Chapter 61

It was unexpected, but a truly enjoyable time.

Fel Jack didn’t hide any knowledge.

“The truth shall set you free. The more knowledge spreads, the more we can save the world.”

That was the spirit of the Academy.

Every day bustled like a festival.

When night fell, Fel provided unlimited good food and drinks.

Nearly three hundred people gathered around wagons, eating and drinking while crafting tools to fight against calamities.

Slurp!

I sucked up chewy noodles submerged in hot broth. Then I sipped the sweet and refreshing Lami sap. Lami sap was the ultimate beverage that moisturized your skin when applied externally, as it was quickly absorbed. It was also used for beauty purposes, and when you drank it, your throat became soft and supple, and your breath became fragrant.

Both the noodles and Lami sap were foods I’d never seen before. They said these came from beyond the Saharan Plains.

Who would have thought I’d taste such unfamiliar food in this barren sand plateau!

Upon further investigation, the caravan Fel Jack led was called the Jack Caravan. Run by House Jack, its main task was supplying goods needed for the sand plateau and Lanciel City.

Even now, they traveled beyond the Saharan Plains to collect all sorts of groceries and sold them cheaply throughout the sand plateau.

Thanks to the Jack Caravan, people could survive in the harsh sand plateau.

I was surprised at that point. I wondered why the caravan would go this far… It turned out that House Jack was a prestigious family that had produced Lanciel City’s mayors for generations.

The caravan’s activities also followed the Academy’s spirit.

‘Rights… to ask me about that, you really are an ignorant outsider.’

Now I could understand Fel Jack’s attitude, overflowing with pride. So he was essentially a little lord, or perhaps even a prince?

Slurp!

Crunch!

I drank the hot broth and bit into freshly baked wind reed. The outside was hot. The flesh that oozed out was soft and nutty.

It tasted good after so long. Since leaving Arsenal #7, I hadn’t eaten properly. For a while, we ate well with the provisions Han Se-hoon’s group had brought, but those ran out quickly.

Fearing we might be tracked, we didn’t stop at crossroads and survived on tasteless “Cell Powder.” The last crossroad we visited, Shadow Shade Crossroad, couldn’t provide us with food, so eating proper food like this was truly a long-awaited luxury.

The happiness that came from abundant food. But in Jack Caravan, it wasn’t just food that was plentiful; preparations for fighting calamities were also abundant.

Scritch scratch scritch.

While occasionally tasting exotic foods with my mouth, I kept my hands busy making lightning hunting tools.

Wooden idol, lightning arrows, lightning harpoons, and sacred rope. These were the four tools.

Fel taught us how to make these four tools without holding anything back and in great detail. He even entrusted us with expensive materials and gave us opportunities to make them ourselves.

‘It’s fine if you mess up, just learn and practice well. I hope this helps you subdue more calamities in the future,’ he said with these flattering words.

Well, I appreciate his generous spirit, but we weren’t going to waste any materials.

“Your craftsmanship is excellent! Seems like it was made by a skilled hunter.”

Fel exclaimed in admiration at the wooden idol I had just finished.

This ‘idol’ was a wooden figure standing over 2 meters tall. The face was left blank, but the body’s curves were carefully carved, depicting someone in agony with hands to their face and body twisted. The material for this idol was Adamantine Pine, saturated with magical power. Just the wood alone must have cost at least 50 Morning.

“The expression is excellent. As requested, ‘agony’ is portrayed with careful detail. Honestly, I thought you’d mess it up… but this is amazing!”

As Fel kept admiring it, I gestured toward the person behind me.

“It wasn’t me who carved it, but my sister.”

Behind me, Yuria waved her fingers in greeting while continuing to carve another idol with a scritch-scratch sound. Originally, we were only given materials for one, but Yuria’s skills were so impressive that the caravan’s craftsmen allocated more materials to her.

Fel seemed pleased with our abilities.

“You really are talented! Let’s see… Indeed! The magical engraving is excellent too! Hmm… the circle here, the lines below, all perfectly engraved! This must be your handiwork, right?”

“Yes. I did the magical engraving myself.”

“Perfect! Remarkably perfect. I can hardly believe this is the work of someone making an ‘idol’ for the first time!”

Fel scrutinized the idol very carefully as he praised it.

The circles and lines he mentioned were all magical formations I had engraved.

I had meticulously carved grooves into the wooden figure and filled them with materials infused with magical power—a mixture of pine needle powder and jade powder kneaded with green river water. This allows the magical powers in the materials to intertwine, creating an invisible magical formation.

When he first showed us a properly made idol, I noticed slightly misshapen circles and minutely bent lines of magical power. I corrected those flaws when making our idol, which earned me this praise.

But there was something strange.

“You can see magical power?”

I stared at Fel with wide eyes.

I thought only I could see magical power. But Fel’s assessment couldn’t have been made without seeing magical power.

Fel grinned.

“As I suspected. You can see magical power too? Well, you couldn’t have done such perfect magical engraving otherwise. I may look like this, but I have 2nd-level mana sight.”

“2nd-level… there are levels?”

“Yes. At 2nd level, I can’t see magical power dispersed in the air, but I can clearly see concentrated magical power like this.”

My goodness… there are other people who can see magical power?

My heart raced strangely.

