Had it not been for the magically enlarged backpacks I had acquired, the trips up and down would have exhausted me. While I hadn’t properly stored the food provisions in an orderly fashion, I had enough to last me and Kai for months to come.

By this point, a whole hour had passed and I decided that I needed to go check up on Kai and the other slumbering manaless people.

Nothing had changed since I left them, and the sight of all those dead bodies certainly had not become any easier to see. If only I was able to cast the archpriestess’s forest funeral ritual…

“That’s it!” I exclaimed out loud, and immediately regretted it with a violent fit of coughing.

Apart from the whispered spells, I had not spoken since I’d woken up and my throat was extremely sore. Still, the idea I had, filled me with a new surge of energy.

I would not be able to cast the ritual, not without spending a very long time studying it, though a plethora of spellbooks would definitely prove useful for our journey. That was especially true if I wanted to fix Kai or even figure out what happened to him.

There was no local magic bookstore in Nara and I couldn’t bring myself to raid people’s houses in order to get my hands on their spellbooks, so instead, I visited all four traveling merchant carriages that used to sell them. Taking food that no one would eat any longer was one thing, but taking books from the houses of the dead was quite another.

I quickly ran through each of their inventories and took at least one of each of the books they had. The total number of unique books I acquired was close to six hundred and I was able to throw them all into a magically-expanded suitcase that I simply tossed down the stairs of the chest-house.

The last shop I looted also happened to sell magical potions. Even though I had no experience with magical concoctions, I picked a large variety and volume of them, since the labeling descriptions were detailed enough to guess what would be useful.

In the process of reading and retrieving the potion vials and bottles, I came across a bright orange liquid.

Item : Awakening Potion

Type : Magic Item - Potion

Durability : 90/90

Rarity : E Grade

Weight : 6st.

Description : When consumed in either liquid or gas form, it removes the effects of any magically induced coma or slumber.

This was exactly what I needed. I was certain that I didn’t want to wake anyone up before Kai and I were long gone, and I had also decided that it may be better to wait until we were clear before waking him up too. I could, however use the potion in combination with a kind of timer spell that Ched had taught me.

Name : Piercing Sunlight

School of Magic : Artifice

Verbal Components : 8 words

Somatic Components : Simple

Material Component : None

HP Consumed : 0

MP Consumed : 0

Divine Mana Consumed : 60

Range : Touch

Casting Time : Instant

Precondition : None.

Description : Once this spell settles on a surface, it renders it extremely sensitive to sunlight. Once the sun’s rays touch the surface, it will crumble into pieces.

This spell would only take effect after sunrise but it was only one part of the plan I had in mind.

I returned to where Kai was still resting, set down our chest-house, and carried him down to a bed. It would be better if nobody would see him in the state his skin was in right now.

Midnight was upon the village when I re-emerged, but it was not cold at all, even though all fires had long extinguished. The moon was half-hidden behind thin clouds that were barely moving due to the absence of wind.

I felt tired beyond comprehension, but it was not yet time to stop. Instead, I decided to take a seat by my chest and rest my body for just a few minutes.

This was the first time I noticed that my previously white robes were now more blood-red and dirt-brown. The beautiful robes that my adopted parents had gifted me.

The contrast of the memory of our chat over breakfast just the day before with the images of their lifeless bodies made me choke from sadness. Taking care of Kai would be the least I could do to repay them.

I rubbed my face and stood up, even more determined than before. After all this time, I still had not performed the Mana Gauge spell to see how much mana I had been gifted by The Divine.

I focused on the spell I had practiced so many times before and executed it to perfection. What I saw was nothing I could have prepared myself for though.

Divine Mana: 71,329,123,049

The amounts of divine mana each person received was not a very popular topic of conversation, especially for those who had big amounts but even so, seventy one billion seemed like an extraordinary amount. I only wished that I could ask Ched if this was going to be enough to become a good crafter of magic items.

But Ched was not here anymore and neither was his wife or the archpriests so all I had was my own knowledge. I already had access to some spells that required thousands of divine mana and had even heard of great rituals that required hundreds of thousands or even millions of it, but those were the ones that had world-altering effects.

With my limited knowledge, I could only assume that the amount I had was going to be enough to provide a comfortable life to Kai and me. A life in exile.

Shedding those thoughts away, I made one last trip to the market and took off my robes, swapping them for the first traveling clothes I found.

After I picked up some extra robes for me and Kai, I returned to where the manaless were sleeping in order to begin setting up the timer that Ched had taught me.

Considering the hours I had already spent preparing and the hours that would still pass before the timer went off, I thought I should at least try to stop the deterioration of the dead bodies for some time.

I decided against casting the spell on every single one of the bodies as that would require a lot of time, not to mention the courage to face all of the people I grew up with. Instead, I would cast the preservation spell on the whole area of the hill with a duration of seven days.

Name : Deterioration Preservation

School of Magic : Necromancy

Verbal Components : 64 words

Somatic Components : Moderate

Material Component : 1oz of bone grain

HP Consumed : 0

MP Consumed : 0

Divine Mana Consumed : 720

Range : 7000 inches

Casting Time : 300 seconds

Precondition : None.

Description : All organic materials in the range of the spell enter a state of suspension for 7 days. During this period, no physical deterioration will take place on them.

Having done that, I poured seven vials of the awakening potions into one big glass jar and begun casting a cantrip on it, followed immediately by a trap spell.

Name : Vapourization

School of Magic : Alchemy

Verbal Components : 4 words

Somatic Components : Simple

Material Component : None

HP Consumed : 0

MP Consumed : 0

Divine Mana Consumed : 20

Range : Touch inches

Casting Time : Instant

Precondition : None.

Description : Change any non-magical or minor-magical liquid to its gas form.

The 4-word cantrip simply made the potions contain gas instead of liquid, something that would play a big role in my next spell. I cast the Piercing Sunlight spell on the potion containers that now held the awakening gas.

With that plan set up and a countdown silently running in my head, I had a moment to register exactly what I was actually about to do. I was going to abandon all my friends as well as my village, in order to protect Kai.

I owed it to Ched and Nessa, but it was my decision too. I walked over to where Adel still lay, knelt beside him and whispered in his ear.

“I know this is not how things are supposed to be… I’m sorry I won’t be there for you in the same way you were there for me. But I need to protect him. You can find everything you need in the market. Please forgive me.” I kissed his forehead and choked out a sob.

This might very well be the last time I saw him.

I blew a high note on my new summoning flute and waited for my steed to materialize. It was a large white male horse and had it not just appeared out of thin air, it could have been mistaken for any other stallion.

I gripped the leather strips hanging from my chest-home and strapped it onto my steed. I jumped on its intricately adorned saddle and took the road west.

Soon, I saw the street turn from a clear paved road to a rugged dirt path. I traveled west for quite some distance and then turned south, heading toward the southernmost tip of the land, which meant the port city of Leskia.

I knew this road was not used much anymore, as it went around the mountains that stood between our vast forests and the green fields of Leskia. On the other hand, the new road went directly south, crossing through the mountains rather than veering around them, and had become the obvious choice for travelers.

The older road suited my purposes just fine. What I was looking for was not the easy way, but rather the one with the least possible chances of encountering anyone else.

Once I reached the top of the last hill from which I could see Nara, I steadied my ride and gazed upon my motherland one last time. After all of my studies and preparation, I still hadn’t been able to protect anyone. I felt like I deserved this self-imposed exile.

With this feeling sitting heavy on my heart, I dropped my eyes to the ground and turned to the west once more. The sound of my horse’s hooves was the only thing that disturbed the moonlit path I rode on.