Charging forward with a head full of steam Sionia plows through the thicket. This year when her sister came to the city to become an adventurer she gave her a special pendant. The pendant is a matching set with the one she wears and the two have a faint connection to one another. The material they’re made out of can absorb trace amounts of mana when it’s placed under pressure. That mana is then passed between pairs forming a connection.

Sionia never told her sister about the properties of the pendant since she would probably be upset at her for meddling where she doesn’t need to. However she did tell her sister it would bring her good luck if she held it tight during sticky situations.

During her break she felt the pendant warm up due to its properties being activated and she immediately fell into a panic. After getting someone to cover for her she sprinted straight for the other pendent. For normal people the mana is unnoticeable, but it’s indistinctly detectable for those who are extremely magically inclined or elves that are close to nature. Using her years of experience as a scout to her advantage she was able to get a lock on the trail of mana connecting the two.

As she was running the connection between the pendants broke which caused her worry to skyrocket even higher than it already was. Her sister wouldn’t do something as useless as holding onto a good luck charm unless she was really desperate. If the connection’s been cut off it means she either doesn’t need to hold onto it or she’s unable to. She could only pray it wasn’t the second reason.

To make sure she stayed on course Sionia clenched her fist around her pendant to activate it, reconnecting the two and giving her a straight path to her sister. During her trip she bowled through any brush or thickets she came across leaving her with numerous scratches and a twig lodged in her hair.

Grasping her dagger so hard her knuckles turned white, she burst through the last bit of brush blocking her path to her sister. Out of breath from her relentless sprint she her sharp eyes glare around and finds … no dire situation that needs her to intervened just a bunch of adventurers sitting around resting … with a strangely familiar looking goblin that seems just as shocked to see her as the adventurers.

Looking around she can’t even find the remnants of a great battle or even a small skirmish. The only thing out of the ordinary other than the goblin is the small section of the forest that looks like it got hit by a blizzard completely independent of the rest of the forest.

Unable to understand why she ran nonstop to get to a place where everything is perfectly fine her brain fries leaving her standing there blinking as metaphorical smoke rises from her head. As if waiting for this moment a sparrow flies down and lands on her head trying to use the twigs caught in her hair to make a nest on her dome piece.

She gloomily wobbles over and joins the group. Even though most of them want to say something no one can find the words since they don’t understand why she just randomly burst through the bushes like a madman. The only one who has any idea why she showed up is Jellal since he was able to sense the mana connecting the pendants and he only had his own speculations.

Jellal walks over to the depressed Sionia and places a consoling hand on her shoulder. Looking up to see who the kind soul who came over to console her is her face immediately begins to twitch in irritation. Who would want to be consoled by a goblin that has a look on its face that screams “it’s a pity you’re an idiot, I hope you cheer up”?

In an attempt to get revenge and gain good luck simultaneously she reaches out to rub his bald head. Her palm is easily brushed aside so she reaches out a second time, but faster. Swatted away like a fly. The third and fourth tries increase the speed again but to no avail. As the speed of the exchange gradually increases they begin to glare at each other. Finally giving in Sionia uses her ultimate technique: using both hands.

The pair’s hands become a blurry mess as Jellal wards off her hastening attempts. Getting sick of her refusal to give up he too uses his ultimate technique. Crossing his arms with a smirk he stops defending. Just as her hand is about to touch his head it’s blocked by an invisible force. Using wind magic to stop all her shots cold turkey he lets out a cackle as he continues to glare at her.

Unable to break his wind defense technique she has nothing left but defeat. Having finally remembered that they’ve met during the exchange she angrily goes for a verbal cheap shot.

[Dammit James! Fufufu, you may think you’re better than everyone else but you’ll never be average height, humph.]

[Kekeke, that’s low even for your standards Jessie. You seem a bit on edge could you be preparing for trouble? If you are, you can count on me to make it double.]

Question marks floated around her head as she couldn’t make heads or tails of his reply. Seeing an opening Jellal swiftly reaches out and rubs her stomach. Her response is swift as she hops back and glares at him indignantly.

[What? I heard rubbing a pregnant woman’s stomach brings the baby good luck. I was just trying to help. Oh my! Could it be that you aren’t pregnant? I’m truly sorry, I didn’t think you would put on so much weight in such a short period of time, kekeke.]

