Roan was flying up high in the skies of Eusora, peering down at the world beneath him with a frown. Serenity was mounted beneath him, like a witch to her broomstick, giving the man the freedom to observe his surroundings without worrying about the ability to fly.

“This village… Doesn’t have anyone with any magical talent either. What a shame.” Roan sighed and waved his hand.

A virtual screen showing the topography of the land appeared right in front of the Magic God. There were various landmarks such as rivers, mountains and even forests shown on the map. But Roan didn’t really care for that. All of his attention was on the green circles that labelled where all of the human settlements were. Using his index finger, Roan drew a red cross, once again cancelling out one of his search locations.

“Fifth one today and still no hit. Was I too optimistic about this region?” Roan wondered out loud.

The world was divided into two major continents. The Demon Continent Aezazan dominated the north of the planet while the Human Continent Eusora spanned across the entire southern hemisphere. Being a human, Roan naturally lived in the Eusora and had long claimed a detailed map of all the territories belonging to the Alliance.

Now that he’d left the Human Alliance, Roan made sure to avoid overly populous areas where his name and face may be recognised. Furthermore, most of the talented people in major cities had long been taken under a lineage or already had a master in magic.

Therefore, Roan concentrated on finding undiscovered talent. And the best method to do so was to explore the rural parts of Eusora.

“Should I just mass scan the entire region?” Roan rubbed his chin and considered his options. “Nah, it’s too risky. This place might be remote, but any trained magician would be able to sense my probes. Hah… Guess I have to continue searching manually.”

The news that Roan had left the Alliance would most likely have gotten out by now. If he used any magic spell that causes too much ‘noise,’ any magician worth their salt would be able to pick up on it instantly.

Roan had just gained freedom, and he wasn’t going to let go of it so soon.

Resigning to his fate, Roan moved the map to his next target. The villages in this area were separated by mountains and rivers. It would take a day or two for regular people to traverse through the terrain, but Roan didn’t have that limitation. Riding on Serenity, the Magic God flew at subsonic speeds. So, it didn’t take long for him to reach his next targeted village.

“Ebony Village. Other than its location, not much is known about this village—population, unknown. No merchants or magicians also bothered to visit here. Wow, a recluse village in this day and age? What a rarity.” The Magic God mused.

“Recluse villages… I’d heard that they don’t really like magicians all too much. Hah, they remind me of those old fogeys of the Alliance. Too stuck up on the old way of doing things. Fucking boomers.”

Thinking about the old bastards of the Alliance, Roan’s mood instantly turned sour. As the Magic God, he received much love and acclaim from the public. The Elders of the Alliance, on the other hand,… were just a thorn by his side. If the people from Ebony Village were the same as those old geezers...

“I shouldn’t expect much from a recluse village...”

The Magic God sighed as he came closer towards the village square. There were approximately fifty houses, each one just a few metres away from one another. In the distance, there were several farmhouses and random huts constructed. It was a standard layout for a farming village.

Roan raised his hand and opened up his palm. Mana gathered within his fingers and almost instantly, Roan felt as if he could ‘see’ the world through his hands. It didn’t matter if it were a small insect or a massive tree. As long as a living being possessed mana, Roan was able to feel its mana source.

“As expected, they’re all bad...” Roan snorted at his discovery.

“A village with approximately two hundred people. Their magic sources… are quite abysmal. Even five-year-olds in the city would have better magic sources.”

Just like the heart or the brain, every human being had a functional magic source. It was the lifeblood of every magician and the more one trained in magic, the bigger one’s magic source could get. Naturally, some rare constitutions gave unique magic sources based on the individual, but there doesn’t seem to be any such individual within Ebony Village.

“Magic sources that could potentially evolve… there are none. Any special constitutions… no. Traces of magic spells… none. Wow, do they even use magic in this village?”

Magic wasn’t unique to magicians only. Anyone with a magic source would be able to learn some basic spells that could help with everyday household chores. Many farmers used magic to plough the fields and to water their crops, after all.

“This one’s a bust as well, huh? What a waste of… wait.”

Just as Roan was about to cancel his search, his senses began to tingle. The fingers that were channelling his mana shook, and his heart was palpitating wildly.

“Found a magic source that’s equivalent to that of a baby dragon’s. Potential to evolve… infinite?! There are even recent traces of Intermediate-Class magic?! What the hell!!! Where did this come from?!”

