she was becoming increasingly aware that Reality mana was needed for her future goals, and in quantities that {Experimental Magic} had no way to provide.


    Thus, without further hesitation, she created a new Reality mana seed, and integrated it into her increasingly complex compound magic seed. That was one of her four new magic seeds done.


    What did she need for the other three? Did she want to save this opportunity, or form more new magic seeds right away?


    Alice hesitated. There were a lot of different core functions of magic that she still needed... but most of them were more auxiliary, rather than desperate needs. Alice had found ways to get by so far, since she had {Experimental Magic} to compensate for what she was lacking. It was far from a perfect solution, but it was good enough for now. As much as there were other types of magic that Alice wanted, she had already departed from the original design of the System and started going her own way. That also meant that she didn¡¯t want to waste her seed creation opportunities unless she really needed something.


    Alice sighed, and decided to wait. She could always add in a few more magic seeds when she needed to, but she only had three more seed creation opportunities for the next month. She wasn¡¯t sure how many more months this world had left. If she made a misstep that cost her a month of time, the world might end before she had an opportunity to rectify her mistake. She wouldn¡¯t hesitate if she realized she needed something, but she wouldn¡¯t go crazy wasting opportunities, either.


    With her Perk-related decisions finished, Alice sighed. Her thoughts once again returned to the question of where to set up the Artifact. She glanced out of her bedroom window at Morendia, for what was possibly one of the last times, and then started walking towards Ethan¡¯s room. She knocked on the door, and a moment later, Ethan opened it.


    ¡°Is there anything left for us to do here?¡± asked Alice as she stepped inside.


    Ethan paused, and then shook his head. ¡°We have the Artifact functioning, and while we don¡¯t have the Statue working properly, I¡¯m not sure if we want to get this thing working, either. You seem to have found a way to sidestep the issue, and the statue is... unpredictable. I figure we can probably do everything else that we need to in Illvaria. Not to mention, with any luck, Murim will have returned by now with news of the System¡¯s mainframe. If that¡¯s the case, we can immediately head there to implement a more global solution to the crisis and save the world.¡± Ethan grimaced. ¡°Or at least whatever is left of the world.¡±


    Alice grimaced, and tried not to dwell on the number of people who had already died. How many had been lost? Hundreds of thousands? Millions? Tens of millions? She sighed, and pushed the thought away. There was nothing she could do but move forward and do her best.


    ¡°So is it time to head back to Illvaria?¡± asked Alice. ¡°What do we do about the Artifact? It can only be installed in one country, but Demor helped us fix it. It doesn¡¯t seem right to leave him with nothing, either.¡±


    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t see a way to replicate the Artifact, and I did already pay Demor for his assistance...¡± said Ethan, as he trailed off. He sighed, and then shook his head, before he placed a comforting hand on Alice¡¯s shoulder. ¡°I know it feels terrible, but we have to look out for ourselves first. If we find a way, we can send assistance to Demor - in fact, I¡¯ll help ferry as much information and other assistance as I can. To make up for us taking the Artifact. However, it¡¯s not like Morendia has no solution, either - the statue managed to drain a bunch of the mana in Morendia. If they keep doing that, it¡¯ll also resolve the crisis. Sure, it¡¯ll also throttle a good chunk of their enchanting material production, and create some other issues... but it¡¯s not like there¡¯s no way out. At the end of the day, they just need to survive until you fix the mainframe of the System, right? Fixing the mana flow in the region afterwards will be a pain, but it¡¯s not like we¡¯re leaving them to die. We¡¯ll leave the statue behind, so that they have a way forward.¡±


    Alice grimaced, before she nodded. Ethan¡¯s words weren¡¯t fair, per se. It definitely implied that Ethan intended to look out for Illvaria first, and Morendia second. However, Alice had indeed forgotten about the idea of intentionally draining all of the mana in Morendia away. It was a radical solution... but it would work, and Demor had the tools to do it if he wanted to. Especially if they left the statue behind for his use. It still left a bad taste in her mouth, but it at least didn¡¯t feel like she was abandoning Demor after all of his help anymore. Alice sighed as she nodded at Ethan, and made her way out of his room.


    Alice frowned as she turned over her thoughts. The statue was, indeed, a solution. However, was that the only path Morendia could take? Even if that did fix Morendia¡¯s problems, the statue probably had range limitations, much like the Artifact did. Alice didn¡¯t want to save only Morendia and Illvaria - if possible, she would prefer for everyone in this world to have a way to defend themselves against the chaos.


    A moment later, she made a decision. It might not be the smartest decision, and it directly contradicted several other times where she had tried not to give Demor too much information, in case he ran wild with it after they patched up the System and created another crisis.


    However, even though it felt like a bad idea, Alice smiled after she made her decision. It might seem stupid, but she felt that it was the right thing to do. Resolving a crisis wasn¡¯t always about solving the bigger picture - it could also be about helping the people right in front of her, and finding ways that people could help themselves.


    She made her way back to her bedroom, and then spent several minutes writing something down. She might not be able to leave the Artifact with Demor, but she could leave something behind besides just the statue.


    She made her way back to Demor¡¯s workshop, before she hesitantly knocked on the door.


    ¡°Come in,¡± said Demor.


    Alice made her way in. She saw Demor quietly extracting several pieces of flesh, bone, and a magic core from the carcass of a dead monster, and resisted the urge to grimace. The smell in the room was truly overpowering right now.


    Alice tried not to gag as she started to speak.


    ¡°I wanted to talk with you.¡±


    ¡°Are you planning on leaving Morendia soon?¡± He asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m surprised you realized,¡± said Alice.


    Demor smiled, although his smile didn¡¯t contain any joy in it. ¡°Ethan has always been a man with focus. His family is in Illvaria. Now that we have the Artifact working, and you have the information you need, I figured it wouldn¡¯t be long before you left. You coming here just confirmed it, at least in my mind.¡± Demor blinked at her. ¡°It also seems that my value in this cooperation has come to an end. So is this a goodbye?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not why I¡¯m here. Or at least, not the only reason.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°I wanted to give you something. As thanks for all your help,¡± said Alice. ¡°I¡¯ve been trying to keep a lot of information to myself, for good reason. If some information is exposed, it could mean the destruction of the planet. But I think you¡¯ve earned at least some measure of trust, and, well... this country is going down a bad path right now. I know that if I were stuck watching my friends and family die, I¡¯d be frustrated. I¡¯d constantly feel anxious, and wonder if there was anything I could do to help them... and I figure you¡¯re probably the same way, right?¡±


    Demor raised an eyebrow. ¡°It¡¯s a bit dangerous to ascribe such ideas so wholeheartedly to other people. Otherwise, you¡¯ll surely encounter someone who will betray your trust one day. Don¡¯t end up dead in a ditch because you were too empathetic.¡± Demor shrugged. ¡°I am a lot less empathetic than other people towards the plight of those who aren¡¯t Immortals. After all, they¡¯re going to die anyway - whether via old age or via a catastrophe right now, it changes surprisingly little. But I would still prefer if they died later, if only because the country of Morendia holds sentimental value to me. If the country implodes, I would find it quite unfortunate.¡±


    Alice winced. She had almost forgotten who she was talking to. Perhaps Demor was right, and she was being too sympathetic right now. but she also didn¡¯t want to leave this country to burn after all the help Demor had provided them. Even if Demor himself might not be the best person for this morality-wise, he was in a position to enact the changes Alice was hoping to make, and had at least some knowledge of the greater crisis. That would have to be good enough. In normal circumstances, Alice would have tried to find another person, or another way - but there just wasn¡¯t enough time.


    ¡°That¡¯s not what I meant. I just... wanted to give you something,¡± said Alice. Then, before she could change her mind, she handed Demor the papers she had spent several minutes writing. Demor glanced at the papers, and frowned.


    ¡°What is this?¡± he asked.


    ¡°It¡¯s an instruction manual. For reality,¡± said Alice. ¡°It¡¯s something that was... umm... well known back home. Just the basic fundamentals about how the world works. I described a bunch of things here, like atoms, and gravity, and so on. I know that we¡¯re taking the Artifact back to Illvaria, and that you might not care as much about the people of your country... but I still wanted to leave something behind. A basic set of instructions for how the world works. If you¡¯re willing to, could you find some [Scholars] and get them to read over this? And have them spread that information more? It could help. Maybe provide people with food in exchange for learning the information written here or something, I don¡¯t know. You¡¯re probably better at designing incentive programs than I am.¡± Alice paused. ¡°Also, Ethan and I have decided to leave the statue here with you. If things get bad enough, maybe you can find a way to get the statue to finish draining mana from Morendia. It¡¯s not an ideal solution, but it¡¯ll help some, at least.¡±


    Alice had two purposes in mind when she gave the transcribed learning materials to Demor.


    First of all, Demor knew how Reality mana worked. He might not know all of the details behind why Alice had weird mana types like meaning mana and communication mana... but he had enough information to work out a big chunk of what Alice was doing and why. Second, Demor had worked with Alice on repairing the Society¡¯s Artifact - and knew every single piece of it. In other words, Demor could also create a lesser version of the Artifact and then use it to help Morendia, if he had the right magic seeds. Right now, Demor didn¡¯t have those magic seeds, and forming a magic seed was far more difficult without the help of the System - but it wasn¡¯t impossible. Alice had a method of helping others do so, and she had detailed the best way she could think of to form a magic seed in the notes she had given Demor. If she handed it off to a regular Mage, she would probably feel worried - but Demor was an Immortal. She doubted that he had no way to resolve the issues she had described. Even if it wasn¡¯t his specialty, an Immortal of any kind was an impressive figure.


    Even if he didn¡¯t have a way to form a new magic seed immediately himself, Alice suspected there were other ways the man could use her notes to make things work. He probably had at least some contacts, servants, or people he could get in contact with. It was just a matter of him using his influence and Perks in the right way. Either way, it was out of Alice¡¯s hands. She had done everything she could, and they were even leaving the statue behind so that Demor could use it to fix things. It was still far less aid than Illvaria would receive from her, but it was certainly better than nothing at all.


    The final purpose that Alice had when she handed the notes over to Demor was a bit more experimental.


    It was becoming increasingly evident that human beliefs could wildly and drastically alter the very nature of the world around them. This had a lot of potential... but it also had a lot of potential dangers and drawbacks.


    Alice had been thinking about it, and she had decided that giving people her old world¡¯s textbooks on physics and basic science could help ground things a bit. If people knew how things like atoms worked, they were far less likely to have crazy beliefs like ¡®and then the trees are going to explode¡¯ unless they had good reason to think otherwise. She wasn¡¯t sure how effective this plan would be, but she hoped that spreading some information from Earth would at least help stabilize things a bit, even if many people were no longer mentally well and thus might not be able to learn very much. It was kind of a desperate last-ditch attempt to keep things from spiralling out of control, but Alice thought it was worth a try, at least.


    ¡°So when exactly are you leaving?¡±


    Alice shrugged. ¡°Ethan hasn¡¯t said exactly when we¡¯re leaving yet, but I would be surprised if we¡¯re here next week.¡±


    Demor gave her a final nod. ¡°In that case... Lady Alice, I wish you the best in the future. Thank you for the notes - and for leaving the statue here. I will see what I can do about propagating this information, and making things better in Morendia. As for you... may your endeavors be successful, may you resolve the current crisis, and may you safely reach Immortality.¡±


    ¡°Thank you. Good luck to you as well,¡± said Alice.


    With that, she left Demor¡¯s workshop.

 Chapter 215

    It didn¡¯t take much longer before they left Morendia. During that time, Alice had several encounters with Demor, mostly for the purpose of clarifying any confusion Demor had about her notebook. During some of these meetings, Alice also noticed Ethan giving her a very odd look from the corner of her eyes. She ignored it. Giving information about Earth physics to Demor might not have been the best idea. Alice even acknowledged that it might not have been the correct thing to do.


    But she also needed to halt the current crisis, and widespread understanding of basic physics could help with that. Alice suspected the System had a pretty good reason for hiding knowledge of how it accomplished some things, but Alice needed something to help keep the collapse of the System from killing everyone. Widespread beliefs and belief mana reinforcing the laws of physics would hopefully keep things to a minimum.


    However, Alice was still taken aback by how interested Demor seemed in her notebook. She had expected him to find it somewhat useful, but not anywhere near as exciting as he seemed to find it. After all, A good chunk of what she had written down was already known to the people of this world. People in this world weren¡¯t dumb. They had figured out most of the basic underlying laws of physics and plenty of information about biology already - they might not have had the detailed, precise measurements that people on Earth had, but they still had Perks and other ways to gather information. However, the way Alice had put together some bits of information, especially on the microscopic level, was definitely new to this world. In this dimension, before Alice¡¯s arrival, people had known that there were differences between viruses and bacterial infections, for example, but hadn¡¯t known much about the differences. Alice¡¯s notebook provided a rough guideline for how things like disease worked, which also outlined a few notes that weren¡¯t very well known in Morendia. Far more important, however, was the fact that Alice had also included descriptions for things like atoms. Atoms were not known to this world, at least not in any meaningful way. People knew that there were microscopic things, but Alice had provided a detailed description of molecules and atoms, and even had several examples of how things like water were constructed out of hydrogen and oxygen atoms. She had even included a brief description of quarks, although Alice¡¯s knowledge about quarks was admittedly fuzzy beyond ¡®quarks are the building blocks of atoms, much like atoms are the building blocks of molecules.¡¯ Even that might have been a bit off - Alice thought she remembered reading an article about how quarks were only used to construct protons and neutrons, and she couldn¡¯t quite remember if electrons were related to quarks at all. Still, she had done her best to write down what she remembered, and included notes about when her memory was fuzzy and might be incorrect.


    This information didn¡¯t exactly redefine Demor¡¯s worldviews, but it certainly provided far more information than most people had access to and a level of detail beyond this world¡¯s current abilities and knowledge.


    Thus, Alice had to spend some time discussing what her notebook actually meant with Demor, so that he could make use of the information. Along the way, Alice had also needed to deflect Demor¡¯s interest in where, exactly, Alice had gotten that information. After all, as far as Demor knew, Alice was a [Scholar] that focused almost exclusively on mana and magic. It was one thing for Alice to present new and odd discoveries about magic to him - but it was quite another for her to give him information about physics and biology. It would be hard to disguise the fact that Alice hadn¡¯t discovered the information she was giving away, especially after they had worked together for multiple weeks while getting the Artifact working. Claiming that Ethan or one of the [Scholars] he employed was also off the table. Demor wouldn¡¯t fall for such blatant lies.


    Alice had simply stated it was from somewhere ¡®far away¡¯ from here, and then done her best to steer the conversation in another direction. Demor had seemed dissatisfied with this, and kept prodding her - but she still managed to deflect his questions, if barely.


    All in all, it had been a somewhat exhausting few days.