The final insult landed hard as she nearly coughed blood. The red faced Sionia’s glare becomes even more hateful as a vein on her forehead bulges to the point of being close to bursting.

[Che, what is someone like you even doing here? You’re a little far from home aren’t you?]

[Kekeke, I recently moved to a new pad in this area so it’s only natural that I’m here. It’s not like I’m some stalker who secretly tracks people without their knowledge or anything. I can only imagine what kind of person would do such a thing.]

[Oh you got a new place? Shouldn’t you be at home like a good little boy, your parents will get worried about you if you go out on your own.]

[You don’t have to worry about that, I don’t have parents. You see there was once a mass of concentrated awesome that combined with a bit of all that is cool and a dash of perfection. The mass eventually gained an ego and formed a body. And that is how I was born, no parents necessary. The moral of the story is that I’m made up of ninety five percent pure awesome so you don’t have to worry about me, I’ll be just fine.]

[Are you sure a mass of ego didn’t combine with a bit of concentrated annoying and a dash of ego before forming a body and gaining more ego? It sounds more believable to me.]

[Don’t worry, I’m well aware of how honored you are that a superior being such as myself is willing to speak to you but I didn’t come here for no reason. You see since I just moved I want to decorate but I don’t know if the fur I got last night would be better as a cape for my personal adornment or a rug for visitors to admire. As such I sought someone out to get a second opinion. Give me just a moment I’ll grab it so you can take a look.]

Without giving them so much as the option to respond he scurried off to get his backpack which he had hidden before he revealed himself. Grabbing his backpack he took out the shadow wolf’s fur so they wouldn’t have a chance to notice anything suspicious about his bag when he takes stuff out of it.

Carrying the bag and fur he swiftly returns to the group. Seeing him bring back the fur of a shadow wolf Mac, Silica, and Sionia were inwardly shocked. If sold in the city a fur like that could easily fetch a high price since shadow wolves don’t normally come near the outer edge of the forest, instead staying deep in where stronger monsters are abundant.

[Kekeke, it’s pretty nice right? The poor guy made the mistake of trying to force his way into my new home. It really is a shame. If he were more obedient he might have made for a halfway decent guard dog. So, what do you think? Cape material right? I think the coats luster is more suited to me than to being stepped on as a rug.]

[You’re just trying to mess with us aren’t you? This kind of monster doesn’t come to the outer edge. So unless you set up shop in the depths of the forest it wouldn’t have been anywhere near where you live.]

[Whatever, you can think what you want. Just don’t blame me for not warning you when one of them scoots into town and starts wrecking your tables the way it did mine. The bastard had the gall to break over half a dozen of my tables you know? My, tables. Also, you wouldn’t happen to know someone who’s good at making capes and doesn’t mind working with beings of high status like me would you? It would be a shame for such a nice material to be wasted by some like me that isn’t a professional.]

[Well shadow wolves are known for their intense hatred of tables, fufufu. Did it seriously show up here at the outer edge? If it did things may be worse than we initially thought. It’s best if we report it as soon as possible so we’ll be bailing, though I do feel bad about leaving a child alone in a forest.]

[What about my cape? And my tables too I guess, but mostly my cape.]

[Is a cape more important than the general public’s safety?]

[It is if it’s my cape. Alright it’s decided. While you’re taking care of the leg work Silica will take care of the important stuff, namely my cape. Even though it isn’t compensation for what you owe me it may affect my opinion of you which can be seen as indirectly influencing it. As for paying for it, do it yourself. I’ll pay you back when I get the finished product. You all work hard out there.]

With his mission complete he pushed the task of getting a new cape to a person who couldn’t refuse. He bid farewell to the adventurers who seemed eager to get away from him, probably to tell their friends about how they met such an awesome person.

After watching them hastily escape into the brush he did a one eighty and started heading home. Along the way he encountered numerous small groups of monsters. Compared to when he left there seemed to be a lot more groups roaming around.

When he encounters a group of less than a dozen he uses his saw to wipe them out. Since he knows he can take care of them easily he lets them surround him and put him in difficult situations as training. The groups of over a dozen get the privilege of being his person lab rats for his magic tests and experiments.

There weren’t just more groups out and about. There groups also tend to be higher in number with more than a few reaching triple digits. With so many monsters out and about the chances of them stumbling upon his hideout also increases exponentially. Thinking about how his base could get attacked at any time he sped up and stopped toying with the monsters so much.

