Zach woke up in the bed at the Fernsdale Manor. He took a moment to collect his bearings.

‘I could have sworn I was just awake in my room,’ he thought in confusion before shrugging it off.

He dressed himself as best he could. When he was ready, a kind servant brought him to the dining room where he found Lydia.

They greeted each other and ate a short breakfast before going out to the stables. There they found Ferney hard at work, prepping a magnificent white horse for the journey ahead. Entranced, Lydia started stroking the horse’s mane.

Taking this time, Zach was able to talk with Ferney. He apologized to him for the fiasco and was surprised to see Ferney apologize too.

“Why are you apologizing?” Zach asked.

“Well, I didn’t really defend you yesterday, when my master decided to arrest you,” he said, genuinely apologetic. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t listen to him, Zach,” Lydia said. “This kid is afraid of his own shadow and will apologize for breathing if you let him.”

“I do not, miss Lagron!” he yelped.

Zach laughed along. “Wait, how do you guys know each other?”

“I think you underestimate just how long I’ve been looking for an apprentice,” Lydia replied, but didn’t elaborate, so Zach let it slide.

She continued petting the horse called Palmlack.

“Lydia, I have a favor to ask,” Zach said after a while. “Well, not really a favor.”

“Go ahead. Is it in relation to your apprenticeship?”

“Yes. I need you to teach me a spell, any spell really, as soon as possible.”

“Hmm? Why? You just decided to become my apprentice yesterday.” Lydia looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “There’s really no rush. And you’re not technically my student yet, only by my words, which, by the way, aren’t that influential even in my own organization.”

“I need to be able to defend myself,” Zach replied in the most innocent voice he could muster. “When I was out in those woods by myself, I could’ve used magic from a distance, rather than put myself in so much danger.”

“Are you saying you don’t know anything about spells?” Ferney, who couldn’t help but overhear, asked.

Zach nodded slowly. “I come from a very… special place.”

“You should’ve been there when I met him. He was playing with his manifestations like a little kid right before he tried to draw a real spell next to a pottery shop!” Lydia laughed, causing Ferney to shake his head in disappointment and Zach to massage his forehead. “Saying he’s a mere novice with a childish outlook on life is an understatement!”

“L-Look, I’ve never seen a real spell before, so I didn’t know what would happen. In fact, I still don’t!”

“Okay, I’ll teach you the basics… Including the stuff we teach little children…” Lydia said with a mocking smirk, even making Ferney chuckle.

Zach shot her an annoyed look, but deep down he was still grateful.

“I’ll teach you later, when we are out of the city.”

Zach nodded.

“How long will it take to reach Caeli?” he asked.

“About two days,” she responded. “We should reach the city by nightfall on the second day, so it’s not a very long trip.”

‘Not a very long trip?’ Zach mused inwardly. It would probably take a fraction of the time for a car.

The company took a little over an hour to pack the carriages and make everything fit for a princess. When they were almost finished packing they were approached by a group of mages Zach vaguely recognized from the demonstration. Apparently they were all going to Caeli too and were asked to escort the princess. A mage with grey hair spotted Lydia and trailed off from the rest.

“So, you found an apprentice, did you?” the old mage said, looking at Zach like a rotten fish.

“I did, yes, mage Lot,” Lydia replied despite the clear disdain, even sending him a smile.

“I see… I’m deeply interested in how you managed to meet this young fellow, and even managed to stay in the Fernsdale Manor last night, while the rest of us had to sleep in the hotel.”

Lydia shrugged. “Alas, it is a long story. Do you want to talk about it for a few hours?”

“Hmph. I’d rather not.”

And with that, the old mage turned on his heels and walked away quickly.

“Who was that?” Zach asked.

“Just an old mage who thinks women only like to talk for hours on end.”

Then Lydia also walked away, tugging a surprised Zach by his sleeves.

A few minutes after that, Snowy walked out of the manor with Sir Deltris. Everyone gave a respectful bow and Snowy was escorted to a carriage and put inside, like a flower on display. The exchange was short and sweet, leaving no room for a greeting.

Sir Deltris turned to the newly formed convoy and announced their departure. “Let’s make haste,” he said.

Everything started moving all at once. Lydia made sure Zach was close by her side, like a mother parenting a little kid, practically dragging him along.

‘Who do you take me for, woman?’ he thought inwardly, but didn’t voice his complaints.

The convoy moved through the city and passed through the gates into the wheat fields.