    Finally, however, it was time to depart. They had done everything they could for Morendia, and they had left behind the Society¡¯s System-statue. Alice hoped they wouldn¡¯t regret leaving it behind, and that Demor would find a way to use that thing without hurting himself or other people - but at the end of the day, they had done all they could without compromising Illvaria.


    ¡°I suppose this is goodbye,¡± said Demor, as Ethan, Alice, and the others stood in front of Demor¡¯s manor.


    ¡°I suppose it is,¡± said Ethan. He gave Demor a nod. ¡°Thank you for the help you¡¯ve given us. it would have taken us far longer to unravel the enchantment components of this mess without your help. I appreciate the time and energy you¡¯ve given us.¡±


    Demor cracked a grin at Ethan, though there was an underlying subtext to his facial expression that Alice couldn¡¯t quite parse. It was almost like a frown, but mixed with amusement - almost like someone whose friend had just played a mean-spirited prank on them.


    ¡°I wish that could have translated into a slightly better position for Morendia as a whole. I didn¡¯t realize quite how bad things would get when I agreed to our payment conditions - nor did I realize just how much that little lady has squirreled away in her brain,¡± said Demor, as he nodded at Alice.


    Ethan grinned. ¡°I picked a pretty good apprentice this time.¡±


    Demor sighed. ¡°I suppose you did.¡± He turned towards Ethan again, and this time, his gaze became harder. For a moment, Alice thought the man would punch Ethan, or do something equally absurd - but her fears were unfounded. Instead, Demor snorted. ¡°Remember this, Ethan. When all of this is over, you owe me one. I¡¯ve honored the agreement we made, and it¡¯s clear that you ended up getting far more out of the bargain than I did. I¡¯m not one to renege on an agreement. I simply lacked the insight to make a better deal. However, that doesn¡¯t mean I¡¯m entirely at ease with it. You owe me a favor after all of this madness is settled.¡±


    Ethan paused for a moment, considering Demor¡¯s words. Then, to Alice¡¯s surprise, he nodded.


    ¡°That¡¯s fair. Once we finish putting the world back together, I¡¯ll owe you a favor,¡± he said.


    Demor nodded. ¡°You damn well better.¡± he said. Then, he nodded one more time at Ethan.


    ¡°Stay safe out there. Don¡¯t get killed by a pack of monsters or something stupid. I¡¯m counting on you. At this point, I¡¯m far from the only one that¡¯s doing so.¡± Then, without another word, he turned around and walked back towards his mansion, as Alice watched him.


    A moment later, Allira smiled. ¡°I suppose that¡¯s the end of that, she said, as she turned towards Ethan and Alice. ¡°Shall we go? I think it¡¯s high time we returned to Illvaria. Then we can set up the artifact and check for news.¡± She gave the group a wide smile, while Ethan nodded.


    ¡°Yeah, we should see what¡¯s happening at home. I doubt things have gone too out of control - after all, my parents are still there, and they wouldn¡¯t let the country fall apart. Especially after Alice gave people so much usable information. Still, even if I know that, I¡¯ll feel much better when I see it with my own eyes.¡±


    With that, Alice, Ethan, Allira, Jonathan, Cecilia, and Jonathan¡¯s family began their journey back towards Illvaria.


    * * *


    The first two days of the journey were uneventful. Alice mostly kept an eye on Jonathan and the Class seed inside of his body, in order to see whether anything had gone horribly wrong or not. Even though it had already been a few weeks since Alice had installed her improvised Class seed in his body, she still wanted to keep as close of an eye on it as possible. To Alice¡¯s relief, it didn¡¯t look like there were any side effects from her improvised System class seed. That meant that during the night of the second day, after they set up camp, Alice decided it was finally time.


    ¡°Jonathan,¡± she said, as she approached the man.


    ¡°Lady Alice,¡± he said, giving Alice a curious look. ¡°I thought that you would be preparing to eat dinner, or go to sleep.¡±


    Alice eyed the dinner that Ethan had whipped out of a storage Perk - this time, it appeared to be some kind of chicken dish. She didn¡¯t know what had gone into making the dish, but it smelled heavenly - though Alice suspected Jonathan¡¯s food was still better. Immortal-grown crops had a certain flavor to them that was just impossible to replicate with normal food, and while Ethan employed high-level [Chefs], they were far from Immortal cuisine. She shook her head, and sighed. Dinner could come when she was done with her current task.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s a good time to give your son his [Explorer] seed,¡± said Alice. Her words were quick and to the point. She had held off on giving Jonathan¡¯s son his [Explorer] class seed because she wasn¡¯t sure if her magic seeds had any dangerous side effects. However, it had now been almost two weeks since she gave Jonathan his [Fisherman] seed, and the man didn¡¯t seem to have suffered any major side effects. Sure, her magic seeds still weren¡¯t perfect - she needed to do a bit of broken mana cleaning - but that was a fairly manageable side effect, and also one that Jonathan was fully aware of. As far as Alice could tell, her Class seeds would need to have their broken mana filtered away once every few months - but that was a pretty manageable side effect, compared to literally going mad and losing one¡¯s mind from class mana. Any competent mage could do broken mana removal - it was one of the easier jobs of a Mage, and didn¡¯t even require a specific magic seed. Since that was the only side effect, Alice felt comfortable spreading her class seeds around a little more.


    That meant that it was finally time to make good on her original promise to Jonathan. He had done all of her ridiculous tasks without complaint, just to be a better guinea pig for Alice¡¯s experiments. It was time for her to fulfill her end of the bargain.


    ¡°Are you sure? You still haven¡¯t managed to fix the broken mana issue,¡± said Jonathan. ¡°Are you comfortable with the seed? Do you think there are any other problems that need to be fixed with it?¡±


    Alice paused, and thought about Jonathan¡¯s words. Even though she had already thought about them before, when it came to concerns from her patients, Alice wanted to always be willing to check her thoughts again. Finally, Alice nodded.


    ¡°I recognize that it would be better if there was more time for testing. Truthfully, I would prefer not giving anyone else a class seed for several months, or perhaps even a year or two. The problem I¡¯m running into is time,¡± said Alice. ¡°Once we return to Illvaria, with any luck, we¡¯ll run into Murim, who will tell us... where we¡¯re going next. After that, Ethan, Allira, me, and some other people will need to leave Illvaria and head towards something important. I seriously doubt you want to come with us, because it¡¯ll be way more dangerous than this journey. And the trip to Morendia was bad enough. Once I leave, I won¡¯t be able to monitor you or your son - which means that I won¡¯t be there to help if something goes wrong. I want to make sure that if something goes wrong, I have enough time to detect it and fix it - or remove the seed if need be. That means we need to start now, so that I can monitor the seed while we travel,¡± she said.¡±I¡¯m sorry that we don¡¯t have more time to examine potential problems - but I think this is the only realistic option for maintaining his safety. Especially in case I... well... don¡¯t make it.¡± Alice liked to think about reaching Immortality, but that didn¡¯t mean she was blind to how dangerous things might be. The System was clearly designed to prevent people from messing with it, so it would probably have some sort of security System. Adding onto that fact, they would be heading an unknown distance Northwest to go find the mainframe of the System, and there was no telling whether the Sigmusi empire would ambush them along the way. Alice didn¡¯t want to die, but there was always a chance things would go wrong. She didn¡¯t want to leave Jonathan and his son in a bad position if that happened.


    ¡°All right,¡± said Jonathan, after several minutes of silence. ¡°Let¡¯s... let¡¯s get my boy his [Explorer] Class seed, so that this mess doesn¡¯t get any worse. I¡¯ve seen how hard you¡¯ve worked over the past several weeks, so I won¡¯t say anything like ¡®if you do anything to my child, I¡¯ll hunt you down to the ends of the world.¡¯ I know that you won¡¯t maliciously sabotage it, and I know that you¡¯re trying your best. Even so... please be careful. My child is nowhere near as sturdy as I am, and I don¡¯t want him to get hurt. I¡¯m trusting you. Don¡¯t make me regret it.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll be careful,¡± said Alice. ¡°I can¡¯t promise perfect results... but the reason I want to take this step is because I¡¯m reasonably certain it will work. If I accidentally hurt a patient, I would never forgive myself either. I¡¯m doing this now because I genuinely think it¡¯s the safest path forward for your son. You¡¯ll just need to remember to get a mage to purify his body of broken mana every so often - but it shouldn¡¯t be hard to get the help of a few mages, right? You¡¯re an Immortal.¡±


    Jonathan sighed, but after a few moments, he nodded again.


    Alice took that as final approval to start the process, and had Jonathan lead her to his son, Jacob.


    It had been quite a long time since Alice had interacted with Jonathan¡¯s son. She had seen him around Demor¡¯s manor, of course, but she hadn¡¯t had much reason to actually talk to him. She was busy, and until now, she hadn¡¯t had any reason to interact with him in much depth. That also meant that it had been quite a while since she last appraised his situation.


    Jacob wasn¡¯t looking too good. The uncontrolled [Explorer] mana in his body had grown considerably worse during the group¡¯s journey to Morendia. However, at the same time, there was a strangely controlled focus in his eyes - one that told Alice that he hadn¡¯t succumbed to class-mana madness yet. His [Willpower] must have been quite high, for him to retain his mind despite all of the [Explorer] mana besieging his will.


    ¡°Lady Alice,¡± said Jacob, as he did his best to give her a respectful nod. However, even though he managed to execute the nod, Alice noticed that the way his muscles moved didn¡¯t quite line up with each other anymore. Nearly half of his lips were quirked upward, in a sort of self-assured, ostentatious smile - while the other half of his mouth still had a more worried tilt to it. His face looked like it was frozen between two wildly different emotions.


    Alice wasn¡¯t that familiar with the cultural expectations of what an [Explorer] was in this world, but she suspected that at least half of his mannerisms were from class-mana-madness, while the other half were his actual feelings. Being anxious about the foreign emotions and impulses assailing his mind seemed much more logical, compared to the ostentatious grin.


    ¡°I¡¯m here to finally fulfill my half of the agreement,¡± said Alice. ¡°I¡¯m ready to make a Class seed for you, to dispose of all of your extra [Explorer] mana and return you to normal.¡±


    Jacob¡¯s smile became quite a bit less strange, as he smiled eagerly at Alice. ¡°Really?¡±


    Alice felt a pang of guilt. She had been waiting for so long, to try to make sure that her treatment was safe - but she had also left Jacob to suffer, alone with his intrusive thoughts and behavior, for weeks. That had to have sucked.


    ¡°Yeah. Really,¡± said Alice.


    ¡°All right then. You already did it for my father, so... help me out, I guess,¡± said Jacob.


    Alice got to work.


    She already had the process down from working on Jonathan, so she replicated it as best she could. As she worked, Alice did get an inspiration - a way to handle the broken mana overflow issue that she hadn¡¯t found a solution for yet. She tried tweaking the way filtration and pure mana interacted with each other, by using math mana to ¡®check¡¯ for broken mana and then trying to filter the broken mana back into pure mana and then expel it from the body afterwards. {Safety Analysis} gave her the green light for her attempt, and after Alice expressed her idea, Jonathan told her to go ahead. When she was done, she had no clue whether she had actually succeeded or not. Apart from that, Alice just stuck to the previous process of creating Jonathan¡¯s class seed, except that she was creating an [Explorer] seed instead of a [Fisherman] seed, and she didn¡¯t have a library of Perks ready to copy. Alice did her best to deal with that by taking inspiration from a few perks she had understood in better detail - Perks that boosted attributes. It was a bit of a letdown to only be able to give Jacob attribute boosts, but they were, by far, the simplest Perks that Alice had seen, which meant she wasn¡¯t stuck trying to cobble together a poorly-understood mana construct and hoping that belief mana would fill in the rest. Once the System was fixed, hopefully Jacob would get better Perk options, but being forced to grab a few attribute boosts wouldn¡¯t kill him.


    The process went without a hitch. Alice breathed a sigh of relief, although she resolved to keep an eye on Jacob as the group kept travelling. She had been forced to improvise a bit when it came to Perks, after all, and she would need to see if anything changed over the next few days. Jacob had hit level 6 in [Explorer] and taken his first Perk, so Alice would have some time to see firsthand how well her improvised Perk library worked. Jonathan had said he would temporarily shack up in Illvaria with the rest of the group, since Alice was installing safety precautions for Illvaria, and so he wouldn¡¯t be leaving the group anytime soon. Until they reached Illvaria, Alice would be able to keep examining Jacob for any complications or problems.


    She just hoped nothing else went wrong during their trip back to Illvaria, before they set up the Artifact and then left for the mainframe of the System.

 Chapter 216

    The next few days of the journey back to Illvaria were blessedly quiet. Alice had been half-expecting something to go wrong during the journey. Perhaps they would run into an unavoidable swarm of monsters, and be forced to fight for their lives, or another piece of terrain gone rogue due to the influence of mana. Alice had also been expecting to run into at least a few villages, where she might be able to get a few levels by healing people and helping them out.


    None of these things happened.


    This was for a very simple, if deeply depressing, reason.


    As the group journeyed from Morendia back to Illvaria, every village they encountered was empty.


    Some of the villages had already been empty when the group was heading towards Morendia, but there had still been plenty of populated villages, too. The villages they had encountered on the way to Morendia had seemed like they had been holding on, even if the villagers were worried and preparing for the worst.


    Now, signs of hasty departure were present in most villages they passed through. Crops that could be harvested had been harvested, and houses were emptied of all of their valuable.s Meanwhile, other crops were left to rot in the fields, and other fields were left unplanted despite the arrival of spring. Swarms of monsters didn¡¯t even bother attacking these deserted villages, because there was no mana for them to eat.


    The hastily-evacuated villages were the lucky ones.


    There were also evidence of other villages, which had come to far more grim fates. The broken houses, dried bloodstains, and half-eaten corpses were testament to the desperation of the villagers as they approached their ends. The group didn¡¯t stop at any of these villages - they moved past them as quickly as possible. There was nothing they could do for the dead.


    When the group stopped at their first populated town, Alice realized that monsters and refugees weren¡¯t the only problems the world was facing. Originally, Alice had thought the group would restock their supplies in town, get a hot meal and a soft bed in an inn, and then move on. However, when the group made their way past the gates, Alice realized that the town was crammed full of people.


    In and of itself, that wasn¡¯t very strange - the village refugees had to go somewhere, after all. But then Alice started to notice that there weren¡¯t very many people suffering from Class-mana madness. Or any, in fact. Alice had been hoping to gather a bit of Class mana by helping some people with the type of problem she could handle best, but quickly realized there was nobody for her to help.


    This didn¡¯t make very much sense to her. Class-mana madness was a near-inevitability in the current situation. Why weren¡¯t there groups of people in the streets, struggling to fend off their increasing erratic and nonsensical desires?


    ¡°It¡¯s malnutrition,¡± said Ethan, as he eyed her increasing confusion. ¡°There¡¯s not enough food, so the least productive members of society have died of starvation or dehydration. The people overcome by their uncontrolled class mana have likely already perished here. In the first place, without some form of governmental support, it would be hard for those overcome by class mana madness to survive. Here... it seems that the local government has not stepped in. There may still be a few families trying to keep their loved ones alive, but those without a support network have already fallen.¡±


    Alice blinked in surprise.