A surge of excitement hit his brain, and Roan snapped his head to look for the source of this change. The new magic source didn’t come from the populated village square, but somewhere far away from it. Roan wasn’t able to detect it initially as he’d thought no villagers would have lived that far away from the village.

“It originated from that stone hut!”

Roan instantly descended from the sky once he’d found his target. As he came closer, Roan was able to get a better look at the remote stone hut. Holes riddled its roof and parts of its walls were torn apart. It looked like an abandoned stand-in outpost, rather than a livable home.

“That’s odd… Why would anyone stay here?” Roan was baffled.

“No matter, I can just ask them! Hmmm, from the looks of it, there’s only one person inside. Ohoho and that person is the wielder of the amazing magic source I’d seen! Hehe, I wonder if he or she is worthy enough to become my first disciple!!!”

Now that Roan was just a few metres above the stone hut, he didn’t need any spells or magic to sense what’s going on within. Just his innate sensory power alone was sufficient for Roan to tell that the magic source’s owner was the only one inside the hut.

Roan landed right at the stone hut’s doorstep and took a moment to recollect himself.

“I don’t ask for much… Just someone younger than me. Make it a cute girl as well! But not some weirdo like that annoying witch! Please, God. I know that I don’t pray to you often, but I know you love me since you’d made me this handsome! I beg you to grant this wish of mine!!!”

Roan... was quite the shameless religious person of convenience. Here’s someone who never stepped foot in a church and someone that never once paid his church dues. Yet, he has the audacity to wish for something from God?

Well, it was God’s fault for giving Roan everything that he’d wanted.

“Alright! Let’s see what we’ve got!”

And well… God didn’t forsake him this time either.

“JACKPOT!!!”

Roan entered the stone hut easily as the door was left unlocked. Not that any lock would work on this decrepit residence anyway. He scanned the entire shed, blinking rapidly to keep the dust out from his eyes. Like its exterior, the stone residence was ruined entirely. Every wall had at least one hole in it, and the stench of the outdoors filled the stone hut.

The Magic God wasn’t all that phased by the decor though. All of his attention was focused on the sleeping girl at the far corner of the hut.

White hair that resembled snow. An adorable face that resembled that of a doll’s. There were many distinct features that would catch a man’s eye when looking at the slumbering girl. Roan, however, was interested in something more internal.

“What a beautiful magic source! It’s comparable to the geniuses from the renowned lineages! And she’s a cute girl as well! God, you’ve really blessed me!”

Then pay your church dues! If God had a voice, he would most certainly be screaming in Roan’s ear.

“Now let’s see… She’s still sleeping so I can examine her closely. Magic source… shining brightly! It’s really something to marvel at! Let’s check her… wait a second?”

Roan was about to dissect the girl from head-to-toe, but his hands stopped midway. He looked down at the girl and immediately grabbed hold of her thin, pale arm.

“Cold… It’s the middle of noon, why is her body freezing? Is she sick? Checking organs and muscles… Oh, dear! She’s quite malnourished! She’s so weak!” Roan gasped.

The Magic God was too mesmerised by the girl’s magic source to notice her deteriorating body. She was ghastly pale, and her body felt like it was dipped in a pool of ice. As someone who had been at the Frontier, Roan had seen many cases like this before. He’d saved soldiers that had been trapped deep inside enemy lines where they had no food or water.

Although the girl wasn’t at death’s door yet, if she was left alone for a few more days, the girl would most likely fail to see the sunrise with her two eyes ever again.

“How sad… Let me help you out, my disciple!”

Roan spun Serenity around and raised it right above the young girl’s chest. Mystical, green lights dripped down from the core of the Magic Staff like blood from the saviour.

Each droplet of energy seemed to have contained the essence of life itself. With every drip, the grass beneath the young girl started to grow, and flowers bloomed from the vines next to her.

The resonance wasn’t limited to just nature. The recipient of Serenity’s holy elixir was now showing drastic changes. Her hollowed-out cheeks were now brimming with life, and her pale white complexion was no longer sickly.

The young girl’s body temperature began to rise as well. The blood on her lips faded away as they turned rosy pink. And finally, her body which was just on the verge of starving had been brought back to stable conditions.

“Phew, she’s safe now!” Roan smiled jovially.

“But girl, you sure are making me work. I’d haven’t even heard your name, and I’ve spent a few droplets of Serenity’s essence. Ahhh, taking on a disciple sure is expensive!”