They weaved down the road for hours until the grasses became wild again.

And the roads slowly turned from rough cobble to trodden dirt.

Finally Lydia told Zach to fall behind the convoy a little. She was ready to teach him.

“There are two energies permeating everything in the world, chakra and mana,” she began, “However, I’ll only be teaching you about mana, since that is what I know, and I’ll even skip the history lesson on Kuenzli’s Theory of Magic for now.”

Zach nodded. It was just as Jamela said too, except apparently chakra was banned in the country, so Lydia wouldn’t be able to teach him that anyway. As for the theory of magic, he was intrigued, but learning spells was more urgent.

“You already know about manifestations,” she continued, “You just have to force the mana to your fingertips, drawing dots and lines in the air. And when you release the manifestation, it causes magical interference, which is useful enough for most people to defend themselves from monsters. There’s even a field of study specifically for this, but I don’t study it. There are much more interesting fields of magic. What I study is second dimension magic, or spell circles, which is what I’ll be teaching you. Any questions so far?”

Zach nodded. “Um. Second dimension? What about the first dimension?”

“Oh. Right,” Lydia was new to teaching and had forgotten Zach was new to magic. “First dimension magic refers to manifestations. And it’s actually similar to painting in many ways. If you draw a line in the air, it's the first dimension. Add three more lines, making a square, and it's the second dimension. Add even more lines, making a cube, and you get the third dimension.”

“I see.”

“So let’s see you draw a square in the air,” Lydia suddenly requested. “But hold it there afterwards and let me look at it.

“A-Ah. O-Okay. But won’t I accidentally destroy something?”

“Not if you only draw the square and nothing more.”

Zach hesitantly drew a glowing orange square in the air in front of him. It was even harder to draw since he was still walking too.

“Hmm,” Lydia looked at Zach’s creation before saying bluntly, “It’s awful. The lines aren’t straight, the mana isn’t evenly distributed, and you didn’t even close the spell boundary,” she pointed at the place where he stopped drawing, leaving an open gap in the corner of the square. “If you want to cast a real spell, these are basic, fundamental things you need to fix right away and be able to do in your sleep.”

“I understood two of those. I just need to draw a complete square and make my lines perfectly straight. But what’s mana distribution?”

Lydia pointed to a few bright areas on his square, “These bright spots here are where you slowed down, causing a buildup of higher density mana. It’s inefficient since it doesn’t add anything to the spell, only wasting your mana. So like my teacher once said, you should iron this out before it becomes a bad wrinkle. Or in other words, you must be able to draw the square perfectly and smoothly.”

Zach nodded. “Got it.”

“Good. Now on to the terminology. What you just attempted to draw is called a spell boundary. There are two kinds, circles and squares. Depending on what shape your spell boundary is determines the nature of the spell, either offensive or defensive.”

“Which one is my square?”

“What do you think?” Lydia gave him a flat look. “Square spell boundaries are defensive in nature. Circles are offensive. Why would I let you draw a dangerous spell on your first try? Seriously.”

Zach sighed to himself and spread his fingers. His rough-looking square glided forward and dissipated harmlessly off someone’s luggage.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Lydia suddenly barked. “Did I tell you to let that go? Draw it again and hold it there!”

He quickly obliged. This time, though, he tried to fix the mistakes Lydia pointed out.

“It’s much better than the last,” Lydia nodded her head sagely. “But the lines still aren’t straight and your movements were still choppy. But that’s fine. At least you closed it. Just hold it there for as long as you can while I continue with the lecture. Don’t draw anything more until I permit.”

She cleared her throat. “So, now you have a spell boundary in front of you. The spell boundary itself won’t have any effect, but it sets up the foundation for the spell you are casting. Inside of the boundary you’ll describe the effect and nature your spell takes. For you, you’ll just be drawing straight lines across the diameter. You’ll do this until you can draw circles and squares perfectly while blindfolded. Any questions?”

‘A straight line inside a circle or a square.’ Zach thought to himself. ‘So that’s how you cast a real spell.’

“Why do the lines need to be straight?” he asked.

“Hmm. You’ll eventually find out that the straighter your lines, the more powerful your spell will be. As for the mana distribution, it is like using your ink more sparingly when you write a letter, rather than letting it bleed through. And a closed spell boundary is the only way to cast a spell, otherwise it will fizzle.”

“I see. Then why a square in the first place? Why not words or thoughts or other actions?”