    ¡°They died so fast? But it hasn¡¯t even been two months since we were last in this region! Back then, things were at least somewhat controlled. How have things gotten so bad, so quickly? Why wouldn¡¯t the local government step in to help people? I know some people don¡¯t want to help other people, but...¡± Alice trailed off, as she tried to imagine hundreds of people being left to die during the crisis. Even if that thought wasn¡¯t entirely foreign to her, she still felt that governments were supposed to step up and help people during a crisis.


    Ethan sighed, and shook his head.


    ¡°Look at the weather,¡± he said. ¡°Then, think about the villages we¡¯ve encountered as we passed through the region.¡±


    Alice frowned, and then observed the weather. She hadn¡¯t noticed it, but the cold of winter had started to disappear, replaced with the first hints of Spring. It wasn¡¯t actually springtime yet, but it was getting close. With a start, Alice realized that not only had spring returned - her seventeenth birthday had also come and gone sometime during the last month, and she hadn¡¯t even noticed. Naturally, her System screen still claimed that she was sixteen - which only served to prove her growing disparity between the rate at which she and other people aged. The System recorded physical age, after all, not chronological age. Alice briefly wondered how long it would take before her System screen claimed she was seventeen, before Alice wondered if that day would ever come.


    Alice realized she had gotten distracted, and turned back to Ethan.


    ¡°What does the weather have to do with people dying?¡± she asked. Then, a moment later, Alice frowned. Actually, this wasn¡¯t a very hard question to answer, especially after Ethan drew her attention to it.


    ¡°The harvest,¡± said Alice.


    Ethan nodded.


    ¡°There are a variety of crops that are grown throughout the Shil Confederacy, and a variety of Perks that [Farmers] use to help boost their harvest. This means that the amount of food a [Farmer] can harvest is far beyond what farmers from your world¡¯s middle ages could accomplish. A [Farmer] here might not match up to the crop output your machines can produce, but there are still plenty of [Farmers] here who can grow crops during winter. This means that villages produce four harvests each year - one at the start of each season, typically. The winter harvest is by far the smallest, of course - you need to be of above average level to plant fruit in the middle of a pile of snow and still grow tasty crops out of it. But it certainly helps tide people through the early stages of spring, where people are planting and not harvesting crops. Combined with the villages that have been forced to evacuate, that means that people left behind stockpiles of food in their villages as they fled the approaching monster swarms... at the end of the day, it¡¯s a double hit to food reserves.


    ¡°Worse, people know that there¡¯s no spring harvest coming. The villagers who are supposed to plant and harvest those crops are hiding in the walls. Monster swarms are patrolling the wilderness, so nobody can go plant more crops. On top of that, even hunters are having a hard time hunting down animals and monsters for food, because there are too many monsters in the woods. Famine is approaching,¡± said Ethan. ¡°It¡¯s still in its early stages, but I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if a few towns have proactively removed the less productive members of their society in order to preserve their supplies.¡± There was a mixture of disgust and recognition in Ethan¡¯s voice.


    Alice grimaced. The idea of letting people die of thirst or starvation, simply because they weren¡¯t capable of taking care of themselves, left an awful taste in her mouth. If this had been back on Earth, she would have loudly decried such actions as monstrous. Then again, on Earth, there had been far greater material abundance than in this world. Food had been plentiful, and she and her family had never struggled to take care of their basic needs. Famine was a problem that necessitated hard decisions, even if Alice didn¡¯t like them.


    Alice didn¡¯t have a way to actually solve this town¡¯s problems, and as far as she knew, neither did the rest of her group. Ethan, Allira, and Jonathan were Immortals - but they weren¡¯t omnipotent. They couldn¡¯t just solve problems with a wave of their hand. It wasn¡¯t like the town had some sort of magical food stockpile that could resolve the looming famine if it were just distributed more equally. If Alice didn¡¯t fix the System soon


    , famine would become imminent. In fact, even if Alice solved the System right this second, famine might still be imminent - although it would be lessened, at least, since humans could at least retake their farmlands once the monsters weakened again. But the only way more food would magically appear was if Jonathan used all of his Perks and spent several days growing crops here - which would leave the rest of the world at the mercy of the collapse of the System. There were probably hundreds of towns suffering from similar problems. Jonathan couldn¡¯t help all of them.


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    A moment later, Alice¡¯s stomach lurched as she realized this was definitely happening elsewhere. If it was like this here... what did Illvaria look like?


    Alice sighed, and shook her head.


    ¡°If there aren¡¯t any people with class-mana madness here... I guess we should just keep going?¡± Alice said, although by the end, it sounded more like she was asking Ethan a question rather than making a statement.


    Ethan sighed.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see another way.¡± He shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m sorry that we can¡¯t help them. I know you want to, but I can¡¯t think of a way to do so - unless we empty our own storage Perks and give them food. But we can¡¯t survive off of nothing either, and... well, to put it bluntly, if we distribute food like that, I¡¯d rather do it in Illvaria.¡±


    Alice felt her stomach tighten, but she gritted her teeth and nodded. They were about to set out for the mainframe of the System. They would need food when they went there - and the amount of food they needed was unknown, because Alice had no idea who would be coming with her, or how long it would take to fix the System. If she starved to death at the mainframe of the System right before she finished repairing the whole thing, just because she wanted to help people here, this world would perish.


    The group spent a few hours trying and failing to find an inn room for the night. The town was crammed full of people - and many of those people were stuffed inside of overcrowded inns. As it got closer to the night, Alice realized with some surprise that some people were even sleeping on the floors of inn rooms or in the streets outside. Even more bizarre, some places no longer accepted metal coins as currency - they only accepted barter for things like food and clothing. At least in this little town, order and civilization had truly begun to break down.


    That night, as Alice laid down to rest, dark thoughts about the state of this world swirled through her head. Despite how much death and suffering this world had already endured, the famine and desperation in this town reminded her that no matter what she did, she couldn¡¯t truly undo the collapse of the System. She might be able to fix the System itself - but those who had died, and those who would die in the upcoming famine, were beyond her reach. No matter what she did from now on, there were some things she couldn¡¯t fix anymore.


    It was a depressing thought, and Alice spent several minutes wondering if there were ways she could have done better. Perhaps there were steps she could have taken to reduce the time between discoveries, or ways that she could have been faster. Perhaps if she had been better at surviving right as she arrived in this world, she might have sped up the time she took to reach Cyra? Or perhaps if she had just been smarter, if she had thought faster, she could have made discoveries about the System faster, and fewer people would have died.


    It took her over an hour to finally drift off to sleep. In her dream library, she worked harder than ever, trying to eke out even a few more hours of research time as she tried to prepare for whatever was awaiting her in the System¡¯s mainframe.


    * * *


    When the group left the town, they were in a somber mood. The tapestry of rising desperation, starvation, and despair woven through the town had done much to silence the group, and so they simply trudged through the wilderness in silence. The only communication was when Allira¡¯s shadows spotted a monster swarm, which usually led to an immediate reroute to dodge the monsters. There wasn¡¯t a point in clearing out a few monster swarms anymore - there were so many swarms that a few here or there wouldn¡¯t make a difference. Monsters were outright besieging the capitals of some smaller countries already, and the world beyond the walls of the cities had already slipped out of human hands.


    Meanwhile, Alice continued to keep an eye on Immortal Jonathan and his son. As far as she could tell, the [Explorer] magic seed that she had put into Jacob was still working fine. She still hadn¡¯t figured out how to purify the broken mana the seed produced by operating, but at this point, it was clearly a minor concern. Alice had tried purifying Jacob¡¯s body of broken mana, and had found that it was actually easier to purify than regular broken mana, for reasons she didn¡¯t understand but was thankful for.


    The group continued to journey onward, until they returned to the swamp that they had explored when they were first journeying towards Morendia. Alice noticed, with some relief, that the swamp had shrunk significantly from the last time they had seen it. The swamp didn¡¯t seem quite as vibrant to her mana sight, and it was far more difficult to spot odd monsters or manaborn creatures flitting through the depths of the marsh as the group passed by. Far more importantly, the swamp no longer blocked their path. It was only visible from the distance as the group moved by it on the road. Of course, there was still something deeply unsettling about the way the swamp looked, especially when Alice wasn¡¯t looking directly at the swamp. It felt like every time she took her eyes off of it, the swamp was looking back at her. Alice had a sinking feeling that at some point, belief mana would turn the swamp back into a problem - but at least for now, it was manageable.


    Normally, Alice would have loved to explore the weird changes to the magical swamp over the past several weeks, since it would have provided a lot of valuable data about how manaborn monsters and terrain worked. With three Immortals by her side, dying was very difficult. Unfortunately, there wasn¡¯t enough time. So instead, Alice convinced Ethan and Allira to let her run a very small test at the border of the swamp, and then tried dumping some reality mana right on the edge of the trees. She also used her rulebook of coding mana to establish the rules swamps were ¡®supposed¡¯ to work off of.


    The swamp... did nothing. Alice had been kind of expecting the swamp to just shrivel up and die, or at least retreat from the area, the moment she showered it with reality mana, but unfortunately, she couldn¡¯t see much of a reaction at all.


    At the very least, showering the swamp with some reality mana made Alice stop feeling like something was watching her, which was a plus. She wasn¡¯t sure if the feeling had even been grounded in reality to begin with, but if it had been, she might have removed some sort of unknown danger from their surroundings. Not that Ethan and Allira couldn¡¯t have handled most threats anyway, but Alice still hoped she hadn¡¯t just wasted some time doing nothing at all.


    Finally, after another week of travel, the group arrived at Illvaria. The number of empty towns and decimated villages they had passed in that time had been... haunting. The cities and towns were crowded and starving, and the villages were empty or destroyed by monsters. In a grim way, it made Alice wonder which was truly worse - a slow, despair-laden death as you slowly withered away from hunger, or a quick end in the jaws of a monster.


    When they returned to Illvaria¡¯s borders, Alice¡¯s heart sank when she saw the fort guarding the border of the country. Like many towns they had passed by, it was empty.


    Fortunately, as they kept walking, Alice was pleased to see that the country hadn¡¯t suffered quite as badly as the rest of the world. The border was now unguarded, but there were still villagers and [Guards] maintaining order in some of the villages they passed through. Several [Soldiers] and [Guards] seemed lightly injured, and Alice didn¡¯t have the heart to ask if any of them had lost friends or family members during the chaos. However, it was obvious that Alice¡¯s early relief efforts in Illvaria had made at least some kind of difference.


    The most obvious sign of this was the presence of filtration rings. In most villages that Alice passed by, villagers didn¡¯t seem to be under very much threat from class-mana madness, at least for those with common classes like [Farmer] or [Soldier]. Every single functional village that the group passed by had at least a few class-mana filtration rings for common Classes, all designed after the ones Alice had originally made during the early days of the crisis. Alice wasn¡¯t sure how the Illvarians had gotten so many rings ready in time, since Cecilia hadn¡¯t had that many [Enchanters] working on the problem. Perhaps they had levelled up, and managed to blindly pick a few beneficial Perks, even though they couldn¡¯t see their perk options without display mana?


    Or perhaps Achievements were what had made the difference. Making enchantments that directly fended off a dire crisis affecting the whole world had to be worth some pretty amazing Achievements. Alice wouldn¡¯t be even slightly surprised if Cecilia¡¯s [Enchanters] had gotten some incredibly potent Achievements that helped them ramp up production and quality of their rings to levels that they would never have reached without help. Either way, Alice decided to celebrate the small blessing, even if it was a thin comfort after all they had seen on the journey back.


    As the group travelled back towards Metsel, Alice hoped that her work would be enough to keep Illvaria together as the group left, hopefully for the final time.


    It wouldn¡¯t be long now. Once they reached the capital, they would meet up with Murim, and then set off towards the System¡¯s mainframe.

 Chapter 217

    It took another few days before they reached Metsel. During that time, Alice kept observing the countryside. No major incidents had occurred during that time, save for a single encounter with a monster swarm. Unlike when the group was travelling through other countries, this time Ethan and Allira proactively wiped out the swarm before it could trouble any of the still-functioning villages. This swarm was on the weaker side, so with two combat-oriented Immortals, as well as Alice¡¯s help, the monster swarm was quickly wiped out. However, the monster horde had been situated near a destroyed village. The group had arrived too late to save the people inside - they could only avenge them.


    The incident made Alice reflect on Illvaria¡¯s situation. As much as Illvaria was doing better than other countries, that didn¡¯t mean Illvaria was doing well. As a whole, the country would collapse sooner or later if the real problem wasn¡¯t addressed. As the group finally returned to the gates of Metsel, Alice sighed and tried to push her worries aside. She was already doing everything she could. If that wasn¡¯t enough, there wasn¡¯t much Alice could do. She was already spending almost every waking and sleeping moment trying to find ways to fix the System. She had nothing left to give if her actions weren¡¯t enough.


    The moment they entered Metsel, Alice felt a little better.


    In most other cities and towns the group had visited recently, the cities were on the brink of collapse. People were left on the streets, slowly drowning in class mana madness, or worse, there were no people with class madness at all. People in those cities had been thin and malnourished, and it had been obvious that the incoming famine would hit them just as hard as the monster swarms had. It had been a sign of the impending, inevitable collapse of hundreds of thousands of lives.


    At least in Metsel, she could see that her actions had made a difference. The signs of imminent famine weren¡¯t present here. The people in the city were still thinner than before, but there was a big difference between getting thinner and becoming a malnourished waif. The people of Metsel looked like they could do with a few extra meals, but they weren¡¯t on the verge of starvation.


    Furthermore, there were still signs directing people towards treatment centers for class mana madness. Many of these signs were separated by Class, which meant that they were probably sorted by which class-mana filtration rings each treatment center had. Even if there were still a few people on the streets suffering from Class mana madness, they were quickly picked up and transported to treatment centers afterwards. In addition, there were also signs encouraging people to undergo willpower training in Churches of the System. Even if it wasn¡¯t perfect, it was obvious that people could still survive here.


    Alice smiled.


    The world truly felt like it was on the brink of collapse. She had spent a great deal of the journey back to Illvaria wishing that she had been better, faster, and stronger. But even though Alice still had regrets, and even if she wished she could have helped more people - at least she had made a difference. In Metsel, the bones of civilization were still strong, even if they were weaker than before. The city could probably sustain itself for years without any further input from her - which was exactly what Alice hoped for.


    Ethan caught her smile, and patted her on the shoulder.


    ¡°Be proud of yourself. You saw how bad things are outside of Illvaria. Things aren¡¯t perfect here, but because of you, they¡¯re much better.¡± He smiled at her. ¡°You¡¯ve saved hundreds of thousands of lives with this alone.¡±


    Alice felt a small warm feeling in her heart.