Arriving at the cave he can see signs of battle around the entrance. The signs of battle continue all the way to the fork in the path. Quickly checking the grunt living quarters he finds a pile of charred remains. Since they were able to drag the corpses together and try to torch them he took it as a good sign.

Going back past the fork he continues on to the dining hall. Sitting at a table the gang are relatively relaxed, though one of them always has their eyes on the passage leading to the entrance. When they notice something coming Vincent, Beth, and Meredith retreat to the tunnel leading to the storage room while Kira and Sia get ready to face whatever intruder dares set foot on their turf.

When Jellal properly comes into view they’re visibly relieved. From their reactions he can tell they’ve had to deal with quite a few intruders while he was out. Since everyone is in one piece it’s pretty obvious they didn’t have to face something they couldn’t handle.

He had already noticed it when he took over the base, but the influx of enemies has really exposed the weak defenses of the cave as a hideout. He gets the cogs in his head kick started as he strolls into the dining hall. He gives the crew a nod as a greeting before continuing to contemplate how to improve the defenses of this place.

[Looks like things got busy while I was gone. I trust you didn’t have any trouble dealing with a bunch of mobs like them.]

[No problems at all boss. If I could say one thing, this place is completely defenseless without manpower to guard it. I think we need to add some kind of actual defense if we’re going to be dealing with waves of monsters like this.]

Sia had also noticed the problems with the cave and mentioned it as she replied to Jellal. She appeared marginally tired but in spite of that her tail waved back and forth energetically. Compared to the rest of the crew she’s far more enthusiastic about working for him which has allowed her to make a good impression on him.

[I already have an idea to take care of the defense issues. More importantly do you have any idea what’s going on with those monsters? I may have a general idea of what’s happening but I still don’t know the root cause.]

[They should be infected by the miasma. According to the old stories when the malice and evil on the planet gets high enough it begins to manifest as miasma. The miasma causes monsters to become even more violent than they already are turning them into mindless beasts that only seek out destruction. If the old wives tales are to be believed the miasma caused the downfall of many great empires in the past causing us to fall into an endless cycle of rebirth and destruction.]

‘I knew it was that dirty gutter loving con artists fault! In the end the miasma seems is a balancing system of sorts. I bet I was reincarnated in a place where the miasma was starting to spread on purpose. Just you wait till I find a statue or temple of you so I can show you what’s for, kekeke.’

[Good work. Kira will come with me to take care of the defenses. The rest of you can do whatever.]

Without waiting for a reply or confirmation he started walking back to the entrance. Upon arriving he did a quick check of the surroundings to make sure they wouldn’t get ambushed while they were fixing the defense.

[First I want you to set up some divots and permanent spikes jutting away from the entrance. The spikes should be evenly spaced, but don’t put them so far out that it ruins the natural cover we already have. After that’s in place we’ll seal up the entrance while leaving plenty of gaps to vent air. While you’re setting up the divots and spikes I’ll be doing a little experiment so don’t mind me.]

Kira immediately got to work chanting and gathering mana. While she was doing that Jellal started messing with her mana along with the mana she was gathering. Kira was unable to notice anything happening but Jellal did. With meddling he had done to the mana he could stop her from properly forming the magic if he wanted. To his surprise he still had I tiny amount of control over them mana even after she had formed it into magic.

Seeing if he can take things further he started trying to wiggle his mana into the mana that made up the formed magic. The test was unsuccessful but his findings overall were huge. Being able to influence someone’s magic by slipping in with their mana before they form it couldn’t be understated.

Kira started working on another area giving him another chance to experiment. This time instead of trying to negatively impact her magic he planned on enhancing it. Rather than controlling the magic himself he simply used his mana to reinforce her mana which was controlling the magic. The result was a middling success that wasn’t cost effective.

It didn’t take long for the first part of the improvements to the defenses to fall into place. Going back inside the cave Jellal used earth magic to form walls to block the entrance. He made four walls in total with each being spaced three meters apart. The outer wall stretched all the way across the tunnel and had the top quarter replaced with bars rather than being solid. The second wall had its leftmost quarter replaced with bars while the third was the right side. The fourth wall was more akin to an earthen grid consisting of intersecting vertical and horizontal bars.

With the new defenses in place they headed back so he could have someone start making dinner.