“You mean the magic itself, why do we have to cast spells by drawing... Well chakra is activated based on certain body movements. But as for why, that is one of the great mysteries of magic. If you mean why draw shapes and not letters, that is just the system of magic that has been standardized, the Kuenzlian Magic System. The Runic Magic System is outdated and tedious.”

“Okay. I think I get it.”

“Are you getting tired yet,” Lydia suddenly looked at him with a confused expression.

“No. Why?”

“From holding that spell, of course. Do you have some kind of monstrous mana manipulation or something?”

It was obviously a rhetorical question, but Zach almost nodded. Almost. He remembered he had a max level [Internal Mana Manipulation] ability helping him out. He smirked and continued to hold the spell boundary... for another hour.

Lydia maintained a straight face, but inwardly she was becoming more and more excited. Beginner mages usually had to practice holding their spells for long periods of time, as the longer one went, the harder it was to maintain. It was like training someone to hold their arms up in the air for as long as possible. Some apprentices even had to practice channeling the mana to their fingertips in the first place, since that was also somewhat difficult. But Zach could already do it with ease, not a single bit of strain showing on his face the entire time. He was a natural talent in her eyes!

Little did she know that the system was letting him bypass all of the tedious work normal mages had to go through.

“Can I let this go now?” Zach asked with a groan.

“You’re getting bored? Hold it for another hour,” Lydia remarked offhandedly. But inside, she was shocked.

‘If he goes another hour like this, that’ll beat my personal record!’

Another hour later and Zach had gotten used to the passing scenery, finding it enjoyable. So long as he didn’t accidently spread his fingers, the spell wouldn’t float away. It was like holding a balloon, albeit a very strange balloon.

‘This is impossible! He’s not even paying attention and still holding it there.’ Lydia thought.

And after another hour had passed by, her thoughts shifted. Her eyes glanced ahead at the other mages, both the one from her own Order and the others.

‘If they see what kind of monstrous talent he has, they’ll do everything in their power to take him away. I can’t let that happen!’

“Alright! You can release the spell now!” she said a little too quickly.

Zach raised his eyebrow at the sudden outburst, but released the spell anyway. However, unlike before, when his incomplete square floated away, the new square in front of him collapsed into a blob first and slowly fizzled out, like smoke.

“Woah, that hasn’t happened to me before!”

Lydia massaged her forehead. ‘What am I going to do with this kid? He’s the definition of a blank slate.’

“Did you not get any sleep, milady?”

Snowy sighed and shook her head. Ever since her last nightmare which had turned into one of those fabled dreams, the kind that were peaceful and uneventful, she had been so full of energy that she didn’t feel like sleeping. But now she did what Zach would call an all-nighter, she was rightfully drowsy again.

“Ever since I’ve experienced what a real dream is, I’ve been more afraid than ever to fall asleep normally.”

Bella the handmaiden’s face twisted into a teasing smile. “Oh. Well that boy is following us as we speak. Perhaps you will dream about him again, just like last night.”

Snowy blushed, hiding her face even though there was no one in the carriage with them. “N-No way. Besides, he’s awake right now walking behind us, is he not? You cannot share a dream with someone if they are awake.”

“Well I suppose you are right about that,” Bella replied. “But how do you know where he is? Have you been keeping an eye on him through the window? Could you perhaps-”

“N-N-No! Of course not!” Now she was panicking. “I just find him intriguing! That is all. I swear, if you spread such a rumor around I will confiscate your sweets privilege for a month!”

Bella put on a distraught face. “Yes, milady. Consider my lips sealed. If anyone were to find out, it wouldn’t have been me.”

“That is very reassuring,” Snowy said in a flat tone. “But I don’t think I can stay awake much longer. Be still.”

She shifted in her seat, adopting a sleeping position with her head on Bella’s lap, using the handmaiden’s legs like a pillow. The carriage was on the larger side, drawn by two horses, so there was just enough room for Snowy to curl up on the seat. Her frilly dress was more than warm enough. She was quite comfortable, and her eyelids started to get unbearably heavy.

“...”

“Of course,” Bella added, “we have the decoy carriages. They are empty. We could offer one to-”

“Bella!!!”

“Alright, alright.”

When she had calmed back down, Snowy asked, “Can you tell me that poem again.”

Bella nodded. “Tears of the Immortal, by Tuvlain.” Her voice took on a dreamy, sorrowful tone, befitting the poem.