    Ethan nodded at Allira. ¡°Are you coming with us?¡± he asked.


    Allira frowned. ¡°Where specifically are you planning on going? Are you going to try to find Murim at one of the bars?¡±


    Ethan shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m not going to try searching the bars in the city one by one unless I have no other choice. I¡¯m going to check the royal palace first. We need to set things up with the [King] anyway - the Artifact we got working needs to be set up somehow, and figuring that out sounds like a job for the [King].¡± Ethan chuckled. ¡°Maybe he¡¯ll even get a good Achievement out of it - or maybe he¡¯ll toss it to the first [Princess]. Either way, I figure Murim might also be waiting for us at the royal palace. It would make it easier to find him, after all.¡±


    Allira sighed. ¡°So we¡¯re leaving again immediately?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. Sorry. We can probably take at least one day to prepare equipment, get a hot meal, and rest in a soft bed. But by tomorrow, we¡¯ll be back on the road.¡± Ethan turned towards Jonathan. ¡°I assume you aren¡¯t coming with us.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, Ethan,¡± said Jonathan. ¡°I¡¯m no good in a fight, and I think I¡¯ve played my part in this crisis. It sounds like you¡¯re heading right into the thick of things. Even though you path probably won¡¯t have much fighting on it... we all know that theory and reality are two very different things.¡±


    Ethan nodded. ¡°Makes sense. Don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯ll ask the [King] to designate a small path of fertile farmland as a new kingdom for you. You can set up a new ¡®country¡¯ there to get your Perks back online. Times being what they are, I doubt even the most stubborn [Nobles] will object to recognizing your farm as a sovereign nation, as long as you help alleviate the food crisis.¡±


    Jonathan laughed. ¡°I have no objections at all to giving more people food. I don¡¯t like seeing people starve anymore than you do. Just have the [King] send me a [Messenger] when he figures out where my new kingdom will be located. I¡¯ll handle the rest.¡±


    Ethan smiled at Jonathan, and then, to Alice¡¯s surprise, pulled the man into a brief but firm hug. ¡°Will do, Jonathan. Good luck, and stay safe.¡±


    Jonathan also seemed a bit surprised by Ethan¡¯s actions. At least as far as Alice had seen, Ethan had never expressed physical affection towards others before - she didn¡¯t even remember seeing him hug his own mother. Admittedly, that was in a more formal setting, but still. Then, much to Alice''s surprise, Jonathan grinned, and then hugged Ethan back.


    ¡°Will do. You too. You three watch out for yourselves, all right? I know that you¡¯re doing your best to fix all of this madness, but don¡¯t die along the way. I¡¯d hate to lose a friend to this crisis. Stay safe.¡±


    With that, Jonathan nodded at them, before he turned veered off to the left, and started making his way towards a nearby inn. Ethan grinned, before he turned back towards Alice.


    ¡°That¡¯s that, then. Let¡¯s make our way to the palace.¡± With that, the group sped up as they moved through the streets of Illvaria. It took them less than half an hour to reach the Palace, thanks in part to the unusually high speeds that Alice and the two Immortals could reach while speed walking. The [Guards] standing outside of the palace took one look at Ethan, and then another look at Allira, before their eyes widened in surprise. They gave both Immortals respectful nods. ¡°Honored Immortals,¡± one of them said. ¡°Do you have business in the palace?¡±


    ¡°We need to see the [King]. We¡¯re looking for Murim, and we also have important news about the current crisis,¡± said Ethan.


    ¡°Understood, Honored Immortal,¡± said one of the [Guards], as he bowed and opened the door to the palace. The group strode in, before they brushed past the priceless pieces of art and decorations as if they weren¡¯t even there. Soon, the group found themselves in the audience chamber again, where the [King], four children, and a woman Alice assumed was the [Queen] sat. There was also a man that looked like a [Noble], who was being quickly ushered out of the chamber. The man looked more than slightly irritated, but when he saw Ethan, Allira, and Alice, his eyes widened, before he stopped dallying and began a dignified walk towards the exit. Alice wondered if he was a [Noble] who had been in the middle of an audience with the king, before she decided it didn¡¯t matter.


    ¡°Immortal Ethan sees the [King],¡± said Ethan.


    ¡°Skip the formalities,¡± said the [King], cutting off Alice, Cecilia, and Allira before they could follow suit. ¡°We hear that both of you have news for us?¡±


    Ethan nodded. ¡°We have several pieces of news, many of which are of vital importance. First of all, while we were journeying to Morendia, we came across a rather unusual swamp. It took us some investigation to determine exactly what it was, and what was wrong with it, but ultimately, we realized that the unchecked mana growth and chaos after the collapse of the System has had rather... troubling effects on the rest of the world. Specifically, environments are changing in unpredictable but highly dangerous ways.¡± Ethan began to describe the group¡¯s experiences within the swamp, as well as some of Alice¡¯s discoveries regarding the impact of human beliefs on environments, creatures, and mana. However, while Ethan presented a few of Alice¡¯s conclusions, Alice noticed that he didn¡¯t go into detail about belief itself.


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    The knowledge that beliefs could change or warp reality was probably Alice¡¯s most dangerous discovery. Even her knowledge of the System wasn¡¯t anywhere near as scary. The moment someone realized that they could become some sort of Immortal god-emperor by forcing enough people to believe it, things would spiral out of control.


    After Ethan finished speaking, the [King] nodded thoughtfully. ¡°We¡¯ve had similar problems in Illvaria, although to a lesser degree. The exploding forests of southern Illvaria are becoming rather dangerous,¡± said the [King]. ¡°I believe Murim also mentioned that the environment of the Mana Wastes is now very wild and unpredictable. There were a variety of downright impossible terrains and geographical features that he mentioned seeing. While none of these chaotic terrain problems have reached Illvaria yet, I have been getting nervous. Do you have a solution to this problem?¡±


    ¡°We do,¡± said Ethan, before he pulled out the Society¡¯s Artifact. ¡°We spent a great deal of time figuring out how to operate this Artifact after we seized it from the Society. It requires quite a bit of setup, but in exchange, it can stabilize a region, ensuring that the terrain no longer mutates and changes unpredictably. The details underlying the Artifact are complicated, but they aren¡¯t that important. What matters is that it works.¡±


    The [King]¡¯s eyes lit up at Ethan¡¯s words. ¡°That¡¯s wonderful news. We can certainly use it to safeguard what is left of Illvaria.¡± Then, the [King]¡¯s eyes dimmed. ¡°It is simply a shame that this artifact has come so late. During the chaos, due to the spread of dangerous environments, monster swarms, and assorted chaos, many southern towns have been abandoned. The attempt to revive the Illvarian South will come to naught, I think.¡±


    Ethan also sighed. ¡°I know how much you hoped this would turn out well. For what it¡¯s worth, I¡¯m sorry. I wish things had turned out differently, but the timing was just unlucky.¡±


    The [King]¡¯s eyes dimmed further, before he sighed again. ¡°No matter. At least I can safeguard what remains of my kingdom. Based on other reports, that is far more than many other countries have achieved. Ethan, what¡¯s the range of the Artifact? Are there any limitations on use that I need to know about?¡±


    Ethan began to detail all of the discoveries and modifications the group had made while experimenting with the Society¡¯s artifact. He detailed its range, its limitations, and most importantly, how much the Artifact could actually do per day without overtaxing its mana reserves. After all, much like other Artifacts, the Artifact they recovered from the Society had an artificial magic seed, meaning it could regenerate a certain amount of mana each day - but that quantity was still limited, even if it was massive.


    The [King], as well as the [Queen], two [Princesses], and two [Princes] all sat in their seats and absorbed the information as Ethan spoke. After that, the [King] turned towards his two daughters, as well as his sons, and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.


    ¡°Girls. Take this as a lesson from me. What do you think we should do with this artifact?¡± Asked the [King].


    The first [Princess] was the first to speak. ¡°Well... if I were in charge of setting up the Artifact, the first thing I would do would be to give up on the south of Illvaria entirely. The Artifact can only cover half of Illvaria, and the north is clearly more important than the south. It¡¯s a small disaster for people who have invested too much into the south, and it will greatly damage the trust in the crown and its policies. Several [Nobles] will probably become much harder to manage, at least in the short term. Unfortunately, there isn¡¯t a better option for us at this point. Trying to hold on to the south is already unfeasible, as you mentioned, and apart from a few well-managed towns, most other towns are already in ruins.


    ¡°After setting up the Artifact in the north, I would relocate everyone that we can into the radius of the Artifact. That would give us a much more defensible perimeter to maintain. Then, I would get Doll to help build a big series of defenses right at the edge of this Artifact¡¯s radius, especially near major choke points or places where we can hold off monster swarms. We¡¯ll lose a lot of territory that way, and repopulating the lost parts of Illvaria would definitely be a pain in the neck. However, we would save most of the people in the country. We can always expand back outwards once things stabilize. Normally, our competitors would take advantage of our weakness to hinder any attempts to reclaim our lost lands... but with the recent chaos, they¡¯re likely going to be focused on reclaiming their own land. That means we¡¯ll have a brief window of opportunity to expand where even the Sigmusi won¡¯t be able to effectively interfere.


    ¡°Not to mention, with the help of Lady Alice¡¯s filtration rings, we have ways to keep our society stable and productive. So long as we are patient, we can not only safeguard our people, but after this crisis is resolved, our national power will skyrocket. This situation is still a disaster - but after the crisis ends, perhaps we¡¯ll have an opportunity to push the Sigmusi back, or even drive out of the Southern Continent entirely over the next century or so,¡± said the eldest [Princess]. Alice had to admire the [Princess]¡¯s thinking. It was a strange blend of practicality and ruthlessness. It certainly didn¡¯t make Alice want to befriend the other girl... but it seemed fitting for a ruler.


    ¡°That¡¯s not the best solution! What about the people who have invested so much time, labor, and money into the south? How can we just abandon it? This is our best chance to reach a position of economic parity with the Sigmusi Colonia, or at least narrow the gap. We know how dangerous those bastards to the west are,¡± said the second [Princess]. ¡°You made a lot of claims about how we¡¯ll come out the other end of this crisis in a better position than our competitors, but that¡¯s contingent upon Lady Alice solving the crisis - something we can¡¯t be certain of. If she fails, we won¡¯t have any real way to address the crisis afterwards. Worse, implementing this Artifact sends a clear signal to allies of the crown that we aren¡¯t willing to set up and protect them anymore. How will we handle the loss of trust in the crown? I feel that it¡¯s better to set up the Artifact to safeguard most of the north, but move it further south, to show that we aren¡¯t just protecting ourselves. We might end up ¡®protecting¡¯ a lot of uninhabited wilderness, but if we¡¯re relocating people anyway, we can set up a few smaller towns there. It makes far more economic sense to safeguard at least a bit of the southern wilderness too.¡±


    ¡°Well, what funds and manpower do we have to make that proposal work?¡± asked the first [Princess]. ¡°It¡¯s not about whether we should safeguard the south. Obviously, if we could keep the south afloat, it would be better for us. The problem is, we have no way to do it. The monster swarms are barely kept in check as is. If we try to expand our defensive perimeter, we¡¯ll just lose everything. Even the Sun Knight is overworked right now. The current crisis is a catastrophe that we have no way to totally dismantle. All we can do is hope for the best and minimize our losses. That¡¯s still far better than most other countries. We can¡¯t give up on our highly populated, well developed northern territory to preserve a few fringes of uninhabited forest. Even if it makes eventual economic sense, we¡¯re trying to survive the current crisis, not expand.¡±


    Alice noticed that the [King] smiled a lot more at the first [Princess]¡¯s analysis, and showed a subtle frown whenever the second [Princess] spoke. The difference in treatment between the two wasn¡¯t subtle - she could see why so many people were convinced that the first [Princess] was the heir to the throne, while the second [Princess] was a backup plan, at best.


    The first and second [Princess] continued to argue their own points for a few minutes, before the [King] cut them off. He gave the first [Princess] a subtle, approving nod, before he turned back towards Ethan and Alice.


    ¡°Thank both of you for your service to Illvaria. We¡¯ll set up the Artifact in accordance with the first [Princess]¡¯s proposal.¡± Alice frowned. It almost seemed as if the [King] was trying to give credit to the eldest [Princess]...


    Ah, so he¡¯s trying to get the first [Princess] an Achievement, thought Alice, as she finally understood the [King]¡¯s intentions. Heedless of Alice¡¯s realization, the [King] continued.


    ¡°Normally, I would bestow some rewards upon you - probably a [Noble] title of some sort for you, Lady Alice. But based on my understanding, right now that would saddle you with a bunch of Class Mana you had no good way to get rid of? Furthermore, it doesn¡¯t seem as though Lady Alice is terribly interested in becoming a landed [Noble]...¡±


    Alice shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t want to be stuck managing a territory. That sounds like a difficult and thankless task I would love to avoid.¡±


    The [King] nodded. ¡°In that case, if you don¡¯t have anything else you want...?¡± The [King] glanced at Alice, as if hoping she would interject and ask for something, but Alice honestly hadn¡¯t even thought of a reward for her actions. She had been doing all of this to help people, and while Alice wasn¡¯t opposed to being rewarded for her work, she hadn¡¯t had much time to think about what came after all of this. The [King] sighed.


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll give you a proper reward in gold. For all of your services to Illvaria... perhaps ten thousand gold crowns is a good amount?¡±


    Alice¡¯s eyes boggled at the ludicrous amount of money. She hadn¡¯t even seen a gold crown since coming to this world - most transactions were done in gold suns, or in silver coins. Ten thousand gold crowns was... probably enough to build her own magic academy, if she felt like it.


    ¡°There are two other things we need to settle,¡± said Ethan. ¡°First of all, I¡¯d like to section off a chunk of land for a ¡®kingdom¡¯ for Jonathan. That will help him maximize his food production.¡±


    The [King]¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°You got Immortal Jonathan to migrate to Illvaria?¡±


    ¡°Only temporarily, but yes, he¡¯s here for now.¡±


    The [King] grinned. ¡°Ethan, you never fail to surpass expectations! We¡¯ll immediately section out some farmland and bestow it upon Jonathan as a new kingdom. Normally, the [Nobles] would be up in arms about carving out chunks of our own kingdom to give to others... but these are hardly normal times. I will make it happen. I¡¯ll send you details on what land will be allocated to Jonathan by tonight. Well done!¡±


    Ethan grinned. ¡°The second issue we need to resolve is Murim. Where is he?¡±


    The [King] looked thoughtful at Ethan¡¯s words, before he smiled. ¡°He returned two days ago. He¡¯s in the guest section of the royal palace, waiting for you. You can find him on the third floor, near the indoor garden.¡±


    Alice smiled. Murim had returned, which meant he should have found the mainframe of the System. It was time to set this world right.