Roan joked to himself as he watched the young girl slowly turn back time. Her breathing was stabilising, and internally, her body was recovering fast. Sweat no longer flowed from her forehead, and her complexion had regained all of its lost colours. There was nothing else that Roan could do but wait for her to wake up on her own.

In the meantime, Roan finally began to observe the house that the young girl was living in.

“It really is run-down… Was she sent here as a punishment?” The Magic God said thoughtfully.

“Based on how weak she was, she likely had nothing to eat as well. This is a farming village, right? So how could they lack food? She must have been starved as a punishment. Even if she was a felon, isn’t this too much?”

Roan’s assessment of Ebony Village continued to nosedive after a quick analysis of the stone hut. In Alliance cities, even criminals on death row were fed until their final day. The villagers weren’t treating the teenage girl as a human being, but more like a plague that was better off dead.

“For them to treat her this way… wait, what if she’s really a bitch? Did I just waste Serenity’s essence on a girl who wouldn’t appreciate my kindness? Shit, I miscalculated!!!”

The realisation hit Roan like a wrecking ball. He’d acted on the assumption that the girl would willingly enter his tutelage like an attached puppy. Too lost in her gorgeous magic source, the Magic God hadn’t considered the fact that the girl may not understand his kindness.

“No this can’t do! I’ll need to search for clues about this girl’s personality before she wakes up!”

In a panic, Roan hadn’t noticed the soft groans behind him and rummaged through the small hut. There weren’t many personal belongings, so Roan managed to go through half of them in an instant.

Most of them were hygiene products such as toothbrushes and a basin for the girl to wash her face. Roan was able to find some books as well, though most of them were simple fairy tales that most commoners could follow.

“Likes to be clean. Maybe that’s a plus? Reads what she can. Yeap, definitely a spellcaster trait! Okay, so far she’s clean. Hmmm, what’s this?”

Roan reached into a cloth bundle, curious about its contents. If he could find a diary or something, Roan would be able to piece together the girl’s personality and determine if she was worth the investment.

“Let’s see if I can find gold!” Roan reached into the bundle and felt his way through it.

“Soft and smooth. Clothes? No, there’s something else! Perhaps it’s this!”

Flashing the widest smile he could, Roan used all his force to pull out his golden find. And well… he did pull out gold alright.

“... Underwear?”

Roan held up a pair of white panties like a pirate who had just found sunken treasure. The Magic God was taken aback for a few moments. He’d thought that the cloth bundle would have hidden some good secrets but as it turned out… it was just a place to store the girl’s undergarments.

“Who the hell keeps their underwear in a bundle instead of a closet?” Roan frowned and started examining the pair of panties.

Although the panties were meant to be white, Roan could see browning traces. Its sides had been pulled thin, possibly due to the wear and tear over the years. It was clean, but stains showed how poor it had been maintained.

“For underwear to be this worn down. She must be leading quite a miserable life.” Roan held back a sad sigh. Undergarments were the cheapest form of clothing that anyone could buy or make. For a girl to only have a few pairs… it showed how financially impaired the girl really was. Even Roan, the Magic God, felt bad for the young girl.

“Better put this back before she wakes up.” Roan tried to keep the pair of panties back in the cloth bundle but…

“W-W-Who are you?!”

Alas, it was too late.

The teenaged girl woke up from her long hibernation and was currently staring straight at Roan. Both of her crystal, blue eyes sparkled. Not out of interest or gratitude like Roan first imagined, but pure fear.

“... You’re awake.”

“A-Answer me!!! W-Who a-are you?! What are you doing here?! A-And… W-What a-are you doing with my underwear?!”

The young girl’s voice screeched at every declaration. She was trembling from head to toe, unaware that the man standing before her had just saved her life.

“Hah… Calm down first. It’s all a misunderstanding.”

“W-What m-misunders-standing?! Y-You’re here on the Village Chief’s orders right!!! If you’re here to kill me, then just do it! But if you’re trying to take advantage of me, you’ll have to do it over m-my… cor-corpse!!!”

The young girl continued to spew out her assumptions of Roan.

“No really, it’s all just a big misunderstanding. I really don’t have any desire for your body. Neither am I here to kill you. I’m just here to take you as my own! Ah, wait. That came out wrong...”

Roan’s slip of the tongue didn’t go unnoticed by the young girl. Also, it didn’t help that his hand was still firmly holding onto the same pair of panties.

Confused, cold and still in a stupor after waking up, the teenaged girl felt her entire soul turn cold. With no power to resist, the girl did the only thing that she could.

“PERVERT!!!”