“An idle life or frantic struggle?

Instead a try to true immortal.

"At dungeon's base the cure awaits.

To those who sought, a doom of fate.

His only hope, demonic glee,

To sweep his path with gravity.

"At towers' top answers lay bare,

And gifts to travel anywhere.

Illness from birth, the cure ordained,

The curse of time not soon delayed.

"For in the end, arrived too late.

No cure for this, a lost soulmate.

His share in death, exchanged by choice,

Wander alone, immortal voice.”

“I always say this, but what a lovely and sad poem. Again please,” Snowy said.

“Of course.”

Bella repeated the poem and continued to repeat it, as she had always done in the past on long voyages like this one, until the princess was no longer awake, and she had been swept away into a restless sleep.

Zach was walking behind the carriages at the near back of the convoy. He noticed the climate getting colder and colder, and noticing many of the mages bundling up, he thought of his own warm gear.

His mind darted to his inventory where he found his brown cloak. He transferred it to his backpack and took it out with his hands. If anyone had been watching, they wouldn't bat an eyelash, unless they knew the bag was supposed to be empty, which no one did.

*ping

[Nightmare Detected: in range]

[Battlefield of Castles and Webs (no level)]

[Enter: y/n] [Open: y/n]

The message appeared suddenly, startling him out of his thoughts and causing him to stop. Lydia promptly bumped into the back of him since she was walking right behind.

“Why’d you stop?” she asked.

Quickly regaining his cool, Zach apologized. “Sorry, I was just thinking about something else,” he lied.

“Then get back to practicing.”

Zach resumed waving his hands around in front of him in what would be an absurd motion if one didn’t know what he was doing. He was practicing his spell circles, making sure to have smooth, accurate movements while not sending actual mana to his fingertips and waiting for it to recover.

Due to the nature of fire magic, he couldn’t test any attack spells without risking a forest fire, but he could test his defensive spells. Whenever his mana got below fifty percent, he was to stop drawing real spells and just perform the motions until his mana was fully recovered. Of course, it was impossible to see how effective his defensive spells were without an opponent, but he wasn’t complaining.

Once he had satisfied Lydia, he shifted most of his attention back to the message in front of him.

‘Battlefield of Castles and Webs?’ he questioned inwardly. ‘That’s definitely Snowy’s nightmare, but I don’t think I can help this time.’

He looked around at all the people around him. It didn’t matter if his whole body or just his mind entered the dungeon, somebody, most likely Lydia, would definitely notice when he went inside. As for opening the dungeon, he had obvious apprehensions about doing that. But thinking about the window in front of him brought another issue back to mind, and gave him an idea.

Back on Earth he had somehow activated endgame content, adjusting the difficulty of whatever strange game he was playing.

‘...I don’t even know how I did that. All I did was get beat up,’ he thought. ‘If getting beat up triggers the endgame content, then perhaps I should get beat up some more. Although, I can’t imagine what it will do for me now. Maybe there’s a resistance skill?’

Zach decided that, however he had done it, he wanted to find out how much the difficulty changed. Comparing the level 1 dungeon with Elmarud and the wolves to the level 3 dungeon with the snake lady wasn’t very reliable. Instead, comparing the nightmare dungeons, which didn’t have a level, would probably be better.

‘If Snowy constantly activates nightmare dungeons, then I can use this as an opportunity to test some things.’

But he couldn’t do it now. He would have to wait for later, when they were both in a proper bed and it wouldn’t look like he had fainted while walking.

With a guilty heart, he selected ‘no’ for both prompts.

‘This is a test too,’ he reasoned, trying to console himself. ‘If there are consequences to denying this kind of quest, I need to know. If not, then that means I don’t have to put myself in unnecessary danger.’

Hours passed by with nothing happening. There were no apparent consequences visible to Zach, so he quickly got reabsorbed in his magic practice.

However, back in the carriage and unbeknownst to him, Snowy had one of the worst nightmares in her life.

She slept fitfully, and no matter how Bella tried to soothe the sleeping princess, it didn’t help. Her face twitched. Her eyes moved under her eyelids. Occasionally she would gasp or whimper, as if from pain, yet she wouldn’t wake up. Bella stroked the girl’s hair on her lap, but she wouldn’t settle. Only two hours passed by, but it felt like longer for the handmaiden. Finally though, Snowy’s torment was over when she jerked into wakedness.