 Chapter 218

    After the group finished the audience with the [King], the [King] and his family left the audience chamber. Alice suspected they had gone to figure out what land to allocate to Jonathan, and to figure out the logistics for the reality mana artifact. Meanwhile, the group went to find Murim. It took a few minutes of navigating through the palace before they found Murim¡¯s room in the guest quarters.


    The four of them approached the door, before Allira knocked on the door. The group waited a few seconds, before Alice heard a rather groggy ¡®whozit?¡¯ from the other side of the door. Another minute passed by as Alice heard faint shuffling sounds from within the room, while Allira and Ethan exchanged amused looks.


    ¡°He still likes sleeping in, huh?¡± said Allira.


    Ethan grinned back at her, as if the two were sharing a private joke. A few minutes later, Murim opened the door, and Alice could see that his clothing was rumpled. It was obvious that Murim had thrown it on in a hurry. His hair was also poorly managed, and Alice could smell alcohol from the interior of his room. Ethan raised and eyebrow at Murim, and Murim gave Ethan a shrug.


    ¡°Sorry, I stayed up too late last night sampling some of the royal wine cellar¡¯s offerings. I¡¯m a bit hung over, but I can function fine. Anyway...¡± Murim squinted, as if trying to ward off an errant ray of light, and then glanced at Alice. ¡°I imagine you¡¯re here to check what I found?¡±


    Alice nodded.


    Murim grinned. ¡°You¡¯ll be happy to know I discovered quite a bit, then. Based off of the information you gave me, I started searching by searching the areas northwest of Illvaria,¡± said Murim. ¡°I don¡¯t mind telling you that things got kind of dangerous more than once. The Sigmusi did not like an Illvarian Immortal moving through their territory. The moment they realized who I was, they sent Emilia after me.¡± Murim grimaced. ¡°Crazy [Assassin]. She nearly got me during her first ambush, although I managed to get away. After that, I managed to dodge her for a while as I moved through the country, but she kept hunting me the whole journey. That slowed things down a bit. Worse, the Maelstrom that you wanted me to check out is pretty firmly in the area controlled by the Sigmusi navy. The Maelstrom itself is pretty firmly between the Sigmusi Colonia and the Sigmusi Imperia. Had to get on a boat with some... shady folks in order to investigate it properly. I¡¯m pretty sure they were [Pirates], but I had money to spend, and the status of an Immortal to prevent them from getting any funny ideas.


    ¡°Once we finally got close to the Maelstrom, I think I confirmed what you were looking for. During the search, I saw a giant pulse of rainbow mana tear through the air, as if it were trying to give the entire world a paint job. The area was also crawling with monsters, so I wasn¡¯t able to get any closer. Still, based on what I saw, it looked like I was close to the source of a massive amount of unusual mana, most of which was rainbow-colored. That¡¯s what you¡¯re looking for, right?¡± Asked Demor.


    Alice nodded. ¡°That¡¯s exactly what I¡¯m searching for.¡±


    Demor grinned. ¡°Then it looks like your destination is the Maelstrom, instead of the western continent.¡±


    At Demor¡¯s words, Ethan had a strange mixture of amusement and relief on his face. ¡°Well, I¡¯m a bit disappointed that my guess was wrong. I definitely thought that it would be on the western continent, not the Maelstrom. Still, even if I¡¯m surprised, it¡¯s good news. Less travel for us.¡± Ethan frowned. ¡°However, the monsters and the difficulty of accessing the area aren¡¯t good news. You said that the place is crawling with monsters?¡±


    Murim nodded. ¡°I couldn¡¯t even approach past a certain point, because the monsters were so dense. My Perks make it easier to travel through monster infested lands, but that wasn¡¯t a ¡®monster infested land.¡¯ It was almost literally a wall of monsters eating each other and laying eggs. To get to the heart of this mess, you¡¯ll need to find a boat to get to the center of the maelstrom, and a way past the wall of monsters. I¡¯m mostly equipped for land exploration, so my knowledge past that point is hazy. Sorry, but that¡¯s all I found out.¡±


    ¡°Far better than nothing,¡± said Ethan. ¡°We can figure out the rest on our own. Thank you for what you¡¯ve done,¡± said Ethan.


    ¡°So we¡¯re leaving soon?¡± said Allira. ¡°Are we going to try to sail from Illvaria to the Maelstrom, or travel over land and then get a boat once we arrive?¡±


    Ethan frowned. ¡°I don¡¯t like the idea of travelling through Sigumusi territory and then trying to find a ship willing to take us to our destination while Emilia pursues us. Once she realizes there are multiple Immortals, she¡¯ll definitely call for reinforcements, and if they catch us with an actual army or enough Immortals we¡¯ll die.¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t that a problem if we travel by boat as well?¡± said Allira. ¡°It¡¯s not like Illvaria has much of a navy to help us reach our destination. We¡¯ll be sailing through a bunch of Sigmusi-controlled waters, right off the coast of a dominant naval power, in order to reach a destination that is also in the water.¡±


    Ethan sighed. ¡°I still think we¡¯re better off leaving by boat from Illvaria. At the very least, Mages play a huge role in naval warfare. Unlike on land, where horses and infantry can make their way to a mage and cut them down before they start using magic, on a boat there are far fewer ways to approach a target. With so many direct options cut off, Mages have an even bigger advantage than usual. I should be able to defend us in a naval battle.¡±


    Allira looked thoughtful for a moment, before she nodded.


    Murim also nodded. ¡°Sounds like you have a plan, then.. Good luck to you. All of you.¡±


    ¡°Good luck to you as well,¡± said Ethan, as he nodded. ¡°I take it you don¡¯t wish to come with us?¡±


    Murim snorted. ¡°Most of my Perks are useless when I¡¯m on a boat. I¡¯m not setting foot on a boat unless I have no choice at all.¡± Ethan raised an eyebrow, before he sighed.


    ¡°Fine. We can¡¯t force you. Do you at least have a suggestion for any good [Navigators] or people who can help us sail through the ocean? Maybe you ¡®borrowed¡¯ the talents of the [Pirate] captain you mentioned?¡±


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Murim snorted again. ¡°Not a chance. I don¡¯t have any contacts that can help you here. You¡¯ll probably have to rope your mother into helping you sail. We all know she has some kind of water movement Class, and she¡¯s also pretty likely to have a Perk that helps her resist mana baptisms. With how dense the mana at your destination is, she¡¯s going to need it.¡±


    Ethan thought about it for a moment, before he nodded. ¡°I suppose that is the most logical choice, if my mother is nearby. My mother hasn¡¯t been on a boat in a few decades, but her Perks will back up our travel well enough that it should be fine. I just hope we don¡¯t run into a Sigmusi fleet and go down.¡±


    Murim shrugged. ¡°I imagine they have their own problems to deal with at this point. Towards the end of our chase, Emilia seemed anxious to go deal with other problems. It¡¯s part of why I managed to escape her pursuit.¡± Ethan and Allira both looked thoughtful at this statement.


    While Ethan and Allira were lost in thought, Murim raised an eyebrow at Allira. ¡°I take it you¡¯re going with Ethan and Alice, then?¡±


    ¡°I intend to,¡± said Allira. ¡°My shadows are one of the most effective tools for scouting in Illvaria, and they can also double as recyclable troops. They¡¯re a great fit for what will be needed during this journey, especially if there¡¯s a giant horde of monsters right outside of the destination.¡± Allira sighed. ¡°I¡¯d love to help defend Illvaria against monsters warms instead, but it seems Lady Alice¡¯s journey is of greater relevance to the overall picture. So even though it sucks, I¡¯ll do what¡¯s best for everyone instead of what I want to.¡±


    Murim nodded. ¡°Good luck to you too, then. Oh, and make sure to visit Doll before you leave - she might be able to rig some good weapons onto your mother¡¯s ship, if you¡¯re planning to use it again. I don¡¯t think your mother has updated her ship since she stopped working on her sailing-related Class, right? Ship designs have changed a lot over the past few decades. You should at least update the weapons system for the ship and get any other updates that are needed. I¡¯m sure Doll will make time to fix it.¡±


    ¡°Will do,¡± said Ethan. ¡°Is there anything else you observed that you feel would be relevant?¡±


    ¡°Hmm... keep an eye out for ocean monsters. I already mentioned them, but there were a lot of them. Seriously. Be careful. Also, I didn¡¯t get close enough to confirm the presence of any other obstacles or barriers in your path. So be ready for anything. Ask Doll to give you a giant set of tools. That¡¯s about all I have to say.¡±


    Murim nodded at them a final time, and told them which inn Ethan¡¯s mother was staying at before the group left.


    ¡°So, are we going to see Doll first?¡± asked Allira.


    ¡°I suppose,¡± said Ethan, sounding hesitant. ¡°No, let¡¯s see my mother first instead. Doll likes my mother, so I might as well find my mother first and drag her along. Then, we¡¯ll get the ship equipped with weapons for Sigmusi ships or aquatic monsters, then make our way to the coast so we can sail.¡±


    The group left the palace, before Ethan turned to Alice. ¡°Alice, do you want to come with me to see my mother? You could also take the rest of the day off before we set sail. I know how hard you¡¯ve been working, and I don¡¯t really think that naval supplies and army management are up your alley. That¡¯s what most of the discussion with my mother is going to entail. I¡¯ll still try to drill it into your head eventually, but, well...¡± Ethan sighed. ¡°At this rate, I expect I¡¯ll probably only get the chance after


    you become an Immortal. Things are happening so fast. You must be close to level 100, right?¡±


    Alice nodded. ¡°I¡¯m very close, yes. I¡¯ll probably hit level 100 pretty soon.¡±


    Alice left it unsaid, but both she and Ethan knew what that meant.


    Based on Alice¡¯s understanding of the way levels and aging interacted with each other, people became Immortal when their attributes, Achievements, and class levels all reached a certain combined level of influence on someone¡¯s body. Alice had a large pile of ridiculously high rarity of Achievements. Her Attributes were on the average side for someone who was about to hit Immortality. Her level was approaching the bare minimum threshold to hit Immortality. With all of those factors combined, Alice would probably hit Immortality pretty quickly after she hit level 100 and went through the associated Class evolution.


    In other words, Alice was basically standing at the doorstep of Immortality. Anything she learned about being an Immortal was going to stop being ¡®preparation¡¯ soon enough, and start being ¡®information she should have learned along the way, but didn¡¯t because she got to Immortality too fast.¡¯ That was both comforting and troubling.


    Ethan nodded at her. ¡°So it¡¯ll be soon, then,¡± he said.


    ¡°Soon,¡± said Alice. She thought back to Ethan¡¯s original question, before she shook her head. ¡°I''ve already met your mother, and I¡¯d like some time to relax or go back over the information I¡¯ve already collected. I think I¡¯ll sit this meeting out. Maybe I can get a level or two out of going over some books, if I¡¯m lucky. System knows I need every advantage I can get at this point,¡± said Alice.


    Ethan grinned. ¡°I think that¡¯s one of the first times you¡¯ve sworn by the System. We really are starting to rub off on you.¡±


    Alice shrugged, and grinned. Cecilia smiled at her.


    ¡°Well, in that case, I¡¯ll go to see my mother alone, and then meet with Doll. Allira, do you mind watching over Alice while I do that? I don¡¯t want her to get assassinated while I¡¯m busy.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll keep an eye on her,¡± said Allira. She turned towards Alice. ¡°Let¡¯s find an inn for the night. We can relax while we wait for Ethan to finish up.¡±


    Alice nodded, and she, Allira, and Cecilia made their way to a nearby inn. Allira insisted on checking the food before Alice ate anything, which Alice felt was both amusing and frustrating. She had never had someone poison-test her food before - though with times being what they were, anything was possible.


    The three sat around for a few hours, and true to her earlier words, Alice spent some time reading through a few books on magic theories. None of them seemed very relevant to her current situation, and sadly, she didn¡¯t get a single level out of her reading, either. After that, since Ethan still hadn¡¯t returned, the three girls fell asleep.


    When they woke the next morning, Ethan found them in the inn while they were eating breakfast.


    ¡°My mother has agreed to pilot our ship, and perhaps most surprisingly, Doll has agreed to sail with us,¡± said Ethan, sounding a bit surprised himself. ¡°She said that she¡¯ll outfit the ship with new weapons as we travel.¡±


    ¡°Will that work?¡± asked Alice. According to her knowledge, [Blacksmiths] needed all sorts of tools such as hammers and anvils to make their craft come to life. Trying to set up a proper forge in a ship would be difficult, to say the least.


    ¡°She says it won¡¯t be as effective, but she has some Perks that can help her get set up,¡± said Ethan.


    Alice shrugged. If an Immortal said they could work without a forge, they probably could. Besides, Alice was far from unhappy about having another Immortal with them. From what she had seen of the System, while it was mostly magic-based, there were unquestionably parts of it that were physical, and probably made of steel or other materials. Having a [Blacksmith] to help with repairs would be useful.


    ¡°So when do we leave?¡± asked Allira.


    ¡°Tonight. Pack your bags and get ready. We¡¯ll leave right after the sun sets.¡±

 Chapter 219

    That night, Alice found herself back on the same ship she and Ethan had originally taken to Cyra. At the helm of the boat was Ethan¡¯s mother, a woman Alice hadn¡¯t met since the tea party with the second [Princess] all those months ago. Standing next to her was someone Alice had never seen before. She looked... mousey. Her hair was thin and brown, and was cut off just below her ears. She was attractive, but not to a notable degree. For an Immortal, her [Charisma] stat was abnormally low. The mousy woman was average height, and smelled like burnt copper.


    Of course, most disconcerting of all was the woman¡¯s mana. Just like Ethan, his mother, and Allira, the woman seemed to be a walking nebula of mana. In other words, she was an Immortal.


    Since Alice knew that Illvaria had six Immortals, and three of them were male and three of them were female, it wasn¡¯t hard to figure out who the woman was by simple process of elimination. This must be Illvaria¡¯s [Blacksmith] Immortal, Doll.


    Alice wondered if it was a good idea to introduce herself. After all, Doll would be a critical part of this expedition - getting to know each other in advance wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea. On the other hand, Doll didn¡¯t seem very interested in socializing. Anytime one of the other [Soldiers] tried to approach Doll, she shuffled away and tried to avoid conversation with them. As someone who also didn¡¯t typically get along with new people very well, Alice didn¡¯t want to overwhelm Doll with unwanted social interactions.


    As Alice was pondering how to deal with the situation, another voice broke her out of her thoughts.