Fel kindly explained to me about mana sight, recognizing my lack of basic knowledge as a mage.

The talent to see magical power, ‘mana sight,’ was divided into three main levels: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.

3rd-level mana sight could see concentrated magical power as a shimmering haze. Only one out of twenty mages had this special talent.

2nd level could see the outlines of concentrated magical power clearly. Like those with 3rd level, they couldn’t see magical power dispersed in the air. Also, from 2nd level, one could see the Circles inside another person’s body like light seeping through a paper window, allowing immediate recognition of mages. This talent, considered a mark of genius, was possessed by just one in five hundred mages.

1st-level mana sight could see not only air-dispersed magical power but also could see Circles inside others in detail. A mere glance would reveal an opponent’s level, and some could even feel textures from magical power. This was a talent held only by a handful of giants who dominated an era.

“Judging by your mana sight, you must be at least 2nd level. Can you see magical power in the air? Or perhaps feel it as hot or cold?”

I stared at Fel with blank eyes.

Misinterpreting my gaze, Fel chuckled to himself.

“Haha. Of course… not quite at that level? Even in the Tower of Covenant, those blessed with such abilities can be counted on one hand. But don’t be disappointed. Even 2nd-level mana sight is considered a top-tier talent.”

There seemed to be a misunderstanding, but I didn’t bother to correct it and asked:

“So, can those with 1st-level mana sight also see colors in magical power?”

“Colors? Some high-level mages do make that claim. That magical power is divided into black and white… Well, there’s also the issue of magical terrain, so some mages study this seriously, but it hasn’t been accepted as established theory yet.”

It seemed that… even with 1st-level mana sight, they couldn’t see magical power in as much detail as I could.

“Ah… I see.”

I couldn’t help but sigh.

“Haha! No need to compare yourself with those who have 1st-level mana sight. A sigh? You already possess a talent worthy of being called a genius!”

Fel kept missing the mark.

Somehow feeling uncomfortable, I just changed the subject.

“By the way, Fel, how do we use this wooden idol?”

The four tools for hunting lightning:

Wooden idol, lightning harpoon, lightning arrow, sacred rope.

Of these, the other three made sense, but I couldn’t understand the wooden idol at all. Anyone could see this wasn’t a weapon but an art piece, right? It clearly had magic imbued in it since I’d engraved magical power, but… its purpose was unclear.

Fel answered lightly.

“Think of it as something used in a shaman’s ritual. We call it bait. I’ll teach you how to properly use it soon. There are many people on their first hunt this time… right now I’m busy getting them mentally prepared.”

Now that I looked, Fel had deep shadows of fatigue under his eyes.

“Aren’t you pushing yourself too hard?”

For a 3rd Circle mage like him, having fatigue so visible meant he was seriously overworking himself.

But Fel shook his head.

“It’s fine. After this is over, I’ll get to play to my heart’s content. I can play in both scenarios.”

“Both scenarios?”

“Yes. If we win… we’ll enter the Tower of Covenant for a while to lower our aggro and have fun.”

“What does lowering aggro mean?”

“Ah, you don’t know, I see. Killing calamities attracts significant attention from magical power… which means it draws enormous attention from calamities as well. To prevent an unmanageable calamity from coming after you someday, you need to consistently manage that risk. After this battle, you too should come and relax with me for at least three years.”

This was a new concept to me.

Was he saying we couldn’t just keep fighting calamities?

But… when we checked at Shadowed Mountain Crossroad, our permitted stay time was quite long at two months. Had all the aggro from fighting orcs, ogres, and harpies already fallen? Or was it because of our good mobile barrier?

“Then what’s the second scenario?”

While I was lost in thought, Yuria asked. Fel answered cheerfully.

“The second is if we lose… then we’ll rest eternally since we’d be dead anyway.”

After saying that, Fel laughed to himself, then suddenly stood up and tidied his place.

“Since I don’t want that to happen, I’d better get going! Thanks to your help, the preparation work has been reduced significantly. Thank you!”

With eyes full of fatigue yet waving his hand energetically, Fel departed.

I returned his greeting and went back to making the wooden idol. My mind was becoming complicated.

After catching this calamity, would we really need to rest for three years? Could we really move so leisurely?

These worries led my thoughts back to what Fel had said about mana sight, and,

“Haa…….”

I let out a sigh.

Yuria, reading my mind like a ghost, spoke up.

“Feeling down? You thought there were others like you, but there weren’t.”

“No… what’s to feel down about? If it’s a talent only I have, that’s even better.”

I brushed it off casually, but Yuria had pierced right through me.

“Usually people would be upset if others had what they possess, but special kids like you are different.”

I felt a slight lump in my throat.

Was it because of the magical power that only I could see, which made me misunderstood since childhood?

I had always imagined that perhaps in the Tower of Covenant, there might be someone who could see what I see and communicate with me as an equal. Thinking about that made me feel good.

When I heard about mana sight from Fel, my first reaction wasn’t a crisis of being less special, but… the joy of not being alone.

But it seems even there, no one truly like me exists.

Somehow I felt…

“Don’t feel too lonely.”

With Yuria’s encouragement, I continued carving the idol, scritch scratch, filling it with the kneaded magical materials.

What is mana sight, what is aggro level, and how is this idol used to become bait…

Like stars in the sky, there were so many secrets to learn in this Star Continent.