“Good afternoon, milady. You just missed the midday meals being passed around by the group.”

Snowy sighed. “That’s a shame.” The dark circles under her eyes had deepened rather than faded.

“Do not worry,” Bella smiled softly. “The road is too rough for sleeping. Tonight you will have a bed and steady ground.”

The mayor was at the telegraph in communication with representatives from the capital. The door opened and a line of men walked into the room. Lord Fernsdale stood up from his chair to greet the guests.

“Welcome, members from the Hunters Guild. As you probably saw from my request, I have a special mission for you,” he began. “This is a scouting quest. However, what you are looking for is unknown, and the danger is unknown. You could face something deadly and not come back alive. Or you could find absolutely nothing, and be paid all the same. I just need a general survey.”

“Pardon me, Mayor, isn’t that what it means to accept a scouting quest? I only ask, why so close to town? And Stutter Forest? I thought those woods were cleared out once a year.”

“Well it goes like this…” Mayor Fernsdale explained what happened with Zach and what happened in the capital.

“Hmm. Instance dungeons you say. That does pose a problem. If monsters can appear behind our walls then we need to figure out how to deal with them, otherwise there is only disaster for the future of our country.”

The mayor nodded. “So you see. Even if what that kid said was true, that the instance dungeon is gone now, I am still being requested by the military to dispatch a force to the Stutter Woods and see if anything is left. So how about it? Will you Hunters take up this quest? Of course you will be paid a generous amount regardless of your findings, but perhaps even more if you do discover something important.”

“We accept!” they all agreed.

Beaumont pushed through the forest back into the clearing where the base team and the STA was at. A flock of geese had wandered into the area, and they were looking at the base team curiously. Immediately those following him, the people with his scout team, collapsed to the ground. Beaumont’s face adopted an expression of understanding.

After the initial excitement faded away, their body’s internal clocks caught up with them. Besides Beaumont and Fletcher, who were trained to stay awake for longer periods of time, the scientists weren’t holding up so well. Urving and Donald were braced against a tree, nodding occasionally from nearly passing out while standing. Kim, who was sitting by the STA in constant communication with the four soldiers on the other side, had movements that were getting more imprecise. It was to be expected. It was only the afternoon on their side, but they had already stayed awake for more than 24 hours on their end. The only one who seemed to be holding up well was Paul. His energy seemed boundless and everyone envied him, including Beaumont.

“Okay people,” he said with a cough, “We’ve scouted the perimeter. Although none of us here are specialized in tracking, we never found any evidence of dangerous wild animals, so you can all get a good rest. Fletcher, you too. I’ll take first watch-”

Suddenly a goose of monstrous size flapped its wings and charged at him!

“Ack-”

Beaumont put his hands up to protect himself but the goose was relentless. It drilled with its black beak and scratched him with its green toes. The attack didn’t go through his shirt, but it was honking and flapping its wings noisily, creating a very startling display.

“Stupid goose!”

Jolted awake, everyone readied themselves to jump in and save the man. But they stopped themselves, baffled at the situation. As Beaumont continued to struggle with the goose, Paul let out a chuckle. Even the astronomer who was busy communicating couldn’t help but look over.

“So much for not finding evidence of ‘dangerous wild animals.’ They’re all right here!” Paul commented.

The group laughed. And finally they went to help their leader.

As if noticing that it was outnumbered, the goose let out a final insolent honk before it flapped its wings and flew away.

Beaumont stumbled away with a red face, more embarrassed than hurt, and he readied his gun at the fleeing bird.

“Ho, my friend,” Fletcher jeered while pointing. “I found evidence of the dangerous wild animals.”

“It’s no wonder we couldn’t find anything on the ground,” Blair joined in. “They probably flew!”

Noticing that the morale had gone up, Beaumont sighed and shouldered his gun. “Hmph. It’d be a waste of bullets, but if that crazy animal comes back, I’ll put a few slugs in it for sure.”

After becoming the butt of a few more crude jokes, the team finally settled down again.

The team gathered around and made themselves as comfortable as they could before shutting their eyes. Kim couldn’t leave the STA. The questions from Earth seemed to be endless, and Beaumont had to stay awake to protect them from any dangers. From now on, though, he would be watching the treeline and the flocks of geese.

Meanwhile, the squad of Hunters from Fernsdale were retracing Zach’s steps, heading in the direction of the STA and the sleeping team from Earth.

[End Chapter 18]