    ¡°Alice, dear. It¡¯s good to see you again,¡± said Ethan¡¯s mother. ¡°We didn¡¯t have much time to speak while we were boarding the ship, but I¡¯m glad to see that you¡¯re growing well. My son seems to be taking good care of you. I take it your levels are coming along nicely?¡±


    Alice thought about it for a few moments, before she nodded. ¡°Honored Immortal Ethan has kept me safe during our travels, and I¡¯m getting close to Immortality. I won¡¯t say my exact levels, but I would be surprised if I don¡¯t hit Immortality during this expedition.¡±


    Ethan¡¯s mother grinned even more widely at that. ¡°I¡¯m glad to hear it. It would be wonderful to see a new Immortal rise in Illvaria. It has been almost a century since the last time. How was your time in Morendia? I haven¡¯t seen much of the Eastern half of the Shil Confederacy in the last few centuries - I¡¯ve never been very interested in foreign travel when I can avoid it.¡±


    Alice sighed as she she thought about some of the things the group had seen while travelling east. She started describing some of the group¡¯s findings and discoveries during their journey to the east. She paid particular focus to the tragedies they had witnessed. Famine, monster swarms, manaborn terrain, and class-mana madness were all running rampant, and it showed. Ethan¡¯s mother frowned at Alice¡¯s words. After she spoke, Ethan¡¯s mother sighed.


    ¡°It sounds like things really are getting bad out there,¡± she said, finally. ¡°I¡¯d heard that Illvaria was faring much better than other countries, but I didn¡¯t realize the difference was this severe. I will... go speak with my son, I suppose. The rest of the world isn¡¯t our responsibility, but we should still think about what the world will look like in a few decades.¡± The woman sighed again, before she strolled away.


    That left Alice, the mousy-looking woman, and a few Mages behind on the deck of the ship.


    After Ethan¡¯s mother left, the mousy woman¡¯s gaze settled on Alice. After several seconds of hesitation, Doll made her way over to Alice, before the woman raised an eyebrow at her.


    ¡°You¡¯re Alice?¡± she asked. Her voice was unexpectedly metallic and gravelly - almost as if every time Doll opened her mouth, someone inside of her throat was banging on an anvil. It was an incredibly strange sound, and even more strange was the rainbow mana that rippled out of her mouth when she spoke.


    It was obvious that Doll¡¯s unusual sounding voice was the effect of some kind of Perk, but Alice had no idea what the Perk did. Normally, Alice would shy away from asking about other people¡¯s Perks, since people didn¡¯t talk about combat related System abilities. However, Doll was a [Blacksmith]... so maybe it was fine?


    ¡°What Perk is influencing your voice?¡± asked Alice.


    Doll¡¯s raised eyebrow went even higher. ¡°You can see that?¡± she asked. ¡°Most people just think my voice sounds odd. It looks like your perception really is quite unusual.¡±


    Alice raised her own eyebrow. Based on what she had heard about Doll so far, she had assumed that the woman was completely indifferent to other people who weren¡¯t Immortals. In fact, in Alice¡¯s mind, Doll was basically a hermit. She never left her house, only received Immortals as guests, and ignored the world in favor of honing her craftsmanship. For Doll to know anything about Alice was shocking.


    ¡°To answer your question, I have a Perk that lets my voice itself act as a blacksmith¡¯s hammer,¡± said Doll. ¡°With a regular hammer, it can become very difficult to reach certain parts of an item I¡¯m working on. The intricate internal gears of a Golem, for example, are difficult to correct once they¡¯re slotted into place, unless you take apart the whole machine - or build it so that deconstruction and reconstruction are possible. However, building things like ¡®maintenance hatches¡¯ into a golem weaken its structural integrity, so I found a different solution. My voice is a hammer, and I can use it to repair any object I¡¯m working on - even places that are very hard to reach. Furthermore, I don¡¯t have to worry about forging better and better hammers out of better and better metal - I can just rely on my voice. It¡¯s a very convenient Perk.


    ¡°Of course, using Perks to turn my voice into a ¡®hammer¡¯ isn¡¯t the only way to solve this type of problem. But I always wanted to be a Mage when I was a little girl, and that influenced some of my early Perk choices. I wasn¡¯t willing to risk an actual mana baptism, but I felt like commanding the world to change with my voice was still pretty similar to being a real Mage.¡± Doll shrugged. ¡°Some hints of that stuck around when I was combining my Perks later.¡±


    Alice blinked in surprise. The Immortal [Blacksmith] wanted to be a Mage, so she had taken Perks that let her pretend to be a Mage? That was pretty unusual. Alice also had to wonder what Perks [Blacksmiths] had that let them pretend to be Mages, and how those Perks had come into existence.


    Then again, Classes were essentially a different type of magic seed. With that in mind... technically everyone in this world was sort of a Mage. In a very strange way, Doll already was a Mage.


    ¡°I¡¯m surprised you know about me,¡± Alice said, after several moments of introspection. ¡°Based on what I¡¯ve heard about you, I figured that you would treat me like empty air until I reached Immortality.¡±


    Doll sighed. ¡°I don¡¯t like getting to know other people very much, that¡¯s true. Metal endures where people don¡¯t. Thus, metal is my friend, and people usually aren¡¯t. It¡¯s easy for me to get lost in a project, and spend months, or even years working on it without paying attention to the passage of time. I get very caught up in the flow of my work, and even forget food and water. If I try to have friends that aren¡¯t Immortals, I usually don¡¯t even get to connect with them before they die - after all, if I meet someone once every five years, what kind of friendship can I possibly build with them in the short seventy years before they pass away? If they die at the age of seventy, and I meet them when they¡¯re twenty, I¡¯ll meet them ten times before they die of old age - and realistically, when they stop paying attention to [Blacksmithing], I won¡¯t bother meeting them because there¡¯s nothing left to interest me in the conversation. I like crafting, and I love talking to people who share that passion - but I also don¡¯t have very many other interests, so it¡¯s hard to get along with people who aren¡¯t similar.¡± Doll shrugged. ¡°Honestly, I think the other Immortals get the wrong impression. I don¡¯t hate communicating - I¡¯m just very passionate about my work. I want to make friends who will also be passionate about making things, and won¡¯t disappear if I get lost in a project for a decade or two.¡±


    Alice frowned. That wasn¡¯t quite the way Doll had been introduced by the other Immortals, but it also didn¡¯t contradict what she had learned before. Instead, it felt like it was peeling away a layer of who Doll was.


    ¡°Anyway, the point is, I don¡¯t make friends easily. It¡¯s even worse because most of the Immortals in Illvaria are pretty different from me, personality wise. Ethan isn¡¯t a battle maniac, but he¡¯s focused on combat and military operations. He does a good job ¡®doing what he¡¯s supposed to¡¯ as a military man, but he doesn¡¯t enjoy the act of creation. Same with his father. I think Allira might have enjoyed creating songs and music once, but... well, if that was true when she was a normal [Bard], it doesn¡¯t seem to be true anymore.¡±


    Alice thought about the way most other Immortals treated Allira. Allira was probably suffering from PTSD, or something similar. That would definitely change her outlook on a lot of things, depending on how it affected her. For people of this world, they might not know how to deal with people who had trauma, which would only exacerbate the issue. [Psychologists] existed here, but the sheer influence of Perks also meant that the average person here didn¡¯t know much about mental health. After all, [Psychologists] here had literal magic to make people get better.


    ¡°And I don¡¯t really get along with Murim, either. Like, he¡¯s not a bad person... I don¡¯t hate him. But I don¡¯t really like him. He sleeps around a lot, which makes it hard for me to see him in a good light.


    ¡°The only person I sort of get along with is Ethan¡¯s mother. Even though her focus is scattered, she still gets how fun it is to make something with your own hands. Part of the reason Ethan¡¯s mother mentioned you to me is probably for the same reason - you¡¯re mostly focused on research, but you have a strong emphasis on enchantments too, right? So you get it. And from what I know, you¡¯re practically guaranteed to reach Immortality soon.¡± Doll shrugged. ¡°Or so I¡¯ve heard.¡± Doll paused. It almost sounded like she was waiting for something - hoping that Alice would say something. Alice wasn¡¯t sure what Doll was expecting, which made it harder for her to respond.


    Alice wondered how to handle Doll¡¯s misconception. She was definitely not in love with creating things. Sure, Alice didn¡¯t hate it - but she didn¡¯t love it either. Her attitude towards art and creation were closer to a shrug of indifference than anything else. She enjoyed learning more about magic, so she kind of liked enchanting, but she would also be fine not doing it for several years. Enchanting was more like tolerable work than a deep-seated passion.


    On the other hand, Alice was kind of interested in getting to know Illvaria¡¯s most reclusive Immortal.


    ¡°I¡¯m not that focused on craftsmanship,¡± said Alice, after weighing her options. Any relationship founded on a lie was bound to collapse. ¡°I enjoy research and acquiring knowledge more than anything else.¡±


    ¡°But you¡¯ve also made a fair number of enchantments, and many of them were built by you, right?¡± said Doll. ¡°Besides, research and acquisition of knowledge is a big part of creating items as well. The first thing I do before designing a new piece of equipment is to make a blueprint and figure out if there are any errors or flaws in the design. Knowledge of how to make steel can be acquired in the [Blacksmith] class via Perk, if you don¡¯t want to spend the time learning how to do it yourself. There¡¯s a reason the System directly offers knowledge to the [Blacksmith] class as an option - knowledge is directly related to craftsmanship. Besides, when it comes to actual lifestyle habits, I¡¯ve heard that you¡¯re quite similar to me, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    Alice opened her mouth to argue.. and then realized she couldn¡¯t.


    Doll was renowned for never setting foot outside of her house on regular occasions. Alice also


    lived like a hermit. Recently, she had been forced to run around from country to country in order to repair the System. The moment the current crisis ended, Alice planned to go back to a sedentary lifestyle for a few years, or perhaps even a few decades. Living in a comfortable house with a mountain of books and research materials sounded heavenly.


    Of course, Alice didn¡¯t want to totally shut herself off from other people. She would still hang out with Cecilia and host the occasional board game night. Alice didn¡¯t think she could lose herself in her work for years at a time.


    ¡°See? That look in your eyes. You¡¯re like me,¡± said Doll, as she faintly smiled.


    ¡°So... what did you actually want?¡± asked Alice. ¡°Were you introducing yourself, or...¡±


    ¡°Oh! Umm...¡± Doll cleared her throat. ¡°Well, I¡¯m not great at things like this, but... I was asking if you wanted to be friends. If you don¡¯t, then you don¡¯t have to feel bad, but I was just thinking-¡±


    Alice laughed. So Doll was socially awkward. That was probably to be expected from someone who shut themselves in their house for decades at a time.


    ¡°Sure. Let¡¯s be friends,¡± said Alice, as she extended a hand towards Doll.


    Doll smiled.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad to hear it. And I¡¯m glad to meet you, too.¡± She took Alice¡¯s hand, and shook it. ¡°All right, I need to get back to work now. There are a few crossbows I want to install on the underside of the boat, to handle underwater monsters. There are a few different designs for underwater crossbows that have come out in the past few decades, and this boat is not equipped to handle any of them. I need to go figure that out. But I¡¯m happy to meet you. See you later!¡± With that, Doll made her way back to the depths of the ship.


    ¡°So you¡¯ve met five of Illvaria¡¯s Immortals now,¡± said an amused voice from Alice¡¯s left. Alice nearly fell over from surprise. She turned to the left, and saw Ethan¡¯s mother, looking at Alice with a mixture of amusement and joy. ¡°What do you think of Doll?¡±


    ¡°I think she¡¯s awkward, but not a bad person.¡± Alice laughed again. ¡°It¡¯s rare to meet other people who are even more socially awkward than I am.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m glad to hear it. Even with other Immortals, Doll doesn¡¯t seem to have very deep relationships with us. She¡¯s civil, but distant. I hope the two of you get along.¡± Then, the smile from Ethan¡¯s mother¡¯s face faded. ¡°Just make sure you stay safe here. Doll doesn¡¯t get along with other people very often, so it would be a shame if you died right before Doll makes her first real friend in centuries.¡±


    Alice winced, but nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll do my best,¡± she said. ¡°Although a lot of whether I live or die isn¡¯t up to me right now.¡±


    Ethan¡¯s mother sighed. ¡°You¡¯re right. The Sigmusi¡¯s navy will probably be much weaker than usual, due to the effects of the catastrophe - but we¡¯re still just a single boat, sailing through territory controlled by monsters and a hostile nation. I¡¯ll do my best to keep all of us safe to the end, though.¡±


    The two fell into a comfortable silence for several minutes, before Alice started to feel tired. Eventually, she drifted back to her cabin to sleep.


    A few days passed as Doll used her voice to build a new set of underwater weapons. The new crossbows quickly proved their worth when a few ice-magic wielding squid monsters tried to attack the boat, only to get annihilated.


    The group continued to sail downriver, dealing with monsters along the way, until they exited Illvaria¡¯s southern canal system.


    Soon, they entered the open ocean. It was time to sail around the western side of the southern continent, until they reached the Maelstrom.

 Chapter 220

    The next day was calm as the group sailed through Illvarian waters. The group hugged the coastline, meaning that most of what they passed was uninhabited wilderness. After all, especially now that Illvaria was concentrating its forces in the North, the south, which had already been desolate, was practically uninhabited again. Even though these waters technically belonged to Illvaria, Alice wondered how long it had been since these waters had last seen humans.


    Despite how close they were to the coast, Alice was still interested in her first time in the ocean. Thanks to her [Endurance], Alice didn¡¯t need to worry about seasickness, so she was free to enjoy herself and take in the sights as the group sailed north. The ocean itself was surprisingly beautiful. The waters were calm and clear, and the sun above made the ocean practically sparkle. Alice could almost imagine that they were sailing to a distant tropical paradise back on Earth.


    Having seen all of the madness and horror wrought by the collapse of the System, Alice had honestly been expecting something different. She had expected swarms of monsters and chaotic weather patterns, brought far beyond the realm of regular weather by the impact of people¡¯s beliefs. That was what had happened with the mana wastes, after all. However, at least for the first twenty-four hours after the group entered the ocean, the world was ordinary and silent.


    Too silent, in fact. Alice didn¡¯t immediately notice it, because the [Soldiers] and other people on the boat weren¡¯t silent. They produced endless noise as they shuffled, sneezed, and talked. Despite their clamour, by the end of their first day at sea Alice had finally noticed that while there were plenty of human sounds in her surroundings, there were zero sounds from the ocean itself. No monsters or animals swam past the boat. No sounds of waves could be heard. Even the distant forest, just visible in the distance, made no noises. It was as if someone had muted the world itself.


    ¡°Creepy, isn¡¯t it?¡± asked Ethan¡¯s mother, as Alice stared at their surroundings. ¡°I¡¯m sure Ethan already told you, but I¡¯ve spent a fair amount of time out at sea while I was working on my secondary Classes. I¡¯ve never heard any part of nature be this silent before.¡±


    Alice blinked in surprise. ¡°Should we be worried?¡± she asked. From her days surviving in the wilderness, she remembered that when the forest was silent, it meant danger was coming.


    ¡°Normally, I would say yes, but right now, it¡¯s hard to guess what anything means,¡± said Ethan¡¯s mother. ¡°Based off of what little information my son has been willing to share with me... due to the influence of mana on terrain, almost anything could happen in any area. That makes it very hard for me to rely on experience to make assessments. For now, I¡¯m trusting my perks, and nothing else. Allira has sent some shadows to scout our surroundings, so hopefully she¡¯ll notice anything dangerous before it reaches us.¡±


    Alice tried not to swallow nervously. The fact that people couldn¡¯t rely on their past experience to make judgements didn¡¯t sound like a good thing, especially not while they were trapped in a little wooden boat in the middle of the ocean that was potentially infested with monsters. She scanned the area with her mana-sight again, to see if any monsters had slipped by her previous scans of the area, before she relaxed after confirming nothing was nearby. ¡°Do you have any idea what we should be worried about here?¡± asked Alice. She had little understanding of ocean monsters. After all, in her monster biology class at magic academy, the teacher had focused on monsters in Illvaria. Since Illvaria didn¡¯t even have a populated coast, oceanic monsters had been pretty far down the teacher¡¯s priority list.


    ¡°Hmm... at least before all of this started, there were three main monster types this close to Illvaria¡¯s coast. My information is outdated by several decades, of course, so things could have changed... but the most common monster here was a type of monster that looked kind of like a snake. These monsters are called Bulb eels, because their jaws look like giant bulbs when they enlarge them enough. Bulb eels can pop out of the water for short periods of time, and they specialize in a type of magic that allows their body to change or expand to fit their needs. I once saw an alpha of this species inflate its body size large enough to swallow an entire ship - not that it went well for the monster, since a Mage chucked a ballista bolt through its throat before it could even attack. But you get the idea. These monsters aren¡¯t actually very threatening - as long as you¡¯re careful and keep an eye on things,¡± said Ethan¡¯s mother. ¡°They are pretty common in most regions of the ocean, so this will probably continue to be an enemy we need to watch out for. Think of them as the spidercrabs of the ocean.¡± Ethan¡¯s mother shrugged.


    ¡°What about the other two types of monsters?¡±


    ¡°The second major type of monster that appears in most parts of the ocean is the shadowlark. Shadowlarks are a type of monster bird that are hard to spot. Their size can vary greatly. The smallest ones are about the size of an adult¡¯s fist, while the largest ones can have wingspans of nearly thirty meters. Their bodies are partially comprised of shadows, so they have a strong tendency to blend in and use stealth during attacks. The small ones have very sharp beaks - they¡¯re like little daggers. If you aren¡¯t careful, they¡¯ll rip out your throat. The small ones also attack in swarms. The big ones try to swallow people whole, if they target a human. We should be able to fend them off, especially since Ethan is here - but be careful.¡±


    Alice frowned. A wingspan of 30 meters? Alice tried to visualize a monster that size, and her brain started drawing analogies between skylarks and dinosaurs.


    ¡°The final major threat is unlikely to be present at our destination - although given how much things have changed, it¡¯s best to be cautious. Still, at least under normal circumstances, they are a monster that requires high mana density to survive, so they tend to only exist in the southern half of the southern continent and off the coast of the western continent. They are called Deep Ones. We definitely need to be careful of them. Deep Ones are human-sized squid-like monsters that move in the depths of the ocean, but occasionally surface to hunt. Their innate magic is a type of madness-inducing ability. If you meet the eyes of a deep one, it will try to override your sanity and turn you into a lunatic. [Scholars] have debated exactly how this works, and the most common consensus is that they do some kind of mana attack that literally tries to ruin your brain - although there are also many [Scholars] that claim it is some type of pheromone attack, and others that claim it¡¯s none of the above. Either way, falling prey to a Deep One means going mad and losing control of your body.¡±


    Alice shivered. The idea of any sort of mental attack that targeted her brain was terrifying. Even for Immortals, their brain was the core of who they were. There was a reason that, despite being able to regrow their entire body from nothing, Immortals were still assassinated from time to time on the Central continent - it was because it was impossible to regenerate if the brain was destroyed.


    The group continued sailing, while Alice fell into small talk with Ethan¡¯s mother. Normally, Alice struggled with this kind of conversation, but Ethan¡¯s Mother was adept at finding ways to keep the conversation going. Alice had noticed Ethan¡¯s mother using a few Perks during the conversation, but as far as she could tell, they were just helping Ethan¡¯s mother know what to say, So Alice let it slide.


    Alice learned a surprising number of random facts, such as Ethan¡¯s favorite type of monster meat when he was five, or the fact that Ethan¡¯s father had a terrible snoring habit. While Alice had no idea what to do with these facts, it was still interesting, seeing such small and mundane parts of life in a prestigious family of Immortals.


    About an hour into their chat, Alice stopped. She scanned the ocean, and saw a large blob of monstrous mana heading towards the ship. Alice frowned. It didn¡¯t look like the mana belonged to any of the three monster types Ethan¡¯s mother had mentioned. The size was wrong for a deep one or a bulb eel.


    ¡°I see a monster,¡± said Alice, as she pointed at the monstrous blob of mana. ¡°I don¡¯t know what it is though. It will reach us in about five minutes. It looks big, so prepare for an oversized monster.¡±


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    Ethan¡¯s mother grimaced. ¡°Huge, underwater monsters, you say? In that case it must be something that doesn¡¯t belong here. I already expected that the current chaos would change monster habitats, but I hoped at least some of the monsters would be the same.¡± She sighed. A moment later, she narrowed her eyes at the spot Alice had been pointing at. ¡°I think I see it. It look like giant trout. It must be nearly fifty meters long... how unusual. I think... ah, one of my Perks got me some information. It¡¯s usually only found near the Western Continent. It¡¯s tentatively named a skyfish, because its magic allows it to fly for short periods of time. Combined with its massive size, it typically flies into the air, before literally crushing ships underneath its body mass. Then, it spends a while swallowing up survivors. Their usual hunting habits are unknown, since they live too close to the western continent for easy study.¡± Ethan¡¯s Mother Grimaced. ¡°These things really don¡¯t belong here. The mana density should be too low to sustain this creature. How frustrating.¡± Then, Ethan¡¯s Mother grinned. ¡°Actually, if its only advantages are its huge size and flight, it shouldn¡¯t be that big of a danger. Do you see any monster alphas or other nearby enemies?¡± Alice checked the monsters, before she shook her head.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡±


    Ethan¡¯s mother cackled. ¡°In that case, it should be fine. You haven¡¯t seen me fight before, right? In that case, I guess I get a chance to show off a little bit.¡±


    ¡°Should I get Ethan?¡± asked Alice, as she started to feel a bit worried. The grin on the older woman¡¯s lips was a bit unsettling.


    ¡°No need. I can handle this, and {Housewife¡¯s Intuition} doesn¡¯t even record this thing as a proper threat.¡±


    ¡°{Housewife¡¯s Intuition}?¡± asked Alice. That didn¡¯t sound like a particularly impressive Perk, but it was capable of detecting the details of high level monsters?


    ¡°You¡¯d be surprised how effective some of the Perks from the ¡®husband¡¯ or ¡®wife¡¯ series are. They¡¯re surprisingly good at handling smaller threats to your family and your property. They¡¯re just very specific. But since my son is on this ship, and this boat is my property, everything works fine,¡± said Ethan¡¯s Mother. As she spoke, she pulled a knife out of a Storage Perk. It looked small - like the kind of knife one might use to cut fruit. Rainbow mana lit up her body as she twirled the knife in her hands. A moment later, Ethan¡¯s mother extended her hand towards the ocean, and a surge of mana tore out of her body and into the water.


    Then, to Alice¡¯s surprise, it looked almost as if the fish monster had been grabbed by a giant hand. The monster flopped around desperately, as a 50-meter long fish was simply dragged into midair above the ship. A few [Sailors] cried out in alarm, before Ethan¡¯s mother commanded them to get back to their positions. Then, Ethan¡¯s mother dashed forward. Her feet lit up with rainbow mana as she stepped across the water as if it were solid ground, before the woman leapt into the air. Then, to Alice¡¯s confusion, Ethan¡¯s mother whipped out a jar of paint.


    At the same time, the rainbow mana inside of Ethan¡¯s mother¡¯s body started to rapidly fluctuate. It wasn¡¯t something Alice had ever seen before. Normally each class seed looked like a tiny little fractal of rainbow mana. Now, it looked like the class fractals in Ethan¡¯s mother were sprouting little roots, almost as if they were weeds. These little ¡®roots¡¯ of mana were growing into each other.


    Rainbow mana surged out of Ethan¡¯s mother as she splashed the giant fish with paint. Another surge of rainbow mana seeped into the giant fish as red paint swarmed across its body. The fish wriggled ineffectually as Ethan¡¯s mother brandished her fruit-cutting knife. Then, she lightly tapped the fish with the knife.


    The bright red paint glowed with rainbow mana - and then the fish fell apart, as if a massive cutting knife had cut it along each and every splatter of red paint. Ethan¡¯s mother happily reached out towards the falling chunks of giant fish, and in seconds, several massive pieces of fish disappeared into her storage Perk. She made her way back to the deck, before she winked at Alice.


    ¡°{Housewife}, {Chef}, and {Painter} have some very interesting synergy when you combine their strengths together. Especially when you¡¯re trying to make dinner.¡±


    Alice nodded. Before now, she had wondered how Ethan¡¯s mother used her giant Perk salad to actually function in high-level combat. Now, she had a better idea. Alice hesitated - was it worth actually asking a question to confirm her suspicions? Alice eyed her surroundings, before she leaned closer to Ethan¡¯s mother. Perhaps seeing that Alice wanted to ask a private question, Ethan¡¯s mother put up a privacy Perk.


    ¡°So did you just combine lots of Perks from your classes together to do this?¡± asked Alice.


    Ethan¡¯s mother paused, before she laughed.


    ¡°Normally, people don¡¯t talk much about their combat abilities. But since you¡¯ve seen through it... yes. I can change my build a bit based on my needs,¡± she said.


    Alice tried to figure out how that was even possible. Was Ethan¡¯s mother... temporarily combining her Perks?


    If so, the idea of how Ethan¡¯s mother¡¯s build actually worked was a bit more interesting than Alice thought. As far as Alice knew, while regular [Soldiers] and combatants had the luxury of keeping their build secret, Immortals didn¡¯t have that luxury. This was for two reasons. First of all, Immortals were public figures, meaning that anytime they used an ability, people were watching them, recording how their ability worked, and trying to find weaknesses to exploit.


    Second, Immortals grew very slowly. An old Immortal might need decades to get one new meaningful Perk. Since Immortals were constantly under scrutiny, and couldn¡¯t produce new ¡®tricks¡¯ very quickly, their builds were often well-studied and well-understood by their enemies.


    Ethan¡¯s Mother didn¡¯t have that problem. She could create a few combat tricks on the spot whenever she needed to. That made her dangerous and unpredictable on a battlefield, compared to more ¡®normal¡¯ Immortals. Of course, the woman might not have quite as much raw power as someone like Ethan - but as long as Ethan¡¯s mother had a good way to ferret out information about her enemies, she would always have the perfect Perks to counter her enemy¡¯s build. Ethan¡¯s mother seemed like an intelligent woman, so Alice was almost completely sure that Myra, Ethan¡¯s mother, had some way to gather that information quickly.


    The more Alice saw of Ethan¡¯s mother¡¯s build, the more Alice suspected that the woman had actually found a genius solution to the most common weakness of an Immortal. Even more interestingly, Ethan¡¯s mother always had room for new, reasonably fast growth in whatever direction she needed to grow. If she wanted to get better at crafting, she could go find a new crafting Class and farm some Perks. If she wanted to get better at combat, there was no shortage of different combat-oriented Classes she could work on. Alice also suspected that the woman had at least a few Achievements that let her negate the usual downsides of secondary Classes.


    Alice sighed, before she realized that she probably wouldn¡¯t be able to emulate the older woman¡¯s path to Immortality. She was too short on time. The System needed to be repaired now, and Alice was too deeply invested in research to focus on the same path Ethan¡¯s mother had taken. Still, she was fascinated by seeing how different the older woman¡¯s build was compared to most Immortals.


    Alice sighed, before she shook her head. Either way, reaching Immortality was pretty good. Alice didn¡¯t need to be ¡®the best¡¯ Immortal. She just wanted to do what she loved and avoid dying. That was good enough for her.


    ¡°How do you like seafood?¡± asked Ethan¡¯s mother.


    ¡°It¡¯s not my favorite, but I¡¯ll eat it,¡± said Alice.


    ¡°Good enough for me. Let me show you how even foods you don¡¯t like can become delicious with the right preparation!¡± said Ethan¡¯s mother, before she gave Alice another cheerful wink. Alice grinned at the other woman¡¯s enthusiasm. It was easy to get caught up in the energy Ethan¡¯s Mother had. For a woman who was centuries old, Ethan¡¯s mother hadn¡¯t lost any of her spirit.


    Then, a moment later, Alice frowned, as she saw a giant blur of mana in the distance. She didn¡¯t think it was moving towards them - it looked static. However, something about the way the mana was moving felt familiar - almost the same way the mana had felt when she and the group had explored the mana-warped swamp, during their journey to Morendia.


    As she gazed into the distance, Alice finally realized what she was looking at. It looked like water had simply stopped following the laws of gravity. Instead of sticking to the surface of the ocean, mana was slowly flowing upwards. Even though the ¡®spouts¡¯ of water weren¡¯t moving towards them, the giant glob of floating water was growing later and larger.


    ¡°Do you see that?¡± asked Alice, as she pointed at the massive cloud of floating water.


    Ethan¡¯s mother frowned. ¡°That is... something. I had heard that the swamp was bad, but I don¡¯t even know what could have caused this.¡± She sighed. ¡°I will need to try cooking dinner for the crew some other time. We need to get away from that thing. I don¡¯t know when that cloud of water will start obeying gravity again, but I don¡¯t want to be anywhere nearby when it does.¡±


    Ethan¡¯s mother quickly moved to the center of the ship, before she started barking orders at the [Sailors]. Alice sighed. Her first day on the ocean didn¡¯t seem like it was fraught with danger - but she had a feeling that wouldn¡¯t always be the case. Despite being so close to Illvaria, the monsters and terrain were already messed up.


    She had a feeling it would only get worse as they approached the mainframe of the System. The dangers here were manageable for now... but that might not be the case for long.


    As the boat changed direction, Alice shivered, and hoped that they wouldn¡¯t encounter anything truly terrifying before they reached their destination.

 Chapter 221

    The group successfully sailed around the floating water - whatever it was, it didn¡¯t trouble them. Unfortunately, the next day, the group found a new anomaly - and this one was far more mobile.


    Alice was the first to see it, due to how much mana it radiated. At first, Alice didn¡¯t even think that she was looking at a physical object - she thought it was just a cloud of mana. It was when she notified Ethan that a strange cloud of mana was drifting towards the boat that she realized the cloud of mana was even more bizarre than she had thought. This was because, when Ethan reported the cloud to Myra, Ethan¡¯s mother, she also saw the glowing cloud in the distance - and Myra¡¯s ability to detect mana was utterly different from how proper Mages perceived mana. When Ethan started questioning the other people on the boat, Alice realized that the cloud of mana was truly unusual - because it let people without the relevant Perks see mana. In other words, even the [Sailors] could see the glowing cloud drifting towards the boat.


    Myra, Ethan¡¯s mother, had the ship turn to avoid the glowing cloud of mist. None of them knew what it was, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Who knew if the cloud of visible mana would force people into a mana baptism, or dissolve their flesh? It was better to avoid any and all anomalies as they sailed towards the System.


    It was too late.


    The glowing cloud of mist slowly may not have seemed like it was moving very fast when it was still far away - but as the boat swung further to the south to avoid it, the [Sailors] started to realize that the glowing cloud was far faster than their boat could hope to outrun. Even more concerning was the fact that the fog seemed to be tracking them. If the boat changed course, the cloud immediately changed direction in order to intercept them. No matter how Myra tried to redirect the boat to shake the cloud off, the cloud continued to follow them.


    ¡°Allira, can you send a few shadows into the glowing cloud? Let us know what happens to them,¡± said Myra, as the [Sailors] labored to outrun the glowing cloud. ¡°If the shadows aren¡¯t harmed, see if you can figure out what the cloud is, and if there¡¯s some way to throw it off or slow it down.¡±


    ¡°Got it,¡± said Allira. She started humming, and a few moments later, several shadows detached themselves from the mast of the ship and darted into the waves. Alice saw dark, murky shapes swim towards the cloud, before vanishing into the glowing mist.


    ¡°Do you see anything?¡± asked Myra.


    ¡°It¡¯s odd,¡± said Allira, as she squinted at the cloud. ¡°My shadows are still alive, but they don¡¯t seem to be in a cloud at all. In fact, they don¡¯t even seem like they¡¯re in the ocean anymore. It almost looks like they teleported somewhere else.¡±


    ¡°Teleported?¡± asked Ethan. ¡°I don¡¯t see any dimensional mana in the cloud.¡±


    Alice also squinted at the cloud, before she frowned. Ethan was right. There was no dimensional mana in the cloud at all. How could it teleport something?


    ¡°That¡¯s the strangest part. It doesn¡¯t seem like they were teleported at all,¡± said Allira. ¡°It¡¯s more like the interior of the glowing fog is totally different from the exterior. Usually with portals, there is an obvious distortion in the air, where two different locations are connected in a way that they normally shouldn¡¯t be. There was nothing like that in the fog - it just looked like my shadows stepped into some glowing fog, before they stumbled across a city. The city itself is also unusual. At first glance, it looks kind of normal. The types of buildings all line up - there are [Blacksmith] shops, tailoring shops, and so on. However, the shops distribution is total nonsense. There is a [Blacksmith] shop surrounded by a few farm plots, with bits of road that lead from nowhere to nowhere. There are staircases that lead to sudden drops in midair, and staircases that aren¡¯t even linked to the ground. There are a few waterfalls in the city that look like water is flowing up


    the waterfall, instead of down. The city looks like something out of a dream instead of a real city.


    ¡°Also, the city is three-dimensional. There are a lot of shops that are built into crazy towers, with houses and sometimes even farms built right on top of each other in a jumbled mess. It looks like someone took several different cities and then... folded them together somehow,¡± said Allira. She sounded deeply unnerved.


    Alice shivered. The idea Allira¡¯s words inspired was of a deeply unnatural, unsettling vortex of different shapes and setups for the city. She wondered what set of beliefs had inspired this particular bout of madness - Alice didn¡¯t doubt for a second that this was some kind of belief-inspired creation.


    The group spent a few minutes discussing what Allira¡¯s shadows had found in the fog, before Ethan¡¯s gaze snapped back to the fog. ¡°I just realized something - the fog cloud looks like it slowed down. It¡¯s readjusting its movements, so that it will still intercept us - but it isn¡¯t moving as fast as it was before.¡±


    ¡°Did it slow down right after Allira¡¯s shadows entered, or did something else cause it to slow down?¡± asked Alice, as she also glanced at the cloud. It was hard to tell, since the distance between the ship and the cloud was still quite large - but she did think that maybe Ethan was right. Alice definitely didn¡¯t want to wander around a bizarre dreamland city, so if the group could avoid entering the city, she would be happy to do so.


    ¡°Try adding more shadows to the cloud,¡± said Ethan. ¡°Maybe the shadows have some kind of property that slows the fog down, and the more shadows we add, the slower it will get?¡±


    Allira shrugged. ¡°I can try it,¡± she said. ¡°The shadows aren¡¯t exactly expensive to create or maintain.¡± Allira started humming again, and soon, a swarm of shadows leapt off the side of the ship and charged the glowing fog. A few moments later, the group confirmed that the fog was slowing down. Every single shadow that leapt into the fog caused the fog to slow down even more. Finally, once the fog was filled with nearly a hundred shadows, the fog came to a complete standstill, allowing the ship to skirt past the intersection point and start leaving the fog behind them.


    Several of the [Sailors] cheered as the fog started to disappear into the distance, and Alice felt a twinge of relief. The group continued sailing, as the group got further and further away from the glowing fog bank... until the fog bank started to creep closer to the group again.


    Ethan shot Allira an inquisitive glare. Allira frowned.


    ¡°My shadows are starting to die,¡± she said. ¡°I didn¡¯t notice at first, but it feels almost like something is snipping away the connection between me and my shadows. It¡¯s not very fast - it happens once every minute or two. But as more shadows die, the fog seems to pick up speed again. Distance is also starting to be a problem. As we get further away from the fog bank, it gets harder to maintain my shadows.¡±


    Ethan started to look worried. ¡°What could cut off the connection between you and your shadows?¡± Alice also frowned. Her particular brand of magic could mess up Perks and System abilities - but the fog didn¡¯t seem to have any of the mana types she associated with that set of abilities. Furthermore, Allira was an Immortal - trying to cut off any of her Perks or System abilities should be ridiculously expensive. The fog didn¡¯t seem to be shrinking or losing mana, though.


    ¡°That¡¯s the thing - I can¡¯t even tell what¡¯s killing them,¡± said Allira. ¡°I can¡¯t even tell if the shadows are getting killed, or I¡¯m actually losing my connection to them. Every so often, one of the shadows just vanishes without a trace, and I feel a sense of loss. As we get further away, the rate at which the shadows die seems to speed up.¡±


    Ethan and Myra both frowned at Allira¡¯s words.


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    ¡°Is it a monster?¡± Ethan asked. ¡°Perhaps it¡¯s killing off your shadows in a way they can¡¯t respond to?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure. No matter what I see from my shadow¡¯s perspective, I just feel a prickling sense of danger. Then it dies,¡± said Allira.


    Myra sighed, and rubbed her forehead in frustration.


    ¡°I¡¯ll see if we can speed up. In the meantime, could all of you keep an eye out for monsters or animals in the area? I want to see if the fog also slows down if it runs over a school of fish or something. If it does, we could just run it into some animals and leave while it¡¯s doing... whatever it is the fog is doing. Either way, I would prefer to make the fog a problem for someone or something else.¡±


    Ethan, Alice and Allira all nodded before they moved to the sides of the ship to start checking for animals or monsters. Myra started barking orders at the [Sailors] again, and soon, the ship sped up. Perks, mana, and wind whistled through the air as the ship sped along the coast, with the sun glittering off the waves and the strange, glowing fog radiating danger in the distance.


    Unfortunately, nobody could find any traces of other monsters or animals in the area. Alice had already thought that the ocean was eerily silent when they first entered the ocean - and now, that sense of unease was being reinforced in the most frustrating way possible.


    Even more disturbing was the fact that the fog kept following them. Alice had been hoping that the fog would go bother something else once the group got far enough away, since Allira could slow the fog down quite substantially by feeding it more shadows. However, every time Allira¡¯s shadows were dealt with, the fog would start chasing them again. Allira kept sending shadows back to ¡®feed¡¯ the fog, and while she seemed increasingly confused about how and why her shadows were dying, there was no point in time where she actually discovered what was happening. As far as Allira had reported to the others, they were simply vanishing into thin air.


    As the group continued to sail onwards, more problems started to appear. Allira¡¯s shadows were starting to get out of range. Allira¡¯s shadows could roam around quite far away from her - but they still had a finite range to them. The further the shadows got from Allira, the more focus she needed to maintain them.


    Soon, the number of shadows Allira could maintain at a time dropped below 100. Allira had to go below decks to take a break and a powernap. Two hours later, Alice felt the urge to start cursing. The fog was still following them. It was quite far away - but even though the fog had temporarily dropped out of sight, it hadn¡¯t given up on chasing them. They still had almost no intelligence about the fog, and the group couldn¡¯t just rely on Allira to keep the fog occupied.


    ¡°Does it not spend anything to kill Allira¡¯s shadows?¡± Alice muttered.


    ¡°It might not,¡± said Cecilia. ¡°For all we know, it could be a monster in disguise. It could even be feeding on Allira¡¯s shadows like some kind of energy source - in which case it would be even more dangerous for the fog to catch up to us. It¡¯s hard to say whether it can do the same with humans, after all.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t see any of the telltale signs of it being a monster, though,¡± said Alice. ¡°Monsters are what I think of when I think of a creature stripping energy out of the air or other life in mere seconds and putting that energy to use. The fog looks more like some kind of altered terrain, like the swamp we encountered while we were travelling to Morendia. I don¡¯t even think the fog is actually alive. How could it be powering itself and moving like this?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have the same vision types as you, but I suspect the fog might be controlled by monsters,¡± said Ethan. ¡°Its movements are too precise to be random. Since monsters have started working together after the collapse of the System, maybe the fog is created by a bunch of monsters working to create some kind of giant vehicle. Just like our ship, but made entirely out of magic.¡±


    Alice thought about Ethan¡¯s theory. That was an idea she hadn¡¯t thought of before, but it did make some amount of sense. Before the collapse of the System, she would have deemed the idea implausible - but post-collapse, it seemed at least somewhat reasonable to her. She also couldn¡¯t think of any other explanations for this madness - though that may have simply been her limited imagination at work. Ethan¡¯s theory would also explain why the glowing mist kept chasing them. Perhaps the monsters had some way to control where the mist was heading, and that was why the mist kept swinging unerringly towards the ship?


    The problem was, Allira¡¯s scouts hadn¡¯t seen any hint of monsters in the mist. This made it far harder to deal with the situation. If Ethan¡¯s theory was correct, the group only needed to find and kill the monsters using magic to create fog - once enough of them died, the rest would hopefully drop into the ocean and lose the ability to pursue them. However, entering the fog sent Allira¡¯s shadows into some kind of crazy dream-city, which made it nearly impossible to strike at the monsters piloting the fog-ship.


    With no way to hit back against the strange phenomenon pursuing them, it became dozens of times harder to manage the situation.


    ¡°Is Allira capable of feeding the fog again?¡± asked Alice.


    ¡°I¡¯ll go wake her up,¡± said Ethan with a sigh. ¡°I just hope she can gather more information this time - if she could find the controllers of the fog, we could get rid of this menace before it becomes a real problem. I hate not being able to deal with enemies by just ripping them to shreds with a projectile storm.¡±


    With that cheery thought, Ethan dashed below deck.


    Luckily, Allira was more than capable of resuming her fog-feeding duty after her nap. After a quick meal, she got back to summoning shadows and sending them to their deaths.


    Over the next day, the group settled into an unsettling pattern. Allira would take a nap, and as she slept, the fog would start closing in on the boat. Then, Allira would wake up and feed the fog. Then, she would get tired, and go to take a nap. As she slept, the fog would start to close in again, before Allira woke up and fed it.


    This cycle continued for another day after that. And another. The group started to grow numb to the sensation of constantly being chased. They had no way to retaliate against the fog, and Allira¡¯s probes hadn¡¯t revealed any weaknesses or ways to escape. They simply sailed, and hoped that this tenuous balance wouldn¡¯t be broken as they continued onward.


    The days were long and stressful, and at night, Alice lay awake and wondered what would happen if the glowing fog caught up to them. So far, the group¡¯s response hadn¡¯t inspired much confidence that they could deal with the fog effectively. Allira hadn¡¯t found anything that would let them strike at their pursuers, and they couldn¡¯t see a thing from outside of the fog.


    By the fourth day, Alice was starting to get used to the routine. The glowing fog didn¡¯t seem to be chasing them any more quickly or more effectively than the first day. That, at least, was a small relief - the monsters(?) chasing them weren¡¯t growing stronger from eating Allira¡¯s shadows. However, the cycle did mean that the group was devoid of Allira¡¯s scouting abilities, which was a shame. The only upside was the fact that the rest of the sea was eerily devoid of animals or monsters - meaning that Allira¡¯s strength as a scout was unnecessary. The fog seemed to be scaring off any other potential threats in the area.


    The fifth day of being chased was when things went wrong.


    A few minutes after Allira went to take a nap, Alice saw a tiny row of specks in the distance. At first, she thought they might be animals or monsters, and nearly laughed out loud in joy. If the group could get the fog to focus on something else, they would finally be free to resume a more normal sailing journey. They were nearly a quarter of the way around the Southern Continent, and Alice really wanted to lose the fog before they got anywhere near the mainframe of the System.


    Then, she realized the dots in the distance weren¡¯t monsters or animals. They were ships.


    That sent an ominous shiver down her spine.


    Were they pirates? Or a long-lost navy from a foreign nation?


    It only took a few more minutes of sail for Alice¡¯s worst fears to be confirmed.


    The group of ships approaching them weren¡¯t disorganized pirates, nor were they from a different foreign nation that might help them or ignore them.


    Flying above the lead ship was the flag of the Sigmusi. The ships started sailing towards them only a few minutes after they saw them. Alice felt a twinge of despair.


    Behind them was the glowing fog. It was slowly closing distance with them, and it would catch up if Allira stopped ¡®feeding¡¯ the fog new victims.


    Ahead of them was the Sigmusi navy. Alice counted twelve ships on the horizon. She knew that [Kinetic Mages] could play a huge role in naval warfare, but this was a fact everyone knew. Since that was the case, there was no way a hostile navy wouldn¡¯t have [Kinetic Mages] on board. Worse, the Sigmusi might also have an Immortal Mage with them. Alice had at least glanced over the descriptions for all of the Sigmusi Immortals, since the group was going to travel through large stretches of Sigmusi waters - and so she knew that the Sigmusi had three Magic-focused Immortals. Two of them would be well-equipped to give Ethan a real fight if they ran into each other - and if both of them were here, the group might really be in trouble.


    Even if neither of those Immortals were here, the ships would probably have a good number of regular [Kinetic Mages] on board. Numbers could drag an Immortal down, especially on the ocean where the Sigmusi [Sailors] and [Admirals] would inevitably have higher average levels than the Illvarians. With Allira severely weakened, this was the most vulnerable the group had ever been, and threats from both sides were approaching fast.


    The group needed a solution now.